Someone just sent me a link to a story in my old hometown newspaper, the Orange County Register.
The article, Giving up car revs family up, details the transformation that occurred in a family from Santa Ana, California when they ditched their ailing, money-pit of a car and started riding bikes instead.
(Photo: Michael Goulding, The Orange County Register)
Their story proves that going car-free — even in concrete, suburban tract home, car dominated Orange County — is not only possible, but enjoyable and invigorating.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“”The biggest obstacle is your own attitude,” says Erick, 38…”It’s getting out of that car mentality that’s so much a part of us.”
…They’ve discovered new restaurants. Met new people. Rediscovered their own neighborhood.
Within two months they paid off two credit cards. No car meant no car bills. It also meant no quick trips to Taco Bell. No morning jolt of Starbucks. No impulse buys of jeans or toys at Target.
“It’s as if your boss came in,” he says, “and asked if you wanted a 35 percent raise.””
If the Cave Family can do it, surely more of us Portlanders can too.
Read the full article (I especially enjoyed the Q & A).
[Thanks to Ethan for the tip!]
i\’m a resident of orange county and a cycle commuter and the comments on that article hilariously give an accurate portrayal of my fine county. bicycle family makes people mad. how dare they?
good good stuff. you really have to keep a sense of humor here.
I used to take many bicycle trips through Orange County along Katela and Eninger. El Dorado park is beautiful, and so is South Coast College. The roads almost always have a bike lane, the only difficulty is that everything is spread out very far from each other.
I love this story – thanks for posting it.
This story made me a little teary…I wish them the best!
I thought the OC was Oregon City, Oregon. I should get out more.
Worth noting though, they home-school.
Matching school and work schedules is really hard with bike and transit because they are schedules we don\’t control. We can\’t simply take longer to get from A to B sometimes – out of our control.
Winter can have an impact as well. 🙂
There is a more formidable presence of carfree folks here in Portland than you might expect. I haven\’t owned a car since 1993, and I believe the % carfree households in the Sunnyside Neighborhood is about 18%.
With all the opportunities to use a car only when needed – family borrowing, flexcar, rentals – it\’s within reach … and provides some serious economic benefits. Think about it!
What I really respect is a *family* going car free, with all the added trips that come with having kids.
A prime example in Portland is Vanilla\’s Sacha + family. Congrats to them, too.
That is excellent. I love the way bicycle living is starting to get visability all over the country.
Conveniently enough, there was an article in the Oregonian this morning on the subject of carfree living. Some choice stats:
According to the 2006 American Community Survey, released last week, 14 percent of Multnomah County households have no car. That\’s up slightly from 2005. The national estimate is 9 percent, and the state average is 7 percent.
But is it progress? A significant portion (~10%) of Multnomah County\’s population consists of illegal immigrants, who likely find problems with automobile ownership and insurance… or else just aren\’t included in the study.