One Less Car

We are a family of four. We own one car. We own ten bikes.

Ten.

It’s largely because we own ten bikes, that we’re able to own one car.

This is the latest addition to our bike roster:

I got this bicycle from Kunstadt Sports so that I could finally “retire” my 25-year-0ld Marin mountain bike to the island. This isn’t a particularly expensive bike – it’s my commuter bike, so I can’t have anyone liking it enough that they want to steal it – but it’s a delight to ride, and is made that much better by the toe clips and fenders I had installed when I bought it.

This bike makes me happy. Each of our ten bikes makes me happy.

I’m thinking about this quite a bit these days because of all the talk about how car ownership is changing, and because of the world endlessly warming, and – particularly – because this week has been a big bike commuting week around here.

My younger son is in basketball camp at Carleton University.

Carleton is 7.5 kilometres from our house. Give or take.

We discussed different ways he might get to camp. Driving to work with his dad, then taking the O-Train the rest of the way. Carpooling.

He wanted to cycle, so we’ve been cycling, and it’s heavenly.

I ride there with him, then back home, and at the end of the day I go back to meet him, and we cycle home together. That means this week he’s putting in 75K of cycling on top of spending every day sweating in a gym, and I’m adding 150K to my routine.

When I ride over to meet him in the afternoon, this is the first moment I get truly happy that I’m not driving:

 

This is a pedestrian overpass that spans a rather busy part of the Queensway.

 

Not only is it nice to be zipping along over all those brake lights, but there’s something magical about the bridge itself.

.

It kind of reminds me of the bird cage in Jurassic Park III …

After I cross the Queensway, I wind through quiet neighbourhoods, with wide, empty streets, until I get to Dow’s Lake.

 

I love the eclectic mix of canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, houseboats, and more that are always hanging around Dow’s Lake.

The next part of the ride is along the Arboretum paths, skirting the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Rideau Canal. The Arboretum is part of the Central Experimental Farm, a four square kilometre farm right in the middle of Ottawa, run by Agriculture Canada, and the site of frequent agricultural experiments (ah … that explains the name!).

Ottawa is a city of locks so, sure enough, soon I hit Hartwells Locks (the tall tower in the background is Dunton Tower at Carleton University – yes – we’re almost there!).

 

Then it’s just a quick-and-easy carry of the bike across the locks and I’m on campus. I would love to know how many bikes a day cross locks all over Ottawa. As you can see from the photo, it’s very much a one-at-a-time activity, so there’s an informal, unspoken, polite, agreement to take a my-turn, your-turn approach to crossing.

 

The last part of my ride is a quick zip through campus to get to the Ravens’ Nest – the beautiful, new, deliciously air-conditioned gym where my son’s lucky enough to be coached by members of  Carleton’s legendary Ravens basketball team (they’ve won seven straight Canadian university men’s basketball titles).

 

But, back to cycling –  clearly, we’re not the only people riding our bikes to / at Carleton. These are the bike racks outside the Phys Ed Centre.

 

Here’s what I’ll say about cycling / having one car. It’s great for all the obvious reasons: 1) It saves us a lot of money, 2) It’s good for our health, 3) It’s better for the environment. But there’s one big thing I don’t think we’re doing a good enough job of selling to people.

It simplifies your life.

Honestly. You might think giving up a car would make your life more complicated but, in the absence of extenuating circumstances like having a mobility issue, or living very far out in the country, it actually makes things much, much simpler.

We still sometimes feel overscheduled, but we’re less overscheduled than a lot of people we know. We make choices knowing we only have one car to use. We don’t sign up for two activities on opposite ends of the city on the same night. There are limits to what we can accomplish with only one car, and we’ve learned to enjoy those limits. They mean we eat more dinners together, and we attend more events as a family, because we often don’t have the choice of going in different directions.

If you’ve ever wondered if you can give up your second (or third) car, I recommend trying it. You need to plan ahead a bit – start thinking like a one-car family before you become a one-car family. Who knows? You might find you like it. If so, make sure to report back!