According to his piece in this Guardian article about the benefits of the daily walk, writer Geoff Dyer doesn’t own a car. Good on yer Geoff, welcome to the Carfree Choosers. But I can’t help noticing that not owning a car seems to be a bit of a bloke thing. Where are the women who have made the choice to not own a car? Is owning a car linked to women’s emancipation – a way to be less dependent? Maybe the research is out there. Answers on a postcard, preferably from carfree female choosers.
I know of a number of carfree women...Yoli in SF, Beth & Martina & Holly in Portland, probably Elly too, the Ditty Bops in LA, I think the gals at CICLE in Pasadena, plus a bunch more in LA that I think are carfree but can't confirm it. Lots of the women (and men too of course) at the LA Ecovillage are also carfree.
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear, Rick. I'd like to invite these carfree chooser gals (your word!) to feature on this blog or on my website(s). Thanks for reading this. Great to know that we are not alone.
ReplyDeleteI'm a woman who hasn't owned a car for close to 20 years. I currently live in the Bay Area (in Northern California). I do think it's a little harder for me as a woman, mainly because I'm afraid to walk home alone from the train late at night.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is right. I ride my bike to work when I can, but not when I work the night shift. I have to ride through some not-so-great neighborhoods to get home, and I don't think it would be a good idea for a lone woman after dark. :-(
ReplyDeleteJudy
Dear Anonymouses (not sure if that's the plural?) Thanks for your posts. Sad to say, women may indeed be more at risk in such circumstances. But I wonder if anyone has done the analysis of risk posed eg by auto crashes vs risk posed by unknown attackers? I'm not downplaying the real fears, but it would be interesting to see what the data says. Behavioural economics shows that we humans tend to be pretty fallible when it comes to assessing risk - not just on Wall Street (discuss!), but in most other areas of life too.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the UK, statistics show that "men are more likely to be the victims of violent crime than women. Over 5 per cent of men and just under 3 per cent of women aged 16 and over in England and Wales were the victims of some sort of violence in the twelve months prior to 2002/03. Men and women aged 16 to 24 are the most at risk age group. Around 15 per cent of men and 7 per cent women of this age reporting that some sort of violence had been used against them.... Despite being more likely to be the victim of crime, men are less worried than women about most types of crime. Women are between two and three times more likely than men to be very worried about being mugged or physically attacked and five times more likely than men to be very worried about being raped."
Of course, none of this is any consolation if you end up as one of these statistics.
Full details at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=442
I am a woman who is car-free. Not only am I currently car-free but I have always been car-free: I have never even had a driver's license.
ReplyDelete