Good work guys, this is awesome. I am in a similar boat minus about 2 years. Hopefully when I get back to NZ me and (hopeful future family!) will also be car freeish.

Note one hassle of not having a car is transporting lots of stuff. I found a good solution to that a few weeks ago that extends your back wheel out a bit while giving you a good platform for, well anything (even kids and spouses!) Check out: www.xtracycle.com . I haven't tried it yet, but it sure looks like a viable solution (and for bike touring). A quick web search shows someone in Nelson might be importing them in the near future...

"Parking in particular seems to emphasise how cars in general are too big - typically 1000kg of machine to transport 50-250kg of people. Bikes are 10-20kg of machine to transport a 50-100kg person."

I have been thinking about this a lot too. Remember that a internal combustion engine is max 20% efficient too (amount of energy contained in the fuel vs output), so think about the amount of energy a car uses. It begins to appear ridiculous that people even consider driving if they are at all interested in energy efficiency. And that the government would promote more roads (and hence cars) if it is interested in energy efficiency.

In saying that, I too have a drivers license and hire cars for out of town excursions. But that is maybe a weekend every 2 months or so...

Ive got nothing against people wanting to ditch their car, IF your in a position to do so and can find a way, great. What will you do with the money you save? go towards the mortgage maybe?

I ride to wokr and back everyday. I consider myself a competent and careful cyclist but I would never put one of my kids (3 & 5) on the back of my bike on the road. I just don't trust motorists to be careful enough around cyclists. There wouldn't be a week go by where I don't have to take evasive acton because some idiot didn't see me (I am tall, and clad in day-glo yellow with flashing lights!).

You are so right about cycling resulting in improved fitness/health and (in Chch especially) it is obvious to cyclists how much more convenient it is. And, all that stuff about saving the world, that's great too. But!!! Until we can get the message across that cycling saves money (a lot of money) we will stuggle to get the masses out of their cars. People's prime motivation is personal gain (be it financial or otherwise). We need to let people know that by choosing to make even some of their journeys by bike instead of by car they will start saving money straight away. And that's more money they can spend on themselves. Sure, maybe some way down the track some people (a few or a lot - who knows) will realise that they will save the most by selling their car, but it takes small steps.

Natalie & Matthew, you always say you welcome new ideas for blogs, well here's one. You are both members of the Green Party are you not? Can you please explain why the Greens are looking into a feasibility of a separate Justice System for Maori? If you can get Metiria Turei to explain it well that would just be the pips. As a person very involved in justice I would love an explanation

DA you are kind of right, but kind of not.

People seem to think that putting your child in a car that can travel at 100+kmhr, is much heavier (more inertia) and ungainly than a cycle is safer. It is, if you are in the right type of accident, but a lot less safe if you are in the wrong type of accident. I think it is stretching to make a generalisation that you are safer on the road in a car as you are in control of a very different vehicle. To start with, on a cycle you have a lot better vision, control and spatial awareness that a car has so are a lot more likely to be able to avoid accidents.

Besides, using this logic, you would actually be a lot safer on the road in an SUV because its bigger and has bull bars. But then if everyone had SUVs, you might have to invest in an armoured personnel carrier. But then if everyone had APC's, you might have to invest in a small tank. But then if everyone had small tanks, you might have to invest in a large tank. But then... wait a second, how safe are those people in cars?

My point is that encouraging everyone to drive cars for safety sake, is an irrational argument that will tend to lead society towards larger, heavier modes of transport under a false illusion of safety. Sure a car looks safer than a bike, but if you hit another car heading the opposite direction at 100kmph, you will sure as hell wish you were on a bike traveling at 20kmph out of the flow of traffic.

Good points, Brent. I would just add that general statistics of risk are mostly complete nonsense because circumstances vary so much that you cannot extrapolate from the general to the specific.

That, of course, never stops bureaucrats from demanding greater and greater powers and control to save us from ourselves.

Not using a car makes a lot of sense. Not owning a car less so.

I either bus or bike to work every day - the car stays at home and I do maybe 20km a week in it. It is very useful to have when it is needed, but over all car use in any metropolitan area is way too high.

I would say I can potentially save even more money than you over a year as I don't use much fuel, pay for preventative maintenance rather than post-breakdown repairs, and never have to pay for taxis or trains or hire cars. Your system does strike me as a false economy.

Wouldn't it be more economical to buy a cheap car - and only use it for those regular out of town trips?

Actually Brent, cyclists make up a suprisingly high proportion of serious injuries from road crashes, considering the comparative total collective distances travelled by cyclists and motorists each year. See the latest annual crash report from the NZ Transport agency.

If you look at the sorts of accidents some of the bigger categories include the sorts of crashes where motorists just didn't look/see.

Cyclists are nore likely to get struck by cars than other cars are and there is little or no protection for a cyclist when a collision occurs, so injuries are more severe.

My small and in-expensive car has side intrusion beams, air bags, roll over protection, seat belts with pretensioners, active headrests, child car-seat anchor points and internal padding.

For my bike I have a helmet and gloves!

So - more likelihood of a crash when cycling and a greater severity of injury resulting.

That being the case why on earth would anyone strap a small child to the back of a cycle and ride it on a public road?

Money is not that important and there are much better ways to save GHG emmisisons.

I will continue to ride to work. Sure it is dangerous, but it saves me money and depending on how unhealthy exhaust fumes are there could be a health benefit for me. But I think anyone who transports small children by cycle on a public road is dumb.

DA - It's great that you cycle lots, and I am encouraged by that. The reason why we cycle and take our 10-month-old cycling with us is that it is safer - because there is one less car on the road. If we want safer roads we have to remove cars from them - the more people who do so, the safer it is.

Brent Leslie - check out my website carfree.webs.com, or Steven Muir's website www.cycletrailers.co.nz for ideas of how to move more stuff than will fit on your carrier or backpack.

paul - we rent a car for about $600/year (about $200/weekend), $6/week on buses and $50/year on taxis - so about a grand a year. Probably less than even a cheap car. Even so, we're too bloody minded to buy one anyway!

justice - We're already debt free, and we live cheaply fairly anyway. We try (with varying levels of success) to live according to John Wesley's motto, "Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can."