What is Carefree Car-free?
Family walk by the New River - 1 minute from Broxbourne Station
Welcome to our blog about car-free family living in London. I am Helen, married to Thomas, with two daughters, aged 6 and 12. We do not have a car and never have had. Thomas doesn’t have a driving license, and I haven’t driven in the 22 years since I acquired mine. Despite this, we have travelled widely throughout the UK – from the Scottish Highlands to West Cornwall, and also by train around Europe. Our children see their grandparents, and go to swimming lessons and have playdates and attend afterschool activities and we enjoy lots of family day trips – in other words everything that normal family life involves. We just do it without a car.
Why are we blogging?
Well, it is fair to say that 2020 was a low point for car-free living. We weren’t allowed to use public transport for much of the year, and even when it was permitted it didn’t always feel like the best idea. There was one point around May/June, when things started to open up, and my social media filled up with friends with cars taking their kids to the beach, or out into the countryside, but we were still not allowed to use public transport, and so were stuck with the same old walks we had been doing daily for the last 3 months, when I came the closest I ever have to saying oh sod this, let’s buy a car.
Thankfully car showrooms were shut too, so I didn’t do anything irrevocable. Public transport opened up. Thomas did some extensive research into the safety of using it, and we concluded that it was safe, and spent a summer having some Covid secure fun.
But what I was left with is a concern that car use increased during the pandemic, and a lingering dread that it is going to stay high, with all the consequences that brings for carbon emissions, air quality, safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and so on. As Thomas has spent nearly 20 years working in public transport, and I am a writer, it seemed like a good idea to start a blog to celebrate and encourage car-free, or car-lite, living.
Who are we blogging for?
My target audience is mainly families or couples or individuals who want to reduce their car-use or car-reliance. Thomas is an expert/geek (delete as applicable) on getting to very obscure places by public transport, and I will share his knowledge. I am a bit of an expert in moving small people safely and happily around the country without a boot full of equipment to fall back on. We both have 20 years’ experience of life with lots of travel and adventures but no car.
What I am not trying to do is bully or harangue people who do not want to and/or are not able to manage without a car. That might be due to your job, it might be to do with disabilities, it might be because you value a particular freedom that driving gives you and which can’t be replicated by anything else. The last thing I want to do is to make anyone feel guilty.
However, I do want to be here for people who have considered reducing their car use, but not taken the plunge because they are worried about missing out or finding it all too stressful or for people who already live without a car but would welcome some new ideas for car-free trips, or for people who are about to have a baby and have been told by everyone they know that “you will have to buy a car now” [spoiler – no you won’t].
At the moment the blog is definitely London-centric, because I am writing about what I am living. Having said that, there are going to be plenty of articles about generic tips for car-free living. And I would love to hear from readers around the country (or, indeed, world) about the challenges and benefits of car-free living in your area.
