I am 63 and have never driven a car in my life except on the dodgems at funfairs. How has this state of affairs arisen? There are many reasons.

As a child in the '50s there was never a car in the household. My parents could both drive but could never afford a car. We used buses and trains. I was not allowed a bike till I was 14 as the roads were considered too dangerous. That was 1960 when there was a fraction of today's traffic. My only means of personal transport till then were roller skates. And my only passing interest in cars were Dinky Toys and the Observer Book of Cars. At 17 I was tempted to buy a Lambretta but took my Dad's advice of waiting six months to see if I still wanted it. Of course I didn't, as I had worked out that as you sat with your legs in front rather than astride you could so easily fall off.

Not particularly encouraged to try for university my car-free existence took off at 18 when my first job was with London Transport. That came with free travel on London buses, and their country ones beyond London, free Underground travel and quarter fare on British Rail anywhere in the country. At that time this perk was not a taxable benefit (It is now!). I met my wife-to-be at LT so it was plain daft to even think about buying and running a car when you could both travel around London for free.

My next reason is purely a financial one. Saving for a house for three years, then having three children by the time I was 25, somewhat drains the bank balance. And there was no such thing as maternity leave in the late '60s, and my wife returning to her job. It was a succession of part time jobs for her. We were relatively poor. No car, no phone, no television. Child tax credits hadn't been conceived.

Over the years I became professionally qualified, as a town planner and a transport planner. The skills I acquired came in useful. For a start when you are dependent on public transport you live near it. Simple really. You organise your life accordingly - around train times and making sure you live near a supermarket. I don't think Waitrose ever realised that we trolleyed our shopping all the way home and only returned the trolley next time we went shopping. Mr Tesco and Co had yet to dream up home deliveries. 

Anywhere you had to get to without a bus you walked - every Tuesday evening a half hour walk to the town's swimming pool for the children's lessons. I could never fathom why the pool had been built on the edge of town at the end of a cul-de-sac. Bad planning. No problem with a car. Buses? Sorry, not in the evenings. That particular town now has a town bus on a few days a week partly due to my efforts many years ago through a residents' association campaign. So you learn to live without a car. Also to fight for better public transport.

Another reason I never succumbed to car ownership is that I have never worked for an employer that gave me a company car. I have mostly worked in local government and managed to do jobs that are not an 'essential' or 'casual' car user, to coin the jargon. I have always felt that job ads requiring you to be able to drive a car are discriminatory.

Let's come out at this point and say that I am not anti-car. I am anti too much traffic but not anti car. I gladly accept lifts. I'm a car sharer without my own car. Sometimes when waiting an hour for a non-existent bus or train I have missed not having a car. But taxis have often come to the rescue. On the whole I have been very happy carless. I am probably less stressed and healthier. I am probably better off financially. I wonder how many older people with cars are now doing their sums and contemplating life with country-wide bus passes and Senior Railcards instead.

I have a secret. My late uncle's great grandfather's brother-in-law invented the bicycle. Kirkpatrick MacMillan in 1840 in Dumfriesshire. Well, OK, there is some dispute about what constitutes the first bicycle but he is recognised in bicycle history books as an inventor of the bike. So I do feel some allegiance to cycling and try and do a few miles each day, subject to rain and wind, not least to control my diabetes. Would I cycle so much if I had a car? Hmmm. I love cycling - it doesn't pollute the air, it's good for you and it's carbon-free. Win, win, win.

Then there's location, location, location. Vital for the carless. Back to town planning. For many people it's no use living in a village with a bus twice a day into town. I have chosen to live in towns with a rail station and buses. Since 2006 I have lived in Spalding, Lincolnshire. I researched the travel possibilities and I researched precisely where to live in the town. I am lucky to be able to work from home but I still needed to be within reasonable reach of London. My Spalding house cost half the price of the one sold in Surrey, but I can get to London, with one change, in 80 minutes. My house is 5 minutes walk from the rail station, has a bus stop outside it served by a Town Bus, is 5 minutes walk from the bus station with buses in all directions, and is 5 minutes walk from 4 supermarkets and the town's post office. But I am also just 5 minutes cycle ride from the countryside where I can see great crested grebes, herons, coots, moorhens, swans and kestrels on every trip. You choose carefully where to live when you are carless.

Planning business travel by train can actually, sadly, be fun. I enjoy finding the best route, the cheapest ticket, and whether it is cheaper to by a through ticket or one for each 'leg'. I was very pleased recently to have got from London Paddington to Swindon for just £4-95. I don't recall ever being late for a meeting, as I plan the journey and build in a cushion of time (which I generally use for cappuccino and shortbread consumption). I find it quite bizarre that late-comers to meetings about solving traffic congestion are car users who blame 'the traffic'. It is interesting that my most punctual friends use public transport.

My house's two allocated car parking spaces look very forlorn. A housebuilder and my council decided ten years ago that I qualified for these spaces. Perhaps if they had provided less parking in the road they could have built some more houses, made more money and generated less traffic. But would they have sold houses with less parking?

Previous homes have always been within 15 minutes walk of a rail station with a good service and close to buses. Redhill in Surrey was wonderful with trains in four directions. The fact you couldn't squeeze onto some of them is another story.  

Holidays have all been carefully researched. As a family with a transport planner in it we managed to stay in remote parts of the country. But always on bus routes or near rail stations, where trains sometimes had to be hailed. I have explored National Parks by bus, and became a leading bore on Ranger and Rover Tickets. A boon in the '70s, when car ownership was much lower, was being able to send luggage in advance, now long since gone. A lorry arrived at your house and you next saw your cases in your caravan or guest house. The only disadvantage is they arrived home about a week after you did.

Entertainment and leisure travel was limited around the time of getting married due to lack of finance. A 'year out' around the world was out of the question. Trips to the local cinema or to a London theatre were constrained by bus and train times. How many cinema-goers had to phone in advance to check the length of the film in case the last bus left before the end? Even today in Spalding I can't get home from London if I leave King's Cross after 7.30pm, as trains from Peterborough to Spalding have ceased by 8.30pm. The good news is that there's currently a six-month trial bus until 10.15pm, so I can now stay in London till 9.00pm. Wow, lucky old me. But a London theatre visit is still a no-no, though I suppose there are always matinees. One copes. And one joins the Spalding and Peterborough Transport Forum to try and change things. And if I go away for a weekend I can't come back on a Sunday as Spalding doesn't do public transport on Sundays. It is marooned. But there are always taxis and I'm living in hope for a car club to be set up, though I would, of course, have to learn to drive then!

One thing you have to fight is people's perceptions that you are weird (which may well be true), that all public transport is unreliable, that it always rains when waiting at a bus stop, that all trains are overcrowded and get delayed by the wrong sort of snow, and that sandwiches on trains are awful. Yes some of that is true sometimes, but nearly all my trains and buses turn up and run to time - just like people's cars work most of the time and don't normally get delayed by engine trouble, jack-knifed lorries, burst water mains, black ice and so on. And my experience of train food is that it is much better than motorway cafes'.

To sum up, it's 'all in the planning', I'm very pleased with my carbon footprint, love my bike and don't miss what I haven't had!