Car Free Days

Navigating the Maze of Kid Activities (on bikes)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Anne | 8 comments

Have you listened to the latest NPR health story? In Many Families Exercise Is By Appointment only? The story highlights two very different approaches to kids and activities and how their parents ensure they get exercise. Some families choose organized sports, driving kids to various practices and games. Some choose walking and biking and playing outside.

Which is better? To schedule or not to schedule? And if you schedule, how do you transport kids to all of their various activities? By car? Or by bike?

I sometimes take this issue up a notch and start to worry about over-scheduled kids. What about them? Do they really enjoy having that much going on? Don’t they just want to hang out at home on occasion?

If you were blissfully unaware of this problem, don’t fret, you can find books and articles on the subject. You too can read about how to avoid over-scheduling your kids. Then you can sit down and watch a documentary and learn about the perils you will certainly face if you don’t get this problem resolved now. After you have yourself in a tizzy about your kids future, you can go back to news and articles regarding childhood obesity. The grim stats will certainly depress you: 18 percent of kids are obese in the United States. “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years”

Feeling crazy, confused and on-edge yet? I know I am.

What’s a parent to do? To schedule or not? To relax or worry? Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in bigger than here, bikes, kids, neighborhoods

Tagged activities, exercise, family, kids, schedule, sports

Streets are for People! Kids at Play in the UK

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Anne | 8 comments

I love this video from Playing Out! (Thanks to Sarah Goodyear for sharing it along with her insightful post). Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in bikes, extravehicular activities, Human Powered Politics, In other Cities, kids, neighborhoods

Tagged kids, play, Playing Out, street, UK

Habits: On Starting Walking and Biking

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Anne | 16 comments

The tree came down weeks ago and 2013 is already in full swing. I know I’m a bit late, but I forgot to wish you all a Happy New Year. Happy New Year, everyone! (just trying to keep the party going a little bit longer) Whoo-hoo!!!

Did you make any resolutions? Sticking to them? This is about the time of year that most resolutions fizzle out. I don’t know about you, but I’m with the 30 percent of people who break their resolutions by the end of January.

Two of mine are totally busted and the third is merely hanging on by threads:

Learn and practice Spanish for 30 minutes every day. Oops, it’s been weeks since I logged on to my Livemocha account
Do the Primal Workout every day. Yeah, I ran like Grok once, and did a few wall squats. But daily workouts? Busted!
Write every day. I’ve been better about that, but I can’t say I do it every single day.

There’s a reason habits and resolutions are such a hot topic every year: we really, really, really want to change, but our pesky bad behaviors are difficult to break, and new routines are hard to stick to! Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes

Tagged alternative transportation, bike, habits, resolutions, walk

Is “Liking” Riding & Walking Good Enough?

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Anne & Tim | 4 comments

This week everyone is talking about the Danish study linking walking and biking to school with better concentration. Kids + walking/biking + education = hot topic, right?

The story has legs and is making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and news outlets. Everywhere we click (at least in our admittedly bike- & walk-centric world), we see a link to the study.

You’ve seen it, haven’t you?

Like many of you, we get excited about these articles and want to pass the on to our network of friends.

Click! Like! Share! +1!

The resulting flurry of retweets and likes is a good thing, isn’t it? “Hey look here’s a great story. Let’s share it with our friends!” We click and make a difference. And then …. nothing.

For all their worth so many of these stories fade quickly, replaced with the next alt-transpo buzz (like … “e-bikes are coming and they are going to change everything!”). Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in bikes, Human Powered Politics, kids, neighborhoods, School

Tagged advocacy, bike advocacy, bike-to-school, bikes, kids, motivation, parents, School, social media, walk

Why We Ride: Thoughts on Motivation

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Anne | 37 comments

Let’s talk about motivation. What drives you to ride your bike or walk? Why on earth — especially during these sodden, cold winter days — do you commute via bike or feet over a warm, dry car?

A little housekeeping first: when used in the same sentence as bikes, commute has many definitions. Most people associate commute with work. But work isn’t the only destination for a commute. What about school? or play, activities, errands, appointments, or even to run kids here and there? Maddie, for example, is a bike commuter in our eyes. And for the purpose of this article, if you use a bike to “get around” (say, any use not strictly for sport), then you are a bike commuter too. This article mostly refers to “bikes.” But if your needs are better met by mentally substituting “walk” or “scoot” or “multi-modal” instead of “bike” as you read this post, you have our blessing.

This discussion is not new, our bike tribe has been talking about this topic for years. Back in 2008, Kent Peterson did some posts: why do you bike commute? / Why don’t you bike commute?”

You’ve heard of first world problems, right? Most people who live in the world’s wealthiest nations have abundant choices. One of those is the option to choose our mode of transportation. To get from point A to B, we can drive or walk or take the bus or use a bike, a scooter or a unicycle, or even hire a town car. Us first-worlders are blessed (cursed?) with commute options. Continue reading →

37 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, Commute, Everyday Biking, sustainability

Tagged biking, Commute, motivation, walking, why commute by bike?, why?

Lies we Tell our Children (or how to get kids to go bike touring)

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Anne | 16 comments

When Tim and I recount family bike adventures to friends and strangers, a typical response is, “What do the kids think”? “Do they like bike touring?”

If we were being completely honest, we’d reply, “of course not”. You’ll soon ascertain that we have a slight problem with stretching the truth.

We get kids on board and excited about these trips by over-emphasizing the potential highlights and skipping the parts we know the kids won’t like.

And sometimes we tell all out lies. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in bike touring, bikes, family cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour

Tagged bike touring, family, family bike touring, Family Cycling, lies, Pacific Coast tour, plans

Winter: A time for Planning Summer Family Bike Tours

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Anne | 8 comments

What sort of winter hibernation do you enjoy? The Car Free Days family tried to escape the cold and dark by hunkering down at home; reading, drinking gallons of hot tea, cuddling up around the fire, and occasionally getting out-of-town to ski in the Cascade range.

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But a few winters ago we started doing something even better with the short, sucky days: dreaming about and planning epic summer bike tours.

Coping with Winter Blahs

With just over 8 hours of daylight during the winter months, Pacific Northwesterners (and Scandinavians, and Russians, and ….) must come up with some way to preserve our sanity day after dark sodden day from November through March. Residents of these northen climes rely on many different methods for coping with winter dreariness. Some use light therapy, others make regular pilgrimages to day spas; soaking in hot pools and sweating away sorrows in saunas. Still others escape altogether with vacations to warm sunny climates. For some reason the historic, go-to strategy of heavy drinking has fallen out of favor. At least in our circles.

A new twist on beating dreary days came from family biking media darling Emily Finch this past December. I spent a good part of my early Christmas vacation living vicariously through her highly entertaining winter indoor-painting-therapy-program: Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in bike touring, bikes, family cycling, summer

Tagged "beating winter blues", "family bike tour", bike tour, family, family bike touring, family biking, kids, planning, summer, tour, winter

Groceries by Bike: Turn a Chore into Fun

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Anne | 36 comments

Carfreedays and Shopping: the Journey to Bikes

Tim and I didn’t always grocery shop by bike.

Before the summer of 2007, other than an occasional walk to the store, we bought and transported groceries exclusively in cars. At the time we owned a bike trailer and we could have used that to grocery shop. But dragging it out of the basement or garage and hooking it up to the bike just to go to the store? Nah, too much trouble; the car was easier. Panniers were the same, I had plenty of those lying around. But I was a busy mom and shopped for a family of 4, I could barely fit a days worth of groceries in two panniers, let alone groceries for a week.

August 2007, enter two Xtracycles. Those bikes changed everything. Continue reading →

36 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, cargo bikes, neighborhoods, shopping

Tagged carfreedays, groceries, groceries by bike, grocery shopping, history, shopping by bike, tips

2012 Xtracycle Tree Haulin (6th Annual)

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Anne | 6 comments

8250654778_e4348a9090 Year Six is D O N E.

We all pedaled up to our local tree lot the other evening, chose a 8′ Noble fir and headed home. Simple, straightforward and almost no drama. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in bikes, extravehicular activities, family cycling, longbikes, xtracycle

Tagged 2012, Bicycle Christmas, christmas, Christmas Tree, December, tree, tree hauling, xtracycle

Tree Haulin, Year SIX

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Anne | 3 comments

We’re gearing up for Xtracycle Tree Hauling, year six! We plan to get our tree in the next couple of days and promise to post photos of year six later in the week. Not as cute as when the kids were little and riding on the Snapdeck, but still fun nonetheless.

For now, check out years 2007 – 2011. How the kids have grown! More blog posts and photos of all tree hauling adventures here and here

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