Hello all!
My vehicle is on its last legs. It's going to cost me a solid 1400 bucks to fix, and it's from 2007 and has lived outside in places with Real Winter™ its whole life. Basically the bottom is mostly rust atp. I've been trialing a carfree life for the last two weeks and plan to continue to do so for the month of June.
So far shit's going pretty good. Most trips on my bicycle are only slightly slower than my car, and I've been enjoying seeing bits of my community I wouldn't normally notice. I live just shy of a mile from my job, and cycling is genuinely just as fast as driving and walking takes under 20 minutes. I find it less stressful to bike/walk places compared with driving as well.
Here are my concerns that I'm wondering of folks have words of advice for. I'll share some information about my city too, because I think it's relevant.
I live in a city with a population under 100,000 people. We have a free(!) bus system, but it often takes longer to use the bus to get somewhere than to ride a bike or even walk sometimes because buses don't stop very frequently. They also don't operate early, late, or on several holidays. Basically, it's there if you need it, but walking and cycling is generally much faster and easier. We have a network of bike paths that for a city of our size, are robust. Most roads have bike lanes, but the vast majority are unprotected. I'd say we're on the more walkable side of cities considering the United States lmao.
So now let me tell you my concerns - winter is the main one. We have proper winter. It snows, it can get very cold, and it gets dark at 4pm starting in like, November. My bike is a roadbike with very skinny, basically bald tires so using it in the winter the instant we get any snow is off the table. I'm tempted to say "our winter isn't that bad" but I'm from northern Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula originally, where winter temperatures are either regularly at 0f and below, or where there's lake effect snow. Where I'm at now has comparably mild winters, but we still hit 0 every year, and definitely get some snow. I'm wanting to hear from folks who've lived without a car in places with cold winters, especially if you're not in a large metro area.
thanks!