Four out of five of us are girls. All are carfree.
First, let me explain why we’ve made the choice to be carfree. For me, it’s simple: my heart says that of all the things I can do as a mama to make a difference in the world, this is one of the easier choices. I have three daughters and a deep seated sense of raising them to be responsible citizens of the planet. I also have a sort of fuzzy understanding of what that means both spiritually and ecologically speaking, and an even fuzzier notion of what life skills I can teach my kids to help them help me save the world (I never outgrew the childish idea that it really is up to me to save the world).
For my husband, it’s not so simple because he’s a mechanic who has enjoyed a particularly racy love affair with air-cooled VW engines and old Honda motorcycle engines. Believe me, carfree is hard for him but mostly because it means he’s engine free. But he also loves to work on the simplest and most beautiful machine of all: the bicycle. Score one for compromise.
As for those girls we’re raising, well, two out of three recommend living a ‘normal’ life like their friends. They’re 7 and 11, so developmentally speaking and from a socialization point of view, that’s about accurate. Any choice I make for them isn't going to seem 'normal' or cool or at all interesting. However, the baby has developed a healthy appreciation for the bike. Her first word, “baba”, was spoken while pointing at my helmet and doing the happy dance. “Baba” apparently means “bike”. Baby likes the bike. Big sisters endure the bike. We make it work.
None of this is new to our family, though. We exported this family paradigm from Portland. But living carfree in Arlington is new. We arrived one month ago with active transportation stars in our eyes after I took a job with Revolution Cycles to do bike events and advocacy. We quickly settled into our tiny apartment and our new lives in this strange land. I had expected to simply learn a new map, new roads, new names of cool places and then we’d be on our way. Well, sort of.
Groceries
Okay, so grocery shopping as a carfree family in Ptown had the same challenge of bike, trailer, kids, racing home to keep cold stuff cold, avoiding bumps to keep glass beer bottles from breaking, so on and so forth. That hasn’t changed. But hello! Have any grocery stores around here ever heard of bike racks?! I mean, no offense but, no, the railing that goes along the ADA ramp doesn’t really count because the ADA ramp is the ADA ramp and my bike and big fat trailer aren’t supposed to be parked there. And while I love the groovy metal bollards out front to keep the carts from escaping and banging into cars, my u-lock doesn’t quite fit around them and my bike isn’t supposed to be parked there, either. I have found one lone grocery with one lone rack, and thank you so much for the one lone rack but it’s located about 6 inches from the curb, and it’s really scary to be 6 inches from the curb on a high traffic street. And when one bike is already there, it’s somewhere on the scale of dangerous to downright impossible for bike number two with the trailer. We're a carfree family with a lot of people and gear, not a single person with a couple of panniers.
A bike and trailer large enough to haul a kid and week's worth of groceries requires excellent parking.
My Baby on the Bike
No, it’s actually not dangerous for my baby to be on a bike unless you and I make it so. She thoroughly enjoys herself, she is strong enough to hold herself up, vocal enough to voice any real complaint and precious enough to me that I want to keep her safe above all else. But I really need your help with this. I’ve made a personal choice to live my life a certain way, the same way that you have made your choices. I’m very well-educated and actually, very data driven (don’t get me started), and so I hope you can trust me when I say I rely on you to do your part (I'm committed to doing my part) in keeping us all safe. Again, it’s a win-win situation so let’s work as team and aim toward positive solutions that benefit us all. Including my darling Clementine.
Clementine used to travel by cargo bike (seen here), now she's in a BoBike seat on my handlebars so I can use my rack for carrying stuff. Plus, the center of gravity is better for me that way.
Specifically, please, on the trail, announce your pass as you pass. Please, on the road, stop looking directly at me for extended periods whether out of disdain or simple curiosity because I know from training and years of being an athlete that the thing you’re looking right at is the thing you’re aiming for, whether you mean to or not. And most of all, please pay attention to what you’re doing and just be nice as we pass each other. If you want to to talk to me about your concerns, feel free to get in touch with me and we can share a beer and exchange ideas. But right now, I’m busy going where I need to go and taking care of my family, just like you.
The Heat
Oh. My. Gosh. I swore up and down to my born-and-bred west coast husband that the heat and humidity really aren’t that bad except for a couple weeks out of the year. I have been proven a liar on this front. I am humiliated and defeated and while I know there is nothing anyone here can do about it, it’s a bummer.
As for my takeaway, it’s a simple lesson. I bike well over 100 miles a week throughout the city just for transportation. And while I’m not a straight up vehicular cyclist, I do spend quite a lot of time on the roads, as traffic, dancing with cars, so to speak and experiencing the street level heat during all hours of the day. If there’s one thing I’ve learned above all else as a carfree mama new to this area in the summer of 2010: hydrate. My old left coast ways interpreted that as coffee until about 4pm (holla Stumptown Holler Mountain!), then beer at night. Aah. Portland hydration. I miss it. But here hydration means water. All. The. Time. Or you will die a slow, steamy death. Got it. I am now a hydration goddess. Thank you for teaching me this because I’ve been a bad bad girl when it comes to hydration and this is one lesson I really needed to learn.
I've learned staying hydrated is key.
As a carfree mama of three, our family is constantly faced with problems, solving what we can and enduring those issues that we can’t unravel. It’s no different, really, than anyone else’s family life and I’m not at all here to say that this is an easy way to live no matter what coast you’re on, but it’s manageable. And most of the time it’s fun. I mean, fireflies as far as the eye can see on the trail at night that light up my commute like the 4th of July fireworks? That’s unparalleled. Add to that the camaradie of the countless folks I’ve met who are making similar choices to increase the amount of active transportation in their lives, and the others who are simply on board with the concept, and I have to say I’m smitten with this place. You'll hear more from me as I continue to get settled because this is my home and I’m proud to be the ringleader of the Carfree Fab Five in Arlington.
Angela Koch
Revolution Cycles, Events and Advocacy Coordinator
angela@revolutioncycles.com
We miss you out here in comfortably warm, low humidity, crammed with bike racks Portland.
Posted by: Linda Ginenthal | July 28, 2010 at 01:01 PM