Our year without a car
Freed from owning an expensive lump of metal that spends most of its time doing nothing, we’ve saved ourselves money and hassle.
On the face of it, life hasn’t changed much for our family over the last 12 months. We’ve walked places, cycled places, caught the train and travelled by car. Sometimes our car journeys have been planned, and sometimes they've been last-minute. The big difference is that we haven’t owned a car during this time, instead making use of the community car club in our small town.
In a society that’s designed by default around driving and gives little thought to encouraging other modes of transport, the car club is a vital piece of our travel jigsaw. It enables us to make journeys that would otherwise be impossible. If G is playing a Sunday sports match 15 miles away that starts before the first train runs, I can get him there.
We use a car roughly once a week – paying just for the time we take and the miles we drive. No other costs, no maintenance hassles, and no depreciating asset parked doing nothing. A typical car in the UK is used for just 4% of the time, so the car club saves us from having to buy an expensive vehicle we barely need. Instead, all we have to do is book a nearby car on the app and drive away.