One thing that I particularly enjoy about car-freedom is that because we don’t ever have a car sat outside our presence at home is not clearly marked. Some research suggested that the average car in Britain spends 23 hours a day parked, of which almost three quarters it is parked outside the owner’s house. Although some people could hide their car(s) away in a garage, if they have one.

I suppose people probably don’t care if we are home or not, but I like the lack of wheeled-metal-box marker if anybody did want to keep track of our (non)presence. Particularly, as we often do notice the comings and going of neighbours associated with when their car(s) appear and disappear.

Of course the non-car also changes the pattern of how you interact with the world. By not getting out of a big-brick-box (your house) straight into a wheeled-metal-box (your car) means that you actually-physically hit the streets without being encased in some kind of protective box.

When you move around in car-freedom you can actually meet other people also on the move and can stop for a chat if your want. You can take more time to notice your surrounds, feel the air in your lungs and recognise what it feels like to be sensorially emersed in your changing locale.

That might not necessarily be good news depending on how you feel about your neighbourhood, but you can make friends being on the street rather then stuck inside a vehicle. Over the years we’ve interacted with loads of people also moving around, and started some lasting friendships, so it makes us feel less detached and disconnected from ‘outside’. Even if the occasional encounter might not end up all that positive.

Being a car-free-family, walking about our neighbourhood to get to the shops, pub or heading out on a longer walk from home we really get to know our surrounds – how the local landscape fits together. We find a lot of satisfaction, comfort and freedom in that.