One-car families

From "One-car family gets by just fine" (Chicago Sun-Times, June 26, 2008):

If you think your family can't survive with just one car -- think again, says Downers Grove resident Sara Bieda.

Bieda, who has three daughters, ages 4, 5 and 8, said her family has been saving by skipping a second car since 2004.

"I don't know any other family of five that only has one car, and people say to me 'Oh, we could never do that,' " she said. "You know, if you tried, maybe you could."

There are families of five -- and more! -- all over the Chicagoland area making do with one car. In fact, in the city itself, a lot of folks get by sans car. Since Bieda's husband works downtown, I find it puzzling that he hasn't met a colleague or fellow commuter doing what so many of us do (i.e., getting by with one car).

That aside, though, the linked article is a refreshing reminder about how simple it is to keep costs down.

Following an accident not long after we moved to Chicago, we donated our second car to a charity (apparently, it was worth more in parts than it was worth to repair), so we've been a one-car family for at least a decade, maybe more. Admittedly, it was easy when we lived in the city, and the children were young. About four years ago, though, we moved to the little house in the tiny woods on the prairie; and, of course, the kids are older now -- Master M-mv is, in fact, an adult. To some, our one-car status may seem undoable since we have three adults with people to see and places to go. But we just plan a little more: Mr. M-mv times his train and bus connections carefully, and the Misses and I plan errands and field trips around getting Master to and from college and work.

And the savings still outweigh the (modest) scheduling disadvantages.

Is yours a one-car (or no-car!) family surviving -- maybe even thriving -- in the Chicagoland area? Wave to the Bieda family to let them know they're not alone.