Dave Gorman is a writer and performer. He has written for, and appeared on, numerous tv and radio shows. In 2009/10, Dave will be cycling between venues around the UK for his Sit Down, Pedal, Pedal, Stop and Stand Up Tour. More about Dave at http://www.davegorman.com/  Now here's a puzzle: Dave drives across America. In a car. He writes about it in "America Unchained," which was also made into a documentary film. Then Dave writes a piece for The Four Wheel Detox on why, back in the UK, he has chosen to live car-free.

Dave is single and lives alone in East London. He writes and performs for a living so sometimes that means he is working at home, sometimes he is on the road and sometimes - if working on a collaborative TV or radio project - he will be working in an office somewhere in London. Since he no longer owns a car, Dave travels in London by bike for preference, or by public transport. Dave says that "Unless you've got large luggage to transport a car really isn't a very practical way of getting around London." Having got rid of his car, Dave now uses the push bike with a trailer for transporting heavy loads - he once used it to take a defunct 28" TV to the tip.

Dave says "I'll hire a car if I have to, but I can remember hiring a car only once in the two years since getting rid of my old motor and one occasion when I should have hired one and didn't." If he I hired a car more than he currently did, he would look into a car share scheme like Streetcar but there's no real need as it is. When he travelling further afield Dave uses public transport where possible

Dave has owned a couple of cars albeit never anything flash. Dave says, "My Dad's a real petrol head but I don't seem to have inherited those genes. My last car was a Vauxhall Corsa. It was very practical. I used to tour a couple of different stage shows around the UK. The shows involved two projectors, two big screens and a load of other kit. I couldn't afford to pay anyone else to help on the technical side so I'd drive myself there, set the whole thing up, help to rig the lights and then do the show. I couldn't have done it without having my own car.

But then he reached the stage of bigger tours, both in terms of venue size and the number of dates, so he had to get a Tour Manager. That meant that Dave stopped doing the driving and ended up using a hire car. At this point, he was driving less than 1,000 miles a year. Dave says "I'd tour in foreign countries, being away from home for three or four months at a time, so my car was just standing outside the house doing nothing. There were a couple of occasions when I'd get back from a trip and have two days in which to get the tax and insurance and MOT sorted out and it was definitely proving to be more hassle than it was worth."

Then, in 2006 Dave decided to head off on an American road trip. He wanted to go from coast to coast across America without spending money at any chain businesses. He wrote a book about the trip and there's also a documentary film.

Dave says that a lot of people see the film and assume that the journey was undertaken especially to make a bit of telly. "But it wasn't like that. It was a journey I undertook for personal reasons, it was something I was doing anyway... I just allowed a production company to make a film following me on the way. My plans for the trip were already quite advanced by the time the idea of the film came up and as part of those plans I'd sold my car to a friend because I needed to raise some money in order to buy a secondhand car in the States. There's something straightforward and appealing about selling a car in the UK in order to buy a car in the US."  When the US roadtrip was over, Dave sold that car and came home... and didn't bother to buy another.

According to Dave, the best thing about not owning a car is that there's so much less hassle in life. It was just something else to worry about. "If I lived in the country I'm sure I'd have one but I'm lucky to live in a place where there's a 24 hour shop a five minute walk from home and great public transport links. And I do more thinking on a bike than anywhere else. There was a time not so many years ago when for three years I was touring really intensively. I was away from home for up to 8 months of each year. I live in a Victorian terrace so the car was just left on the street. I'd come home to find it had a flat battery that it was days away from running out of Tax and so on. I was lucky on a couple of occasions that I came home when I did. I went to New York to do a 6 week run. The show went well and we extended the run to 3 months. There was talk of extending the run again... if we had I'd have come home to find my car had been towed. Who needs that worry?"

Asked to name the worst thing about not owning a car, Dave says that he "Hasn't had one day of regret. I can't pretend it's for everyone... if I had kids I might have a different take on things."

As for those things that are allegedly harder to do without owning a car, Dave says "There's really nothing that's harder to do…Initially I found myself getting a bit cluttered. Something like taking a bin bag of stuff to the local charity shop became a chore so I'd end up putting unwanted stuff in a cupboard instead. But then I bought a trailer for the bike and that sorted that out. If I had a fridge to throw out the council would collect it. If I bought a sofa the company would deliver it. When I go to visit family I take a train. There's been one occasion where I spent one day longer at my Mum's than I would have done if I'd had a car because of the paucity of trains running over Christmas. But I wouldn't dare complain about spending another day at my Mum's. She might. I wouldn't."

Dave says that he does not think that he would go back to owning a car. "If my personal circumstances change then I'd have to consider it, but while I live where I do - and I love it so I have no intention of leaving - then I can't see it."

When it comes to top tips for living without a car, Dave says, that he had started living without a car long before he got rid of it, so "I'd recommend people try living without a car before they actually get rid of it. See how long you can go without using the car and when you realise how little you actually need it, you'll happily wave goodbye."

Dave hasn't done any calculations, but thinks he is saving money by not owning a car. He says that "People moan about the cost of trains and compare it to how much they'd spend on petrol if they drove the same journey but they never seem to factor in how much they spend on buying the car in the first place and how much they spend on tax and insurance and maintenance."

Dave's summary on taking the Four Wheel Detox? "To be honest, even if it was more expensive I'd still go without a car because to me it was more trouble than it's worth."