A family trying to live car-lite in Middle America

Early this year, we moved our family from Savannah to Kansas City. I’ve written a bit about the transition here and here. Beyond the usual adjustments, we are trying to continue to do something uncommon in middle-class, middle America: live car-lite as a family. For us, that means having just one car and using it as little as is necessary. 

Why would we do this, what are the benefits? Quite simply, the primary benefits are financial. Here’s something I wrote in my book, “Why I Walk: Taking a Step in the Right Direction,”

I’m under no illusions that we can all suddenly ditch our cars and walk everywhere. As I noted earlier, too many of our communities are not set up for that today. Many people have no choice but to drive to work, sometimes very long distances. But what if you could reduce your car use and walk, bike or take transit more? If you own one car, you likely can’t eliminate it, but by making some changes, you could pretty easily save $4,000 to $5,000 per year. What would you do with an extra $4,000 in your pocket?

and

But what if you drive only five thousand miles per year instead of fifteen thousand? At the end of a five-year car loan, you’d have a vehicle with twenty-five thousand miles on it—if you bought it new. But even if you bought it used, with ten thousand miles on it to start, your car would have still only have about thirty-five thousand miles. A car with that relatively low mileage is a long way from requiring the more expensive maintenance. And most importantly, that car is a very long way from needing to be replaced.

How I might say this today: the positive compounding financial and health effects of living car-lite, and driving as little as possible, are astounding. Having one moderately-used car instead of two easily saves us $5,000 per year, perhaps much more. Over the course of a decade, $5,000 carries a compounding value of about $80,000. Over twenty years, it’s about $225,000. I don’t know about your own financial situation, but it’s absolutely worth it to us to have $225,000 more in our net worth in 20 years.

In the new documentary, Playing with FIRE, blogger The Mad Fientist shows how just eliminating one car from a two-adult, one-child household eliminates 5 years of mandatory work time. Whether you desire to retire at all or not is immaterial. I love work, for example, and hope to keep doing some sort of work as long as I still have a few marbles kicking around in my head. But the notion of financial flexibility - having the option of what you really want to do - is what is so attractive about the financial independence movement. If you could make one choice in your life and get to that flexibility five years sooner, would you do it?

So how do we really do it?

The truth is, for most of our daily or weekly life, living with one car and sharing it has been very easy. We chose to live in a centrally-located neighborhood, where we have some neighborhood features that are an easy walk. A wonderful park with playgrounds is only a block away. A neighborhood “main street” with entertainment and some shopping options is only a block away, too. We live near a fairly frequent bus line that can connect us pretty easily to many destinations. With just a little bit of planning on our part, it’s been easy to coordinate our schedules and figure out who needs the car at what time.

View fullsize

My new favorite thing

Probably the biggest game-changer for us is the local bike sharing organization. RideKC Bikes operates dozens of bike sharing stations around the city, and one station is two blocks from our house. What has made this especially important and enjoyable are the new electric bikes or e-bikes.

These pedal-assist bikes are not just incredibly fun to ride (seriously, try one – it’s amazing), but they get me around the city in ways I wasn’t sure was possible. Folks on the coasts might be surprised to learn that Kansas City is a very hilly city. Since we lie at the confluence of two major rivers and an assortment of tributaries, our city and region has numerous bluffs and deep valleys. That alone makes routine cycling with normal bikes a challenge. When you then combine the hills with the spread-out nature of our city and many streets hostile for bikes, it becomes even less desirable. Recent years have seen an increase in the number of very tough and hardy people that do it, but I’ve never been in that camp.

View fullsize

E-bike Routes

The e-bikes, however, completely change the equation for me. The hills are no longer an issue. I breeze up and down them, and even arrive at my destinations without a need to freshen up or change clothes. Importantly, I am far more confident on city streets and can ride on a wider variety of streets than I ever would without the pedal assist. In the past, I would avoid some low-traffic streets that are conducive to cycling because they have steep hills. Now, I can easily take those routes and avoid the most dangerous streets. My friend Dave Scott and I even created a website to highlight the best longer-distance routes in the city, and encourage other people to use them.

I love cycling, and it makes me feel really great physically and mentally. But I also value my life, and don’t want to end up as roadkill. For me at least, the e-bikes have opened a whole world of cycling up to me that wasn’t there before. With our local bike share program, I can be a member for $39/month and ride more or less everywhere I need to for daily needs. I imagine I will eventually buy an e-bike to make even more locations available to me, but for now this membership does wonders.

The challenges – now and future

View fullsize

Excerpt from an interview with MMM

The most immediate challenge we face is the impending colder weather. While I’ve lived through many years of winters, I’ve also been spoiled the last eight years in Savannah with very moderate temperatures. And, in the past, I’ve never really tried to ride a bike through the cold weather. This year I’m going to make a go of it. It will require some additional planning (and clothing) on my part, but the payoff is worth it. And, I’m increasingly taking to heart Mr Money Mustache’s advice to “do something hard every day.”

As our lives get busier and our professional lives get busier, we will likely face other challenges. The reality is we can pretty easily control our transportation expenses and habits for everything within a few miles of our home. Living in an older neighborhood that’s centrally located affords us that opportunity. But we also live in a big, sprawling region with many destinations well beyond those few miles. Family and friends live farther away than a realistic e-bike ride. Many social or work-related destinations simply require a car. As my wife and I both get busier, I expect it will require even closer coordination on our parts to share the car. One tip for those not already doing it: we use a shared Google Calendar to help with coordination. 

Our kids are also growing and changing, and their lives will get more complicated. We have one in daycare now, and soon will have two. A year or two down the road, and the oldest will be in school. We think we can solve how that all works, but it will present another challenge to us in sharing one vehicle. My current dream is to e-bike my oldest daughter to school in the first phase of change, and hopefully get both of them on their own bikes when they reach school age. I have a personal desire to encourage that sort of mobility and independence in them.

In our typical American cities, making the choice to live car-lite or car-free is not an easy choice. We live in a world designed for cars, trucks and fast driving. I wish that weren’t the case, and do my best professionally to correct the negative consequences of this reality. But we also have to live in the world as it is every day. For our family, we are trying to go against the grain a bit. We aren’t rebels by any means. We have a pretty typical family, pursuits, dreams and life. Our hope is that by being smart with a few, key choices, we can markedly improve our lives today and tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.