Car-free day

In view of the Mobility Week in Belgium, today was called in as a 'car-free day'. People were asked to leave their cars aside for a day and go to their work by using other means. Ideally, this would mean freeways without cars, but as with everything here, most people are not good listeners. I just heard about the traffic jams on the radio news...

This morning, almost all radio programs dealt with the car-free day. (Yes, I do listen to the radio from early morning to late afternoon, always have done so.) They spoke with ladies who share cars among three or four families, and also with one woman who had been without car for two years now.

Well, my sister and I have been without a car for almost 6 years now. Sometimes people ask me how that is possible? For starters, I should tell you that we did not have a car when we were younger, Our dad worked for Belgian Rail and so we all had free first class tickets for the train. I only bought my first car when I went to uni.

For some time, we both needed a car to go to work, but later on we found jobs closer by and we could already sell one car. The remaining car was actually only used to drive to the coast. So after some time we considered doing away with that one as well - and we haven't missed it since.

We do our shopping on foot or by bike, either using a caddy or the saddle bags on the bikes. We go ofter to the shops, so we never have too much to carry. The supermarkets are not too far away from where we live, only 5 minutes by bike or 15 minutes on foot. When we want to go someplace, we take a train (railway station is only at 5 minutes from our home) or the bus (station right before the railroad one).

So who needs a car???