Tony Emerson is a semi-retired management lecturer, who has lived with Oona in central South London for about 25 years. Oona works as a health visitor three days a week, based in a clinic about four miles from home. She cycles or takes the bus to work, and cycles or walks around her 'patch'. Daughter Siobhan is in her first year of A Levels and bikes or buses to school about 3km away; son Donal lives within walking distance of Bristol University, where he is a student. Tony now does "little bits of teaching and consultancy work - some from home, some within a short bike or train ride." 

Tony has never owned a car. He 'learned' to drive as a 17 year old in Connemara in the West of Ireland in the 1960's. Tony says that you did need a driving licence, so 'learning' involved two lessons "I think from Paddy the Postman. The main safety issue then was sheep on the road."  When he moved to Dublin, and later London, Tony took one look at the traffic, and said 'not for me'. He used to still drive on holidays in Connemara, "until one year Peader the Vet complained about the high level of cardiac failure among sheep the last time I was home. So I could say I gave up driving out of concern for animal rights… Fear of London traffic helped also, as did my crass incompetency with all machinery - I once owned a motor bike and it kept breaking down, I ended up pushing it for miles."

Oona owned a car briefly when she worked in Australia in the 1970's but was never tempted to get one when she came back to London. And, as a health visitor, there are great professional advantages in cycling or walking the patch. When the children were small, Oona used to hire a car for family trips to the west of Ireland, where the public transport is very limited. But she found the driving very stressful, and has not hired one for seven years.

All the family get around on bikes, basic, solid functional ones. "None of which are sexy enough for anybody to want to steal."  When the children were small Tony and Oona used to have child seats on the bikes, and then a trailer-bike when they were between five and ten years old. Tony says that the child seats were great, not just for their obvious advantages, but because "you could sense the traffic slow down around you, as even motorists have natural protective instincts to children." 

As a result, Tony offers the following safety advice: "forget about helmets etc. Even if you don't have a child put on a child seat and put a dolly in it… And occasionally you may even give a neighbour's kid a ride!" Not only that, but what teenage tearaway is going to want to make off with a bike with a child seat (let alone one with a dolly or a howling kid on board.)

When he says that he doesn't own a car, Tony says that most people don't comment, which is akin to the reaction when he said they went to a naturist beach whilst on holiday.  "We are violating some unwritten taboo. One condescending social worker said 'oh it must be difficult for you'. Some respond with 'oh very good, but we need to drive Polly to school/music lessons with the double bass/horse riding/Guides late at night etc'. " Others will say nothing, and then say something like '… when we/I saw that you could live so fully without a car, that was the clincher - we/I decided to sell ours/not to buy one…'  Tony tries not to talk about it too much, preferring to let the action do the talking.

Taxis are used occasionally for supermarket trips for perishable items, whilst other items are bought on the internet. Taxis are sometimes used for late night socialising. Tony once ran right into a police tape when cycling late at night after what he says was "an, er, enjoyable evening. I won't quote what the officer said."  Not owning a car means that the family saves quite a few thousand each year, which means that both Oona and Tony can work part-time. (Although probably a bit of it goes on the extra booze we consume because we don't have to worry about being 'breathalysed'…)

Holidays are mainly train + bike, and destinations have included the Forest of Dean, West Wales, Norfolk, Northumbia, West of Ireland, Normandy, Charente (SW France). "When the kids were very small we twice hired a car (or the West of Ireland, though we did many trips throughout France, Belgium and England by train + bus."

The family has built life around independent travel, that is, travelling by foot, bike or public transport, independent of the motor vehicle. Tony was hard pressed to find drawbacks to not owning a car. He mentions not being able to holiday in idyllic rural locations, "but then Oona could renew her driving licence to take such a holiday." Tony also finds it irritating to go to National Trust sites - like Scotney Castle and Chartwell in the Kent/Surrey area and finding that bus services are very limited (if at all). However, he says that they could take taxis, which are affordable because of the £3k a year saved by not owing a car. Otherwise they build a country walk into the day. "And of course complain to the National Trust."

Tony offers the following top tips for living without a car: it is all about long term planning - where you live, where you work, where your kids go to school, where key family members live, the clubs or societies you join. I think it very much relates to work-life balance also - not going for 'big spend' living, not working all the hours, avoiding long commutes. Of course building up cycling and walking skill is important, and building up knowledge of public transport systems. "But above all it's about the decisions you make, over the years, to live more simply and more locally."

The best thing about not owning a car? Tony offers a long list: "Sitting in a train at Epsom station on a Saturday on a day out for a walk on the North Downs and watching the mugs down below queuing up to get into and get out of Sainsburys car park… Not having to earn that extra £3k a year it costs to run a car…Feeling that extra fitness of being able to swim eight lengths of the Tooting Bec Lido (Oona) or run madly (if not very effectively) around a tennis court for two hours (me) despite our 'third age' status… watching Donal and Siobhan go all around the country and around London on their own …while their peers still badger mummy/daddy for lifts…."

Tony also feels good about reducing his CO2 emissions, since not driving and rarely flying means that their CO2 ration is about half a tonne per person per year for transport. Compare this with the average car driver, "who puts over two tonnes of the stuff up in the atmosphere, adding significantly to the chaos being caused up there."  He also mentions that he has, "never yet taken the 159 bus into the garage on a Saturday afternoon or cleaned out a Southern train on a Sunday morning. And I prepared many a teaching session on the Thameslink train. I've never heard of a driver colleague taking out their notes, but maybe the traffic jams are so bad that they can do that now?"

And the worst thing about not owning a car? "Getting so smug."