A commenter emailed to ask if I'd write a post about living with one car for seven people, and I said sure. My husband and I have been married for almost 19 years, and we've been a one-car family except for the five-year period when we had no car. Our policy is "Buy 'em used and drive 'em till they die." We've never had a car payment.
This is mostly my husband's doing. Early in our marriage he said heatedly, "I'm never going to have two cars." I said, "What if we have seven kids? Can we have two cars then?" He unbent ever so slightly. "Maybe," he allowed. "Maybe if we have seven kids then we'll have two cars." Five children later, here we are.
When I first talked to a realtor about buying a house in this town, she asked about my priorities. I didn't hesitate for a minute: my top priority was sidewalks. I told her I needed to be able to walk to church, to the library, to the playground, and to the grocery store. Our current neighborhood is less walkable than the last place we lived, and the mass transit options are of course more limited than they were in Chicago. But it works anyway.
Elwood takes the bus to and from work almost all of the time. He likes the buffer it gives him between work and home, and he gets through an impressive number of books given his short commute. Occasionally he oversleeps, or it's pouring rain, or there's ice on the sidewalks, and on those days he'll drive or be driven. That's rare, though. My office is a ten-minute walk from the house, so it's no trouble at all for me to walk or bike to work.
Our oldest takes two buses to his Catholic high school. We weren't quite sure how that would work out, because it's a long commute. Fortunately, just like Elwood, he likes having the time to read (or play on his phone), and he likes being able to get himself around town independently. He has no sense of direction, and a couple of times he got on a bus going in the wrong direction. In this town, though, the buses all run on loop routes. A little patience will get you where you wanted to be, even if you're directionally challenged.
On rare occasions, maybe once every year or two, we'll rent a car. Perhaps our van is in the shop, or perhaps some of us are traveling. Whatever the reason, it's much cheaper to rent a car for a weekend than to own one.
The hardest part is leisure activities, especially as the kids' schedules get busier. I have found that very few parents are interested in carpooling. Sometimes we ask to share rides and try to show our appreciation in other ways: I took once-a-week meals to the family that gave Alex an early-morning ride to driver's ed, and kicked in gas money when a neighbor drove to the Behold conference. Whenever possible, our preferred solution has been to teach the kids to get themselves where they're going. They can bike to soccer practice; they can take the bus to karate. It's getting trickier as Alex gets involved in more late-night activities: Elwood often conks out early, meaning that I need to deal with both bedtime for the Toddler Who Never Sleeps (she wants to be a part of it) and transportation for the teenager who needs ferrying.
For now, though, it's working. We could afford a second car if we needed one, but it's nice to be able to put that money elsewhere. Driving Alex to and from school twice a day would cost me an hour, and I'd rather spend that time doing other things. I haven't tallied the environmental cost of making 20 avoidable 15-minute trips each week, but I'm sure it adds up.
Our parents think we're a little wacky, and maybe we are. "This is America!" my FIL said in 2000, when we announced we were going to continue to be car-free after our two years in the UK. "People look at you funny if you don't have a car!" And living without a car was harder than I realized at the time -- we moved back from Scotland just in time for a bitterly cold Chicago winter. These days I would never, but never, walk a mile in 6-degree temps with a 3yo and a 1yo. But in 2000 I wanted to be a full-time mom and I wanted to stay out of debt, and that meant living without a car. I bundled them up and off we went. Now I don't walk anywhere if the thermometer is showing single digits, but I have to smile when I look back at my 30-year-old self, determined to make the best of it.
I remember talking to an acquaintance that winter -- she was astonished that we were living with two kids and no car. I said, "Life is full of trade-offs. Having a car means you have the stress of maintaining it and driving it in traffic and dealing with all the other hassles that go along with car ownership. I'll take the bus, thanks."
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