Car has not started for five days
 

Been doing all my "driving" (an average of about 15 miles a day) on the ebike). On the bike I get an MPGe of about 3000. At $0.15/kwh this is nearly free. (But it cost me $1300+ to build the bike!) Anyway, I drove 340 miles to El Mirage and back for the LSR event last weekend, but my car has not started for a singe ordinary trip since June 10.

How about you? How much car-driving avoidance do you practice? How do you do it?

james

I drive my Mustang on the weekends instead of my insight :D. I do enjoy getting 13-15mpg around town.

Double post.

On the weekends where I do a lot of errands with city driving, I insist on driving my fiance's car :)

I like to ride my bike as much as possible, especially if going to the gym. My roomates think I'm crazy, but I like hot weather.

The funniest part about going to the gym is noticing other members behavior in the parking lot. They will do anything to get the closest parking spot, but then go inside & hop on the treadmill & pump out many miles. Why not park a bit further away & just friggin walk off some of those calories???

These are likely the same people you see needlessly racing up to red lights. I just don't get it???

Can't do it.

I live in a small town that's a few miles away from the nearest town with any services - a few miles of fast rural highway with narrow/no shoulders. I could bike the distance even considering my relatively unimpressive physical condition (except when it shoots past 95 degrees, 95% - forget that) but I'd likely get a Peterbilt enema along the way. Tennessee drivers aren't respectful of other road users if they don't have an engine.

Most early weekend mornings I walk to the little local grocery store and Post Office, so that's a couple of miles saved.

When I lived in DC I could bike everywhere and usually keep up with traffic, sometimes beat it, over the whole distance. I miss that.

My wife's Explorer sits days at a time since we try to carpool in the Insight whenever possible.
The Explorer only leaves the driveway if she has somewhere she needs to go during the day or I know I'm going to be working really late. Sometimes even when she drives in the morning we will leave her car at our daughter's house overnight if she rides home with me.

I have a (hybrid) bike too and ride for exercise, but since we live out in the middle of nowhere it's not feasible to bike anywhere for errands.

I've gone over a month without firing a cylinder. Bike, walk, and living close to the stuff I do. Being an anti-social hermit homebody cheapskate helps too.

I once just plain didn't use the F150 for IIRC eight months- I think it was when gas spiked to $4 the first time. Some of the electrics went all wonky because of it so I spent a weekend trying to track down the fault that caused my gauge panel to spaz out and the cruise control to not work. In the end I fixed it, but I don't know where the fault was. I figure I accidently restored a bad connection somewhere simply by disconnecting and reconnecting it. My theory now is newer vehicles are better off not sitting so long as the vibrations and whatnot from use help keep electrical connection continuity. However, the old stuff like the '59 or the '66 Vair can sit for years and start right up upon battery install. As proof, I haven't let the F150 hibernate for that long again and it hasn't had a single electrical issue since... well, except for getting new starter brushes. STILL has the factory battery! :eek:

I still record fills in my paper logbooks but have slacked off on updating the EM logs for quite a long time. My vehicle usage patterns are very, very inconsistent with some months of no driving then suddenly some 1000+ mile trips. I've logged 'em long enough to know what to expect anyway.

I noticed that way back in college. As a group, people are pretty bad at connecting the dots.

You can delete those.

Yup. My favorite sight is leaves accumulating behind the wheels. When things are normal, the car only comes out for long trips or big grocery runs.

A great frustration for me about moving to Cali in 2006 for a job was the way the roads and hills and distances to everything made biking a highly impractical chore (pretty dangerous too). More paved bikepaths and lanes have come online. And I gradually realized that I could "build" a hybrid electric bike that would fit these conditions (battery power for range and torque for hills and quick movement through the wide and dangerous intersections).

I don't know your specific geography, but if you an alternate route, even an unpaved one, there might be an ebike solution for it. The direct drive brushless motors are tough as tanks when you buy a good one. Put it on a cheap mountain bike that has suspension and a country road could become a commuter trail.

But only you know what you face. I'm really happy with my current arrangement. Right now, I only drive when my daughter needs me to take her somewhere.

Good job! I assume you're in SD; I have family there and plan to bring a bike this winter break. There are a surprising number of steep hills there, so coming from the flatlands, it'll be interesting.

What are the riding on the street vs sidewalk laws in California? Do drivers try to kill you?

Every day almost I hear of bikers getting run down, often hit and run, on these roads. I'm up in OC, not SD, but same difference. It is not terribly safe, and I am not a safety-paranoid type. With bike lanes and dedicated paths I can keep my proximity to engines to a minimum. So far, so good.

I'm a fan of EM gatherings for skill shares and car "shows"... so when you're going to be in the region, let's see if we can gather a few socal folks: Riverside, SD, OC, LA, San Bernadino.... whereever. Could gather at a classic or lowrider auto show/meet, or some ebike or regular bike event ... would make for fun conversations.

Oh, alright. I'm planning on hitting a few museums in the LA area for a day or two, as well. Petersen "vault", Getty, Toyota, Honda probably. Mullin was amazing last time, but I want to see new stuff! I'll have to touch base with you later on and maybe set something up. :thumbup:

Shame about the traffic issues. I'm glad to hear you've got a way to protect yourself. Sometimes it feels like the Wild West in the Detroit area; I can't imagine what it's like in LA.

I spent six months in the Santa Cruz area and for much of the time all I had was a bike. I was impressed with the bike lanes (NONE of those back home) and the motorists' respect for them and bicycle traffic in general. No road rage incidents I recall.

This flatlander viewed the hills as challenges. It wasn't long before I had the best quads of my life! Sadly, they're gone again. "Use it or lose it" is real. :/

Speaking of get-togethers, the weekly car "meets" at the local grocery parking lot in Cali BLEW MY MIND. The hardware there is a gearhead's dream. Truly the epicenter of hot rodding and car customizing, and even complete fabrication! :eek:

Congrats OP, that must feel pretty good.
Some of the buff, go-to-the-gym-every-day guys at work will get in their trucks and drive to the convenience store across the street.:rolleyes:

I have been riding to work 3-4 days out of the week, I have been mostly driving the pickup on the weekends to and from the hardware store to haul materials to work on the house. If you discount one out of town trip I have gotten more miles on the bike than the truck in the last 2 months.

Cool! Me too. Today marks a month since my last fillup. Normally I refill every two-three weeks or so. Today I also crossed the 300 mile mark on my electric/human parallel hybrid bicycle. If I had not driven the 340 miles I drove on the El Mirage land speed racing event trip, I would be many miles from another fill. In a few days I guess I might need a fill, and it might be the last of the summer! At a rate like this, I'll get my costs for building the bike back in two years or so.

If I go 2 days without driving, I start getting withdrawals :p

I aim to be efficient, but im a gearhead and need my driving fix :D

I got a new job on june 1st, now i drive 60 miles one way... I can't do much avoiding.

I'm fortunate that I am only 12 miles from work, so with the right bike it is just managed without making a sweaty stink of my self just before I get started on the day. Yesterday, I crossed the 600-mile mark since June 10. That's the point at which I usually have to tank-up my car. So that's about $40 back into me pockey (of the $1300+ I spent to build the bike)!

Very nice. Are you still enjoying the biking?

Yes. Very much. The awesome thing is whenever I get bored or tired or whatever I can stop pedalling and go faster with the electric motor. All the drudge is out of cycling. The inly "work" left is the boredom of commuting the same route all the time, but that is the same in a car. We'll see how I feel about it when the weather gets colder, though. Or if it ever rains again in Southern California. ... if it EVER rains again...

It gets cold? :confused:

When you live in a climate for a while you start to adapt your expectations a little. I have been here almost a decade, having been raised in the cold climes of the Old Northeast. But now the 38-40* mornings can slow me down a little sometimes. I hate to admit it, but that's my fact, jack. I'll probably just put on some heavier clothes. We'll see.

Just kidding. I know it myself; having spent 6 months in Cali I noticed my cold weather adaptation weakening when I was there. It was fun to run around in shorts and a t-shirt in Dec-Jan while the natives were much more bundled up.

I am about to cross the 300 mile mark over the last 4 months, mine is only a 4 mile ride with almost 200' gain in altitude, running 50/50 with my pickup. About $45 in fuel saved with a $400 bike and another $100 in gear. I would need about another 1000 miles to break even as far as cost per mile as my truck.

Yup. But it can also replace gym memberships--not that I'd ever bother with one--and it is a good, cheap, and fun alternate if/when the car breaks down.