Category Archives: kids

Buy Nothing Day Ride today – meet at Pike Place Market Pig at Noon.

Posted on November 23, 2007 by Anne | 3 comments

It’s a beautiful fall day in Seattle. The perfect opportunity to ride off all that Thanksgiving eatin’. We’ll be there with the whole family – Grab your lunch, your bike, and meet us as we join the shopping hordes and NOT shop.

-Anne and Tim

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Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, consumerism, Human Powered Politics, kids, seattle, weather, xtracycle

Tagged , bikes, Black Friday, Buy Nothing Day, buynothingday, pike place market, rides, seattle, xtracycle

The Year of Living Car-lessly

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Anne | 1 comment

I discovered Alan Durning’s series last year. It was my inspiration for trying to be less car dependent. When I first started reading it, I told myself, ” I could never do that.” (Insert all excuses here). But I was truly inspired. If their family of five can live without a car, I can certainly live with driving less.

We started small – eliminating un-necessary trips here and there, declaring carfree days once or twice a week, doing all errands on one day to eliminate daily short trips etc.

Then we got the Xtracycles. What a truly revolutionary invention. They have changed everything for us. All kid-and-stuff-hauling related excuses evaporated when they were up and running. Now – we barely drive. Maybe once every 2 weeks. Probably less. We’re hooked – wouldn’t go back. It’s so easy and fun.

Give Alan Durning’s series a read when you have a chance.

– Anne

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Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, kids, longbikes, neighborhoods, seattle, sustainability, traffic

Tagged alternative transportation, bikes, carless living, walking

Family cycling

Posted on November 11, 2007 by Anne | 4 comments

Bike Portland ponders family cycling – is it the next big thing? Way to go, Marion, looks like fun.

Maybe in Portland, but Seattle has a long way to go. I’ve never seen that many bikes at either of my kids’ schools. Our schools are at the top of a hill – so that’s probably why ; – )

– Anne

4 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, kids, longbikes, School, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged bikes, kids, neighborhoods, portland, School, seattle, traffic

Kids and walkable entertainment

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Anne | Leave a comment

This post has nothing to do with bikes. It does, however, have something to do with carfree days which was the original purpose of this blog.

When a preschooler isn’t in school, you have to find something to do to avoid hearing “I’m bored” all day long. This isn’t hard – we have a lot of fun stuff to do in our neighborhood. Neither Tim nor I are big fans of playgrounds (shhh – don’t tell our children) So, we try to find other, non-playgroundish things to do. Looking for insects, digging in the dirt, playing in the creek near our house, picking up leaves – all highly entertaining. And when you have a four year old boy, seeking out big construction equipment is a must.

My son and I enjoyed a carfree day watching a crew prepare to lift a house in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful day so I enjoyed it as well! We have to return to the site today to watch the actual lifting….ah the things we do for our children.

– Anne

Xtra-spooky? Halloween, Xtracycle Style

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Tim K | 2 comments

Little Red Riding Hood (the six-year old) needed a ride to her Halloween party after school today. Xtracycles to the rescue. Here she is joined in the ~~car~~bikepool by a ferocious dinosaur (our four-year old), and a friendly cowgirl from the bikepool.

Continue reading →

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Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, kids, longbikes, School, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged bikepool, bikes, carpool, costumes, dinosaurs, dragon, halloween, kids, seattle, xtracycle

Streak Ends at 22 on World Car Free Day

Posted on September 28, 2007 by Tim K | 4 comments

Sept. 23, 2007: I should have posted this when it happened, but gosh I felt soooo ashamed!

Anne and I had a great run going with the Xtracycles — We parked our cars for 22 days and let our bikes do the talking. Grocery stores. School pickups. Play dates. Parent dates. All of it. I even delivered a bike box to FedEx via longbike. It felt good …

And then we drove… on World Car Free Day of all days!

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, kids, longbikes

Tagged bikes, bus, carfreeday, cyclocross, global, local, metro, xtracycle

How many passengers can you fit on your xtracycle?

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

The folks at Bike Hugger ask “What do you use your SUB for.” Our main uses are mega Trader Joes’ runs and hauling kids around instead of driving. We’re up to three youngins’ and one adult at one time. With two Xtras in the fleet that gives us a capacity of 8. That’s Chevy Suburban territory!

We’re not going to do any long rides like this but it does work for quick, carbon- and traffic- free play date transportation.

(yes, Mom was not happy with the standing boy. That kind of throws off the balance!)

-Tim

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Posted in bikes, kids, xtracycle

Back to School

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Tim K | Leave a comment

The school year is underway. Our current practice is to walk up the hill to school then pick up the kids via xtracycle. The hill is steep enough and the walk short enough that riding up isn’t warranted if you don’t have somewhere to go right after…no need to get that sweaty at 9am. It may have been a trick of the light but I think I saw more walkers than usual. That’s something to be optimistic about!

We celebrated the first day with a ride through Ravenna Park to Cowen Park. Aside from the usual collections of street kids and sleeping junkies we had a great time.

There’s a good year ahead, I can tell.

-Tim

Hey Seattle: Park that damn SUV and take your kids to school on a bike!

Posted on September 4, 2007 by Tim K | 4 comments

Walking up the hill to a preschool meet-and-greet this morning we witnessed the first of the season’s auto laziness in bloom — the lady with the mercedes who lives on 29th but drives to the school on 34th (and she actually parked on 33rd… meaning she drove FOUR blocks) was apparently all geared up for another school year via car.

We watched an endless auto parade all last year. At a time of global warming, high gas prices, traffic from hell, peak oil, and a childhood obesity epidemic it’s beyond me how people justify driving their kids less than a half mile to school.

Mostly we observed and kept our mouths shut, but still heard plenty of excuses: “I have somewhere to go after this” or “my kids don’t like to walk” or “it’s raining,” or… (insert excuse of the day).

I think people are guilted into confessing something when they see non-driver out there day after day (oddly enough, nice days inspire the most excuses). I’ll admit some reasons are valid — I’ve been there myself. But when you see the same people loading their kids into the car every day as you walk by their house, see them at drop-off, and then see them pull up at home as you walk by toward your house five blocks further from school, you just have to call bullsh!t.

So duly inspired by the first day of school tomorrow I decided to create a group on Facebook called: “Hey Seattle: Park that damn SUV and take your kids to school on a bike.” I have no expectations for this group. Mostly it’s an outlet for me one step above screaming “get out of your car, a**hole!”

Luckily Anne has talked about beginning a campaign at our local elementary (Bryant, near Seattle’s University District) to see if we can get some more locals to park and walk or bike. I’m sure her methods will be less polarizing, more inviting (can you believe she vetoed my slogan idea: “One less fat kid: Bike to school.”), and ultimately more successful. For now, though, this is all I’ve got.

How about you? Wanna walk or ride to school tomorrow?

-Tim