Dumping the car: No road rage, just bike bliss

Drawback: Going on dates
But there are also social downsides to going car-free. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 23-year-old Andy Becker is happy going most places on his bicycle, but getting a date has proved hard.

“It just seems (women) aren’t as excited about the fact that I don’t own a car, and don’t want to own a car, as I am,” Becker wrote on Bikeforums.net, asking other bikers for advice.

Last year’s hit movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” probably didn’t help: its titular character tooled around everywhere on a very sensible-looking bike.

“Unfortunately cars have become a symbol of success, dependability, and status in America and that’s something that I can’t stop, obviously,” Becker wrote.

For him, going car-free “just kind of happened” three years ago.

“At first I wasn’t very happy about it, but over time, I’ve gotten where I don’t want to have one,” he said.

The savings loom largest among the reasons given by those who’ve gone car-free, but they have a host of others: reducing stress, protecting the environment and reducing the country’s dependency on foreign oil.

So who’s it for? Well, it certainly helps to live close to a transit stop. There may be one closer than you think, though — most drivers just don’t look for transit stops and have no idea where they are, Balish said.

Other tips from Balish:

• Go car-free for a week first, and see if you like it.
• Use the Internet to figure out mass transit, find car pools and order things for delivery.
• Use car-sharing companies like Zipcar and Flexcar to rent a car when you really need one. Or take a cab.
• Giving up the car is easiest if you don’t have young kids, but with some ingenuity and planning, even that can be done.

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