Meet the Husband

I'm not a tree hugger. I just want to do my part to save the environment, save some money and reduce our reliance on our world's depleting natural resources. Honestly, if it weren't for my wife and my kids, (more my wife than the kids) I probably wouldn't even own a car. Now don't get me wrong. I think that cars are very useful and do serve a certain purpose. I just think that the purpose it serves would be better filled with something else. So in a different world or alternate reality, I wouldn't have a car and probably neither would about 90% of the US population. More on this in a different post.

The car-free challenge:

Well, this started with my darling wife finding an ad in the local paper and passing it on to me. I sat on it for a while since it got buried in a pile of papers that seem to grow around me (breed like bunnies?) where ever I live and go. I found it again and emailed the owner of the company and after a few back and forths, we met so that we could take a look at the bikes in action. I was pretty pleased with what I saw. These dutch bikes, which are a reincarnation of a style of bike from early (to mid?) 1900s, are well made and have some sort of a bucket in the front on most styles which allow you to carry little kids or groceries or whatever. My first impression of the bike that I tried initially was that it was a little bit wobbly. However, this was probably just due to my unfamiliarity with the bike as it is longer than a normal US bike and the steering of it is significantly more receptive to changes. I really liked the tricycle that I tried though and had no complaints about it. Well, anyway, my wife and I talked it over and we decided (more like she granted me the gift) to accept the challenge of going for 1 month without using our car with the hopes of getting one of these bikes for an entire year. Thankfully, we were picked to do this and I really look forward to going car-free for an entire month - and maybe even longer.

--CFD (car-free dad)

P.S. I should add that the purpose of this blog is to allow people who are interested in this type of thing to know that it is possible (barring us failing of course) and maybe even to inspire other people to also go car-free. So, in other words, I will not be trying to sell anybody a bike, let alone one of these bikes. Of course, if you are interested in checking out this type of bike, I will be more than glad to point you in the direction of the company that allowed this to happen.