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CAR FREE: I’ve Lived for 16 Years without a Car

You may be familiar with our Car Lite blog series profiling Rochesterarians who live with little dependence (but not NO dependence) on a car.  But every so often we come across someone living entirely car free. Read about Lorie’s journey without a car for more than a decade below. We hope these stories inspire you to try out a car-lite lifestyle!

I’ve Lived in Rochester for 16 Years without a Car

By Lorie Reilly:

I was living in Boston, MA sixteen years ago when I sold my car and decided to adopt a car free lifestyle. When I moved to Rochester in 2022, I wanted to bring that lifestyle with me, but I didn’t know how that would pan out in a smaller city with limited transit options and much lower density.

While living in Boston, I had learned to tailor my life to the places I could get to without a car, to feel confident cycling on city streets, and to embrace being outside in all kinds of weather. I had the fitness level required to move about under my own steam, and I was fortunate enough to have a job that had transitioned to being fully remote during the pandemic. These were the skills and circumstances that I was counting on to help me transition from Boston to Rochester without a car.

1) Did my car free lifestyle survive the move from Boston to Rochester?

Yes, definitely!

Here are the key factors for making this a successful experience for me:

  • Finding an apartment in a neighborhood that has commerical, financial, and medical resources all within walking and biking distance–this is THE primary ingredient, and it’s one of the reasons why mixed-use neighborhoods are so important.
  • Learning about the bike boulevards and off-road trails that circumvent the busier roads
  • Bicycle repair shops within walking/biking distance
  • Learning how to change my own flats at a workshop offered by the Rochester Bicycling Club
  • A transit system that takes me to places further afield
  • Having another friend who is car free–he gives me tips about gear and routes and inspires me.

2) Have I wavered on being car free since moving to Rochester?

Not one bit. I’m as firmly committed as ever to life without a car. I honestly feel lucky to be able to walk and cycle everywhere. I’ve never liked sitting in a car and seeing the world from a small window while stuck, immobilized, in a position that hurts my back and cramps my legs. I enjoy taking my time to get somewhere while noticing babies in strollers, ants on the sidewalk, snow on branches, birds building nests, and more, so much more. When I look at the world from a car, I feel separated from the sensory experiences of where I am, as if I’m viewing it all through a TV screen (PS: I don’t have one of those, either).

3) Can I get to everything I need/want to get to?

NEED: Yes! When I moved here, I had a checklist of things I needed to be able to get to within my walking/cycling radius (food shopping, pharmacy, doctor’s office, bank, fitness center, library, farmers market, train station, etc.), and I was lucky enough to find a location that checked all the boxes.

WANT: When you live a car free life, you learn to think differently about where you want to go. I live within a smaller radius than a typical car owner, but I have discovered the pleasures of living deeply within my 10-20 mile radius, and this gives me a wonderful sense of being rooted in the community. Instead of waking up on a Saturday and planning a day trip to a location 120 miles away, I’m content to plan an afternoon at Cobbs Hill or the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. It’s kind of like the refrain of that song “love the one you’re with”–you find the joy where you are rather than chasing it over the next horizon. And Rochester has a LOT of local joy to offer.

4) Does it take longer to get places?

Yes, but when walking or biking, 90% of the joy is in the journey–moving my body, seeing and interacting with what’s around me, savoring the fresh air and the big skies overhead. Going on an errand becomes an adventure as well as a work-out, and I never need to worry about parking. Not using a personal vehicle puts a limit on the number of places I can go in one day and the number of things I can carry, but for someone trying to live in the slow lane and travel more lightly, these are good things.

5) Which of my car-free adventures in Rochester has raised the most eyebrows?

  • Walking home six miles from the airport
  • Dropping off electronic waste from the back of my bike at the drive-thru EcoPark
  • Walking to the post office when it was 2 degrees outside

6) What are some of the most interesting things I’ve hauled on the back of my bike?

  • A large new rug from a rug store
  • A new guitar from Pittsford Plaza
  • A pot of lentil soup for a potluck supper
  • A small table found curbside

7) What about the winter?

When the roads are icy or snow-covered, I rely on walking to get where I need to go. I bundle up, strap some spikes onto the bottom of my boots, and then plunge out into whatever winter weather awaits. I love the feeling of getting my body warmed up through brisk activity in cold temperatures. It’s like having my own little portable furnace inside my coat. And then of course, coming home to a warm house feels heavenly. Rochester has a wide variety of ever-changing weather, and I use each flavor as an exercise in mindful awareness, of waking up to what it’s like to be alive: “Ahhh, this is the feeling of spring rain on my face.”

8) Biggest car-free travel adventures while living in Rochester?

  • Taking the Greyhound bus to Buffalo to see an art exhibit at the AKG Art museum.
  • Taking the train to Montreal to see my daughter–which involved staying overnight in a closet-sized AirBnB in Toronto to catch the connecting train the next morning.

9) Biggest car-free surprises in Rochester?

  • The #23 bus to the airport for all of one dollar
  • Discovering like-minded people via Reconnect Rochester
  • Having folks call out a friendly greeting from their front porch even though I’m quite removed from them as I bike in the street or walk on the sidewalk. (That never happened in Boston!)
  • A clerk thanking me for riding my bike to the store

10) Why do I do it? When I first sold my car, it was part of a list of changes I made to reduce my carbon footprint, but since then, I have discovered so many benefits to living without a car:

  • Being out in the fresh air and getting lots of exercise
  • Saving a TON of money
  • Avoiding all the logistical hassles and stresses involved with owning and driving a car
  • Enjoying the challenge of figuring out how to get places–it’s a fun puzzle for me
  • Living a hyper-local life which has deepened my relationship to where I live
  • Moving mindfully and intentionally as I go places
  • Having a reduced number of choices to make–that small radius I mentioned above–which can be liberating
  • Exchanging smiles, greetings, and conversations with people I encounter
  • Stopping to enjoy the unexpected things I find as I walk or bike places.

People often think that I’m living a life of hardship and sacrifice–but I feel very fortunate to be living without a car. For me, living car free is an integral part of living my best life.

If any of this sounds like something you might want to try, start by simply replacing a small number of trips per week with an alternative mode of transportation. See how it goes, experiment, and discover what interesting adventures might await you!

At Reconnect, we’re inspired by the stories of people in our community, like Charles Rubin, Leverett Copeland, and Josie McClary, who are passionate about living a car lite or car free lifestyle.  If you want to support our work and make it easier for others to go car lite please donate and sign up for Mobility Action Alerts to stay in the loop with opportunities of how to advocate for safer streets and transportation options.

Let us know if you want to share your mobility story! What’s in it for you? The intrinsic reward of knowing you’ve inspired others, and a free t-shirt from our online shop! Contact Chaz to submit your story. 

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40 Years Car-Free in the Neighborhood of the Arts

By Joseph Struble

In 1975 I bought my first (and last) car: a gold/tan Mazda RX-3 with white bucket seats and that intoxicating “new-car smell.” I also bought a pair of prescription sunglasses, aviator style, and I thought I was so cool driving back and forth to Graduate School in Richmond, VA, windows open in summer and blasting “Country Roads, Take Me Home” on the radio.

In 1979 I was back home in Rochester and newly wary of my car. It had an unwelcome trick of suddenly losing power, slowing down and coming to a stop, no matter where I was (even on some of those country roads!). Very disconcerting. It also took 10 minutes to warm up in winter and even then I could only start to roll with the choke full out, so it was like holding the reigns of a bucking bronco (though it was a Mazda) for a while thereafter.

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I sold it and never looked back.

I did not get my driver’s license until I was 22 and out of college, so the aviator-glasses cool notwithstanding, I think I may have been inclined to be a non-driver early on.

And I well remember how living on St. John Fisher campus for my last 2 years thrilled me in its own small way: “There is everything I want here”: friends, food, a pub, a library, Sunday Mass, famous lecturers and even bands come here, candlelight vigils in protest of the Vietnam war…OK the girls were one mile down the road on another campus, but still, this was my “happy place.”

So I simply grafted that formula for a varied and contented life onto the Park Avenue neighborhood, beginning in 1980.

I like to walk. People always tell me how healthy that is, but it is not really exercise, I think, unless you make it so (get your heart rate up, sweat, etc. – and for that, I used to jog and once even ran a marathon).

Walking is merely my mode of transportation [the action of transporting someone or something] and for me, that someone or something is me, myself and I.

I have a good 3-5 mile walking range in all four directions from my place on Strathallan Park and like my college campus, there is everything I want here: The Memorial Art Gallery, George Eastman House (where I was employed for 26 years – a 12 minute walk each way), The Eastman Theatre, GEVA, Blessed Sacrament church. The Rochester Public Library – both Central and Monroe Avenue branches are in my range. I exercise at Harro East on Andrews Street, and love my early morning walk there as others are heading out to work.

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I check out a variety of breakfast and lunch places in my walking range, all staffed with friendly people: wife and husband Evinn and Bill at Crumpets; Will at Calabresella’s Subs; Ramon, Wilfredo, and Erica at Palermo’s in the Mercantile; Jason at POP ROC; and the nice folks at the café in the Art Deco Times Square Building.

Oh and there’s my German class meet-up at Spot Coffee or Matilda’s every Thursday.

I shop at the East and Winton Wegmans, carrying a backpack which $85 of groceries usually fits nicely in. I walk there, but if there are people at the corner bus stop when I leave, I sometimes take the bus home.

I can extend my walking to Pittsford Plaza and even to Charlotte, but it has to be on a beautiful day. Otherwise, either the Monroe and Lake bus gets me there.

A word about RTS. It’s convenient enough. I love the new 41 Culver/Goodman Crosstown bus. I tell people that in my lifetime (73 years) I count three good “bonus” things coming along: Cherry Coke, Milky Way Dark, and the #41 Crosstown bus.

I think I could be very happy living in Manhattan (if I had the income). So I go there often and I have made the trip variously by plane, train, bus, and as a passenger in a car. Amtrak is the best for me, I think. More opportunity for movement, a café car break, and the leisure to read and just think.

Then there are times when a car ride is more essential than just for a psychological boost. I’m glad I have friends with cars and it’s wonderful to hit the road and head out into the country and those wide-open, blue-sky spaces (vs. interestingly cluttered city ones). 

This puts me in the “riding shotgun” seat and for that, I am grateful to GPS, since my map-reading and directional skills are abysmal.

Once in 40 years of non-driving, I borrowed my brother’s car to go to a wedding. It’s true, that like riding a bicycle, once you learn, you never forget. But a lot of things had changed about a car – the door locks, the ignition, other unfamiliar gizmos. So it was dicey. Then there was the violent thunderstorm on the way home.

I worry sometimes that I am so out-of-practice and would be very reluctant to take the wheel in case of any emergency or merely to relieve a fatigued driver on one of those blue-sky rides. I have kept up my license and even became a member of the Automobile Club of America “just in case” but I never really want to drive again. That’s not so good.

I really have no knowledge of the cost of car ownership (but the folks at Reconnect Rochester do!). For a few years, I went to the Convention Center for the Auto Show and yes, the stickers were shocking.

But I do know that since 2000, I have had some disposable income used for 6 flights to Europe where I spent 2 weeks each in a major city. Next time, I hope to take the Queen Mary II across the pond (not as pricey as you might think).

Edinburgh, Scotland, my last big trip pre-pandemic
My last trip to Europe (pre-pandemic) was a two week excursion to Edinburgh.

Although I recycle and dislike seeing a dirty truck belching black smoke drive by, don’t consider me a climate activist. I simply think that living simply with everyday pleasures at hand has been a satisfying lifestyle for me.

Reimagine RTS
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What I’ve Learned About Going Car-Free (And Why I Plan to Continue)

Guest blog by Calvin Eaton. Calvin is the founder of 540WMain Communiversity, a grassroots non-profit community based university. Calvin is a digital content creator, social entrepreneur, and educator whose area of expertise includes antiracism, diversity, inclusion, K-12 curriculum writing and teaching, gluten free plant based living, and higher education.

If you’ve followed my journey over the last couple of years you probably know that I sold my car in June 2018 and became a car-free professional. There are so many reasons why going car-free was the best decision for me and I want to share a few things I’ve learned over the past year and why I plan to continue my car-free lifestyle.

Like every typical American teen I couldn’t’ wait to get my drivers license so I could enter into grown up world of driving. Like most youth I had been indoctrinated to believe that getting my drivers license at the ripe old age of sixteen was the consummate mark of becoming an adult. American culture worships the car and the transition from child to pre-teen to adult is distinctly marked by getting a drivers license and soon after getting your first car. I admit that for me a drivers license (and by proxy a car) represented freedom, independence, and adulthood. At no point in my adolescence did I question this societal standard, ask why car ownership is idolized, or ask if youth in other cultures are cultivated to own a car at the stroke of sixteen like we are here in America.

After years of driving and adulting; last year I came to the strong conclusion that I honestly do not enjoy driving. In actuality, I hate driving. Driving for me is a sometimes necessity to get from point A to point B or take care of very specific tasks in life. Generally speaking, for me the process and responsibility of driving and more importantly being a responsible driver is stressful. After years of being car payment free and then bucking to societal pressure and getting a lease for a new Honda in 2016, last year I came to a dramatic conclusion that none of it was worth it. Not the maintenance, not the insurance payments, not the monthly car payments. I realized that I do not enjoy driving enough to own my own car and it was this realization that served as my primary reason to get sell my car and become car- free.

What I’ve Learned

Since then public transportation has become my primary means of mobility throughout the City. For me, public transportation works great. I live on a main bus line, work remotely and spend most of my time in the inner city going between the east and west parts of the City via Main Street. Most of my deviation from this daily norm is my travel to area colleges for co-working and meetings. For these times I use Lyft. In addition to these methods of mobility, I walk and sometimes bike. Walking and biking would be more part of my daily regimen if I did not have to deal with the ill and daily effects of living fibromyalgia and chronic pain which sometimes make walking and exercise difficult. Still since ditching my car I am happy to get in more daily steps and see more of the City. When the weather is clear walking is so beautiful and it has been a great way to place myself in spaces and places that I would never enter into if I commuted by car.

I understand that my work and and life affords me privileges that make going car free much easier for me than others. Still I am glad that I am in the position to bring more awareness to public transit, biking, and even walking to get around the City. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that for many young professionals like myself it is really about having a repertoire of easy to access mobility options at the ready when I need them. For me, having a car every single day is just not necessary. However it is necessary for me to be able to have a roster of easily accessible mobility options at my beck and call when I need them. There are some days that I will take the bus in the morning and then take a Lyft back home. Sometimes I borrow a family member’s car when I need to transport something then I drop it off to them mid-day and walk to the bus stop to get to my next destination. Just today, I took the bus downtown, took two meetings, then walked back home. I had my mother drop me off at the public market and then hailed a Lyft to 540WMain. This type of multi-mobility has become just as common and seamless for me as jumping in a car was just a few years ago.

I’ll admit that sometimes planning out my transit in advance can be a minor annoyance and every now and then after a late night class at 540, I wish I didn’t have to wait for the next bus; but for me these moments are few and far between. Because I have designed a highly dense life where everything that I need is within close proximity a car is not only impractical for to get around Rochester but burdensome. I just do not need a car every day and when I do need one, I have the access for that specific occasion and once that is fulfilled my needs are met.

I recognize that going car-free is not the lifestyle nor an option for for everyone but for those that are able to ditch the car or use their cars less, tapping into the biking community is not only good for the earth but good for our City. The more folks that use RTS the more services and infrastructure that will be created to accommodate a more comprehensive system. This will normalize public transit as a viable and accessible mobility option. The more folks who bike for commute the more biking will be normalized on our City streets and force officials, planners, and policy makers to make spaces and communities that support intentional bike infrastructure and design. As we travel deeper into 21st century living we need to be less reliant on cars and more reliant on urbanscapes that make mobility easy and accessible for everyone. Owning a car should be a choice not a necessity to tap into all that our City has to offer.