In many ways being car-free is not very radical. In the UK 22% of households are without a car. So with 28.2 million households that means 6.2 million car-free households in the UK. Which means that if you live in a car-free household you are not alone!

For some people not having a car will be an obvious choice, particularly if you are healthy, able-bodied and live in a city with plenty of public transport options. Even in the face of self-imposed car dependency in the UK, owning a car would just be a major inconvience and drain on your wallet.

For other people, particularly when you have kids in your household, to not have a car would be understood by many to be a radical move. In our car-free-dom we have lived that over the years with peoples’ shocked exclamations of ‘how did you get here?‘.

Last weekend we had another reminder of that when our daughter was due to go on a camp with her Scout group. She was enthusiatic, but it turned out that we would need to drop her off and pick her up from the middle of nowhere. The public transport options got you about two miles away. Also, the storm that was hitting that weekend took out the possibility of cycling, with gale-force winds and driving rain.

There was an in-built assumption in the camp planning that of course if you are a family you will have a car. And, in your metal box on wheels you would be able to drop off your little darling anywhere on earth that you/they desired! Even in the face of a winter storm that had been pumped up by climate change.

If you raise it as a problem – that you just can’t get there – (sorry I am not having a particular ‘go’ at Scouts but making a general point) then it either gets ignored, or you are made to feel like you are weird and just a bit of an inconvenience. Hence occupying some extreme radical position!

Our daughter didn’t go to the camp – it was a bit of shame – we quite fancied some of the weekend off parenting! Although sending her out to sleep in a shed in the middle of a winter storm would have made me feel quite an irresponsible parent. Anyway my point is – why is it so radical being a car-free-family? I am hoping to be de-radicalised soon through being part of an ever growing community of car-free-families! Please do join us.