"Live free or drive."
MinusCar has been an inspiration to many people for driving their cars less, including me. Here I am back in 2006 sporting my MinusCar Project t-shirt.
Snakebite, another Sioux Falls, South Dakota cyclist has went as far as selling his car! This means he no longer owns a car, but will still use public transportation, and even rent a car for longer trips such as vacations. This is going to be a great experiment!
Snakebite is going to keep track of the money he would have spent on a car payment, insurance, maintenance, and gas costs. To compare, he'll keep track of how much he spends on bus fares, taxi fares, and car rentals as they occur. He also plans to do a monthly post of the results.
Keep track of his progress over at Life Bikin'.
There are certainly many more blogger/cyclists worth mentioning, but I don't want to overwhelm this post. Instead I think I'll do a "spotlight" post every once in a while for our inspiration.
Since I like posts with pictures, I'll finish today's post with a picture from this week. This is Scott J. (also a bicycle commuter) shreddin' down the bunny trail. This is a newer trail named Jackrabbit. When riding Ash Canyon, it's the last section of single track we hit before returning to civilization on our lunch time rides. It's fast and skinny, and takes some skill to take the turns at speed. It's a great way to end the ride!
9 comments:
I think the mojo bag rubbed off and helped get my vehicle sold.
Jackrabbit is so fun. That jump at the end really is a great way to end the ride. The sandy s turns in the middle are great to attempt at high speeds.
I apologize for the unauthorized squeeze of HB's rear.......tire.
If we don't pack up and move to Carson City, Asheville or Austin, we plan to downscale our lifestyle in the next couple years. That includes one less car and maybe a moped. We would buy an older home in the city, closer to our offices so I can commute on a regular basis or use public transportation and walk.
As much as I like living in the country, I hate the drive and the fact that it really is a form of suburban sprawl whether we want to admit it or not.
Trying to do our part, a little bit at a time. Now if they would just provide bus service to our mountain bike trails . . .
Before we came up with the idea to move to Carson City, we were thinking of leaving the area...somewhere up in OR or WA. After we discussed moving to Carson City, I realized that most of what bugged me about the area could be eliminated by cutting out the commute into the country. The commute is full of big fast cars/trucks. It's exposed, so you get a lot of wind and sun. It's dangerous on the snowy days. Far drive to family, friends, and activities. It wears on you, but you're part of the problem too.
So come check out Carson! You'll like it here I think. If you guys come out in February, we'll make sure you have a lot of fun!
In Carson you don't need bus service to great trails. You can ride just about anywhere in town pretty quickly. Try that in other state capitals!
As much as I like the area, I've often thought of ditching the rat-race for a mouse-race somewhere like OR. Jeff, I think you are going to very much like life w/o the driving commute. I'll have to swing by next year when we hit Tahoe to check it out.
Oldman, they are now called scooters, and are a bundle of fun. I filled up yesterday for $3.00. One whole gallon of gas and a total distance ridden of $108 miles. Yamaha/Honda 49cc models are cheap and dead-reliable.
We did some checking on line the other day on Carson housing and a realtor from there called us today! Is that funny or what?
We are trying to consider all the options available and moving is one that has tugged at us. Kids make it difficult as they are all entrenched here in MI; family too.
But the economics, politics and attitudes suggest we might be happier elsewhere. Just not sure where elsewhere is . . .
Scooters. Got it. They were mopeds when I was a kid! :^)
Carson City is great. I know some of you that have lived here a long time might balk at this.... But the people are really nice. Really down to earth. I have lived in Davis, Ca. Sacramento Ca. Truckee Ca in the last 5 years. There are not a bunch of snobby people here. The people I thought I would be scared of ( tatoo-ed earring wearing biker types) are holding the door open for me at the 7-11... In addition to that, as a person who LOVEs the tahoe rim trail, several sections are only minutes away. I can choose the temperature in which I want to ride. Plus I can ride my bike to Wal mart, costco, target, trader joes on a whim...
I found a bumper sticker
http://www.cafepress.com/livefreeordrive
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