Anne made this little video edit of some Carfreedays highlights these past 10 years. We know it exceeds the average viewer’s attention span. But 10 years on bikes! That’s a lot of content.  We hope you enjoy it!

We’ll leave you with  a few random stats from the past 10 years:

•  370 Posts
• 422,060 views
• 73,306 visitors
• Two in-state bike tours
• Countless cargo bike rides
• Several family bike camping trips, bike overnights and coffee outside
• One epic Pacific Coast Bike Tour from Seattle to Mexico (over 2 summers)
• 7 bike to school seasons, how many donuts?
• Hosted the first and only Seattle Fiets of Parenthood with Totcycle
• Two Portland Fiets of Parenthood victories split between Tim and I. (Suck it 503!)
• Three 9-5 victories
• and so much more.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the generous “bike people” we’ve met over the years. So many of you have become lifelong friends. This isn’t goodbye, we’re not going anywhere, we’ll see ya around town.

Thanks for all of the fun times!

Finally, we’ll always cherish memories with our friends, Clint and Val, who have both passed away. Your legacies live on in each of us. We miss you.

As Val would say, “Keep the rubber side down.”

xoxo,

Anne and Tim

After TEN years, I don’t have much more to say about tree hauling by bike. Other than TEN YEARS! Wow, we really are old. The 13-year-old hauled the tree home, then immediately set off on his bike for an afternoon D&D session at his friend’s house. Teens are busy! I will say that my family has labeled me the Scrooge because I’m sorta down on Christmas and all of the commercialism. That tree we hauled home yesterday was eighty bucks! Bah Humbug.

Thanks to Tim for keeping the Christmas spirit alive in our house! His Christmas-loving mom would be proud. Merry Christmas!

Memory Lane

Once again, I’m recycling our tree-hauling photo retrospective from years past. Last year our daughter claimed that, “our family is weird” and “this was her last year”. And yesterday she said, “Now that we’ve done ten, I’m done.” So this really could be our last Christmas tree post, EVER. We’ll see.

 Year One: 2007, look how little!

Year Two: 2008, a dusting of snow

Year Three: 2009, the year we froze

Year Four: 2010, the year it rained a lot

Year Five:  2011, kids on their own bikes!

Year Six: 2012, looking so grown up!

Year Seven: 2013, Kids hauling trees. (She’s almost as tall as me)

Year Eight: 2014, whoa these kids are tall, but still shorter than me.

2015: Year Nine. We’re almost all the same height (except for Tim)

2016:  Year Ten. I have places to be. Can we go yet?

Happy Holidays, everyone. Looking forward to checking out your tree-hauling adventures.

– Anne and Tim

As Seattle debates the relevancy, solvency, and future of Pronto bike share, I reflect on our family’s (first ever) bike share experience.

In Paris!

I made this little video edit to share our Vélib experience. All video dialogue has been muted to protect delicate ears (see below).

Why try bike share in your own city, when you can fly 4994 miles and try it in Paris?

I have several reasons: The most glaring, we own bikes in Seattle, we really have no reason to use Pronto. But also, in Paris, bike share is public transportation and using public transportation is not an afterthought, nor alternative, but culturally ingrained and essential. In Paris, sharing bikes is a natural piece of the public-transportation-puzzle. The missing piece, really.  Sorry Pro-Pronto Seattle, we’re just not ready for you yet.

In France, traffic laws that protect pedestrians and cyclists are strictly enforced. Our French friends told us about a point system for traffic violations that sounded brilliant. Speeding tickets and other traffic violations are assigned points, based on their severity.  If you get a certain number of points on your license, you have to pay hefty fines AND go back to driver ed. Good reason to follow traffic laws. Speaking of education, in France driver education is serious (and expensive) business. Unlike the US, France does not hand out driver licenses to anyone with a pulse who can pass the eye exam, nor give them to children.

Needless to say, despite the high volume of car traffic, we felt more safe riding bikes in Paris, a city of 2.24 million people, than we ever have in Seattle.

I lived in Paris in college while on a semester exchange. If only Vélib existed then. It would have been so fun and practical and cheap to Vélib as a young, single and carefree college student. Even though I’m no longer single and my life is not carefree anymore, Vélib is still a great way for us old people to move around the city. Faster than walking. Faster than the Métro and the bus. Vélib answered our tourist-fatigued transportation wishes.

Vélib is so incredibly simple. Even big dumb Americans with two teens in tow can figure it out.  Tired of walking? Bus stuck in traffic? Grab a bike from one of the 1800 Vélib stations, no more than 300 meters apart, and pedal away your transportation woes.

While our experience was not completely carefree, I won’t bore you with all of our Vélib-challenges. I do have a few (now) funny Vélib stories. Those stories include multiple f-bombs. One involves the challenges of using Vélib with a chip-enabled-but-still-not-French credit card. Another one highlights the logistical challenges of locating and checking out four Vélib bikes at once. I’ll give you a little hint, punching in account numbers one at a time to check bikes in and out at the busy station kiosk is swear-worthy. And popular stations in busy close-in neighborhoods are often empty or only have one available bike.

But we did it, we Vélibed. I’m incredibly thankful that Riding Vélib Through Paris was checked off Tim’s trip-list. Tim’s persistence paid off. Cruising through Paris on bikes with my family is at the top of my most cherished trip memories!

If you find yourself in Paris, especially with traffic savvy bike riding kids in tow, add Vélib to your trip-list.

-Anne

Why we SUP

If you live in Seattle, it’s hard to miss the drastic growth over the past couple of years. There are so many indications that Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities  in the US. The crane-dotted downtown skyline, and the new apartment/condo complexes being built on seemingly every neighborhood arterial are proof of this growth. This town is exploding!

With growth, comes growing pains. And let me tell you, these Seattle natives are feeling some pain. Gone is the sleepy, somewhat backward, airplane-building timber town of our youth. It’s been replaced by a shinier, quicker-paced, stressed-out version of itself.

Also gone (or hiding) are the polite, reverent, wait-your-turn-and-use-a-turn-signal drivers. They’ve been replaced by honkers and fist wavers. Seattle didn’t used to be a honking town, we were too polite for that. Sigh, I really don’t like honking, it stresses me to my core.

Anger and short fuses are not just limited to drivers, bikers are exhibiting their fair share of rage as well. We used to wave to fellow bikers out on the road (especially fellow cargo bikers). Most we encounter these days are in too much of a rush to wave. That or they’re too focused on not getting hit, they just don’t have the energy for pleasantries. I’ve all but sworn off the Burke Gilman trail, because of the bike-anger-factor. Like drivers, people on bikes are in a rush to get to work or home or where ever. They want to go fast, and they don’t want anyone in their way. The past couple of times I rode on the trail, I got yelled at and scolded for pretty much everything I did; riding too big of a bike, riding too slow or just plain riding. I’m not slow nor am I a newbie bike rider, I couldn’t figure out why everyone is so agitated. I bike so I don’t have to experience road rage. Why would I want to deal with bike-rage? Anyone else noticed this?

Rage aside, we’re slowly learning to accept the new normal. But still, I yearn for the old days, when sleepy backward peace prevailed, and we could experience solitude in the city when we needed it.

Back to my SUP story. I think we’ve found one way to deal with the heightened Seattle mood. Our new on-water sport; paddle boarding or stand up paddle boarding or SUP, what ever you want to call it, is a sport, AND a form of meditation. Paddle boarding provides peace, solitude, plus it’s a really good all-body workout. Bonus that it doesn’t require knees. Tim’s still recovering from knee injury and knee surgery, and paddle boarding is one activity that doesn’t hurt.

Wanna get away from all the people and all the rage? Find a way to get to the water! From Lake Union to Lake Washington to Puget Sound, to Greenlake, there’s no shortage of water in this town. Plus we have multiple human-powered-on-water-vessel-options to choose from: sail boats, crew shells, SUPs, kayaks, outrigger canoes. Hell even a sturdy blow up raft will do. Just get out there, I promise you’ll love it.

From our house, we can be on the lake in about 30 minutes, including loading and unloading SUPs on/off the car on both ends. That’s 30 minutes from home to solitude. The second our SUPs hit the water, the peace sinks in and the stress melts away. Sometimes we paddle 3, 4, or 5  miles on Lake Washington and don’t encounter a single person or boat, especially this time of year. But sometimes we do encounter wildlife — beavers, herons, and bald eagles up close. Wildlife viewing is an added bonus!

Oh no, hopefully I didn’t jinx the peace by sharing my SUP-solitude secrets. It’s ok, there’s plenty of lake to go around. And no cars!

Why drive? Can’t you tow SUPs with a bike?

Cargo-bike zealots, like us, will tell you that you can haul pretty much anything by bike. Because, really, you can. From Christmas trees, to washing machines, to lumber and even 14′ SUPS. Tim was into Bike-SUP-towing a couple of summers ago. It was new, fun, weird, and liberating to tow a 14′ SUP on a bike. But last spring Tim gave up Bike-SUP towing for good. Remember the rage and the honking I mentioned earlier? If a single biker taking up space in the road makes Seattle drivers mad and aggressive, imagine how they react to a long-bike towing a 14′ paddle board? Hooonk, Honnnnk, “Get off the road, asshole.” Now that I paddle too, two riders on bikes towing a combined 28 feet of SUPs would definitely tip the rage scale. I  can’t imagine the honk-fest that would unleash if double-bike-SUPS were seen pedaling down the road. The trail is the same. Angry bikers do not want to deal with bike-SUP towers. 

Let’s be real, bike-SUP-towing is similar to bike-washing-machine-hauling and bike moving. Yes, it can be done. But you don’t do it out of necessity, you do it to get attention or to be bad-ass and make a statement about what bikes can do. But in all practicality, cars are better suited for SUP-hauling. And large vans and trucks are better and more efficient at washing machine hauling and house moving. I’m still holding on to Christmas-tree-by-bike tradition. That’s just festive! We really are trying to reduce some of the SUP-driving. We’re mulling over SUP storage at the lake at some point so we can ride on occasion. Or maybe we’ll get a couple of inflatables?

We’ve even continued to SUP this winter. It’s very similar to winter biking, just add a few more layers and get out there. Wetsuits, booties and a few extra layers enable winter SUPing. Don’t fall in though, that lake is cccccold.

How about you? Any water-loving folks out there? We’d love to hear about your adventures.

 – Anne

Did you make any resolutions this year? I sure didn’t. And here’s why.

Habits instead of Resolutions

I gave up New Year’s resolutions a few years ago. I like the goal setting exercise of resolutions, and I also like the sense of hope and new beginnings that resolutions bring. The problem is, like most people, I rarely follow through with resolutions and beginning of the year proclamations. Maybe the fresh-start approach is better? Or how about vowing to focus on habits, (this link is to the abstract, if you want to read the full text, ask your local reference librarian to dig you up a copy).

“…..habits, which are actions that occur in response to stimuli without necessarily bringing to mind the goal of that action. Habits are contrasted with goal-oriented behavior and form one class of automatic behavior. They become established by repetition and routine, their emergence being marked by measurable changes in brain circuits….”

Habits form based on repetition and routine, and repetition and routine change our brain? Cool. I’m happy to learn that even old, middle aged brains are malleable. We can keep changing habits and rewiring our brains until we die. But if we want to change habits, we have to change our routines, and keep at those new routines until they become automatic processes.

Running Buddy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAKmd17joj8/

Starting a running habit nagged me for years. I thought biking was enough exercise to keep me healthy. Then Tim sent me this article about bone density and cycling and it freaked me out. Even though I’m not a 110 pound bike racer who spends hours in the saddle, and my brittle-bone-risk is relatively low, I still want to do everything I can to keep my bones healthy into old age. Adding running, or any weight bearing activity, to my exercise routine became a goal.

But I just couldn’t get into a running routine, no matter how many times I tried.

I even tried reading run-stories for inspiration. (Do you sense a reading theme?) Check out the Oiselle blog for uplifting run-stories written by kick ass women. But no matter how many posts I read about flying and birds and wings, I spent most of my time dreaming and planning for runs while my shoes stayed dry and my butt remained firmly planted in my desk chair. I like the way running makes me feel both physically and mentally. And I like that running delivers a really good workout in a small amount of time. Despite the good feelings and the quick workout, I still couldn’t manage to turn desire into a run-habit. I’d start, keep it up for a few weeks, or months, then eventually I’d stop.

The beauty of a running buddy.

What changed? A run-angel-buddy-friend, Pam, floated into my life at the perfect time. She had just moved to Seattle and was looking for someone to run with, and I needed a kick in the butt to get started running again. Since our run-philosophies and schedules were the perfect match, we made a plan to run together two mornings a week. Pam showed up every week; rain, shine, snow, sleet, fog, or hot sun to run with me. I expected her soft knock every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and she expected me to answer the door. I couldn’t make excuses or skip runs, because I didn’t want to disappoint her. That mutual commitment was/is enough to ensure some running happened for both of us on a regular basis. It didn’t take long for our arrangement to become a habit. After a couple of weeks, we didn’t text the night before to confirm, we just knew running was going to happen Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30. Those pesky automatic processes had turned into a habit.

Now I’m addicted to running with a buddy. After Pam moved away, I found a new run buddy. Kimberly and I just celebrated our one year runiversary on January 5th. We both agree that running with a friend is good for the body and soul. Not only do we share a goal and commitment, we share a little piece of ourselves with each run. I love it all; mostly the camaraderie, the chatting time, and the shared accomplishment.

What to look for in a run buddy.

Your run buddy should have a few traits that match yours; compatible personality, fitness goals, schedule, and desire.  You don’t want to choose someone who’s training for a marathon, if you just want to run a 3K. Or someone who isn’t a morning person, when you leap out of bed at 6:00 every day raring to go. Schedules and goals and desire have to mesh, or the run-buddy partnership just won’t work.

I just read on the Oiselle blog that they are kicking off a six week run challenge, urging runners to find a buddy and set a goal. While their goals are more wing-appropriate than my normal shuffle, the intent is the same:

This year, we’r e kicking off the New Year with a six-week to run love challenge! The New Year is the perfect time for a fresh start, it’s a time to dream big and jump into a new relationship (or resolution) with arms wide open.

What about you? Do you have a partner who helps you maintain your habits? Share your buddy stories in the comments.Happy New Year everyone. Cheers to health, new routines and long lasting habits to start 2016.

– Anne

Book List, what Anne is currently reading: All the Light We Cannot See

You might be (editor: probably are) bored of tree-hauling posts by now, but I’m not. And since this is our NINTH-annual-Christmas-tree-by-bike post, and I already have kids in middle and high-schools, you’ll have to suffer through another sentimental one. The kids are growing up so fast <sniff> and our time with them is almost done. They’re already talking about their future holiday traditions, the ones they’ll start when they have their own (more stylish than our) homes and families. But for now, they’re still stuck with what passes for tradition around here.

Little boy in 2008; Much bigger boy in 2015

See that cute, little, three-year-old, riding on the back of Tim’s Xtracycle Mad-Max style? He’s now twelve! And almost taller than me! AND this year, he hauled the tree home on my Xtracycle! (I hope my overuse of exclamation points has properly conveyed my enthusiastic mirth.)

Our annual tree haul-i-day  adventure is my favorite family holiday tradition (editor: it’s pretty much the only holiday tradition Anne actually likes). Thankfully the kids still (sort of ) enjoy it and look forward (one of them grudgingly) to the annual trip to the tree lot on bikes. Since we’ve been doing this so many years, we like to mix it up. So far our daughter has hauled the tree and I’ve hauled the tree and Tim has hauled the tree. This year it was the boy’s turn.

Though we’re old pros at this, there’s always drama. Where are the lights to decorate our bikes with? Santa hats? Check. Is everyone dressed warmly enough?And new this year: is our daughter’s data connection functioning properly and does Tim have 9 different versions of White Christmas queued up on the bike boom box playlist? Talk about first world problems.

Typically, our most significant tree-hauling-drama always takes place ON the tree lot. I’m happy to report this year did not disappoint. Our tree-selection friction involved a number of really-crappy-worst-in-nine-years-but-still-crazy-expensive selection of trees at our local tree lot (Dear Hunter’s Tree Farm management: a fat, stubby noble shrub with a multiple crooked tops, does not a classic tannenbaum make. Please release those trees back to the wild and start over. We still love you but want you to please do better next year), a teen with a Snapchat obsession that really annoyed her dad (editor: oh, my. Yes. It. Did), and a few other cringe-worthy family happenings. (editor: There might have been yelling). So yeah, we survived another year.

Once the tree was actually purchased and bundled, it was business-as-usual. Tim had to fend off the well-meaning tree lot guys who always want to help us strap the tree to our car. And then once they realize it’s a bike, they say, as they have for nine years: “Bike? That’s a first!” (editor: sigh…)

As we’ve said before, these days we skip the elaborate custom rigging and strapping options for carrying the tree home on the bike. The first year, Tim soldered together a copper and pine running-board/wide-loader platform. It looked lovely but it was hell on Tim’s achilles tendon skin. (editor: ow. Hurts again just thinking about it). We also figured out it was a solution looking for a problem.

So here’s how we do it now: Hunter’s bundles the tree in some evil plastic-mesh to shrink it to a manageable diameter, Tim hefts it over to the bike, we throw it in the Freeloader bags,  strap a couple of freeloader straps and then pedal home. No rope. No extra straps. No cases of beer required on the other side to counterbalance the tree. (editor: though as always, beer remains optional but recommended).

With the tree all wrapped up like this, the boy, on his very first xtracycle-ride, managed to get the tree home without a single crash or other traumatic incident (editor: much to his, but not our, surprise)

Memory Lane

Once again, I’m recycling our tree-hauling photo retrospective from years past. Because I can. And I’m a sap, and because last night our daughter claimed that, “our family is weird” and “this was her last year”. So this could be our last Christmas tree post, EVER. I’m still rooting for an even decade of family-tree-hauling, but we’ll just have to see what happens over the next 364 days.

 Year One: 2007, look how little!

Year Two: 2008, a dusting of snow

Year Three: 2009, the year we froze

Year Four: 2010, the year it rained a lot

Year Five:  2011, kids on their own bikes!

Year Six: 2012, looking so grown up!

Year Seven: 2013, Kids hauling trees. (She’s almost as tall as me)

Year Eight: 2014, whoa these kids are tall, but still shorter than me.

2015: We’re almost all the same height (except for Tim)
Happy Holidays, everyone. Looking forward to checking out your tree-hauling adventures.

– Anne and Tim

In Part One of What Free Days,  we talked about the (editor: ugly, fat, smelly, comfortable, dry, cheap, and easy) car in our driveway, non-subsidized transit costs, kids biking in the city, and Seattle bike infrastructure to name a few.

I’m sending a huge ‘Thank You” to all who reached out on the blog, Facebook and Twitter! (editor: it’s been nearly a year since we’ve posted anything and me, the grumpy, negative part of the team thought we’d hear crickets, if that. Instead, ya’ll came through with some great contributions. So pat yourself on the back and say: “nice job”). I’ll highlight a few comments that resonated with me:

“This is a fun-to-read highly pragmatic and honest assessment of where we are today, and as a guy who went through the 2 kids in a Bakfiets to Xtracycling to kids on their own bikes evolution and who loved every minute of it, driving when you need or want to is just fine. Thanks for saying it loud.” (Frank)

“I console myself with “best tool for the job” phrases. We are all fortunate to have options.” (Stacy)

“One day I will write a blog on the benefits of a multi-mode life. I love it all: biking. Busing, walking, occasional car ride, train. It all beats daily one person car commute alone! I’d much rather have these options. It is a luxury to have options and the people watching is hilarious!” (Charlotte)

Added bonus, we only heard from one hater who called us ‘lame’ on Twitter! Of course, the hater hides behind an anonymous Twitter handle. Of course. Anonymous  commenters get what they deserve, dismissal. I can, in good conscience, ignore them on principle. If you’re going to call me lame; face me, take off your hat and dark sunglasses, and use your name!

Back to Part 2. If you’re still with us…. aw, shucks, thanks! Read on to find out the rest of our story.

Back to Cars. Why we bought a car.

I’ll spare you most of the marital deliberations, discussions, and negotiations that lead to the car purchase. Suffice to say, Tim really, really, (editor: really) didn’t want to buy a car. It took me months to convince him that it was a good idea.

He finally gave in a couple of months after we returned from the second leg of our two-summer Pacific Coast Bike tour (editor: you left out how I totally screwed up my knees on the second tour–I hate you, crappy, old, steel Trek tandem).

Settle in for a few long stories about some of the reasons a family -car re-entered our life.

Car Buying Reason #1, Insurance: Protect your (Ass)ets

We’ve already established that being car-free, doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t drive ever. Many car-free people rely on some form of car rental or car sharing to fill in the transportation gaps when/where bikes, feet and transit don’t make sense.

During our family’s experimental car non-ownership phase we mostly relied on the Zipcar, car sharing system (tagline: a “smarter way to get around the city”). Zipcar likes to brag about things like…

But…um, we experienced things differently. We didn’t save hundreds, we spent thousands (see below). And about that “free insurance” bit–make sure you take a look at what ‘free’ really gives you. You can go all researchy (editor: as your resident librarian, I highly encourage it. In fact, librarians–hi Kreg! hi Jessi!–are standing by) or just leverage this handy article to get your inner insurance sense all tingly. Bottom line, it doesn’t come close to covering the real costs you’d incur if something really bad happened while you are driving.

I don’t need to go into all of the scenarios here. Our money-buddy, Ron, already laid them out for us. Suffice to say, I was shocked when I read that NYT piece. Our family accountant (me) recommends preparing for the worst case scenario. Here’s what I think sums up that article in one sentence:

If you use car share and also have assets: say, a house, savings, or anything really (editor: what about my Farrah Fawcett poster, vintage Boy Scout camping gear, and/or 22 bicycles?), do yourself and your loved ones a favor and get your own auto liability policy.

What’s the insurance solution for non-vehicle-owners?

Some states/companies offer auto policies for non-vehicle-owners. But they aren’t cheap!  $368 a year is a lot for personal liability insurance for one person. Multiply that by two drivers, and it doesn’t make any financial sense to own such a policy. Car owner auto liability is cheaper than that.

Another idea. Even if you don’t plan on driving (editor: much), buy a cheap beater car that runs, if only for the liability insurance. A parked car can provide a $500,000 in auto liability. Having a car and a house also enables you to get an umbrella policy, giving you even more insurance. Then you’re really covered.  You can just refer to your beater car as your passive ass-saving asset. Ours was a gift, thanks, Mark! We kept this licensed, leaky, barely running, 1974 VW Super Beetle in our driveway for two years for just this reason. Even when we were paying regularly for Zipcar. 

Anyone have another/better insurance solution? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment and share!

Car Buying Reason #2, Access to the outdoors:

This should really be #1 for us because it was the main reason I used when I lobbied Tim for a car (editor: she totally suckered me here)

Tim and I are both Pacific Northwesterners. Tim’s a fourth generation Wasingtonian, his people were salt of the earth homesteaders in Sequim, arriving in Washington before the turn of the century. I’m one of those evil California transplants Seattle natives like Tim hate so much (editor: FWIW, I like her and think she’s hot). My family moved from San Diego to the suburbs of Seattle in the early 1970’s (editor: newby losers!). Even though I wasn’t born here, I’ve lived in Washington all my life and certainly feel like a native (editor:well, you *were* here for the opening of the Kingdome and remember that other Sounders team, so I’m gonna give you a pass-ish).

Like many native(ish) Northwesterners, Tim and I both love the outdoors. We grew up hiking and camping and paddling and skiing (just me, not Tim) (editor: it’s true, I didn’t ski until I followed my girlfriend to Wyoming because she was going to be a ski bum and I was smitten, but I did all the other stuff) and backpacking and walking along remote beaches on the Pacific Coast.

Tim’s single mom used to load up her beater car (editor: 1966 Ford Country Squire Wagon. They were all beaters then) and drag her kids camping in the summer, all by herself. My parents loved camping too, they took me and my four sisters all over the Pacific Northwest in our seven-seater-Catholic-mobile (editor: A General Motors product. As if). Camping was the natural choice in those days of less money and less stuff — how else would a family of seven afford to vacation?

The northwesty outdoors stuff continued through college. Tim and I met while we were both working at REI (thanks Arleen!). You can’t get more Northwestern than that. Tim sold shoes and bikes, and ran promotions and events; I was a friendly cashier.

(editor: sappy love story alert. Click here to jump down the meat & potatoes of the post )

Tim used to make up the stupidest (editor: find the sweetest and best and most gallant excuses (editor: reasons) to come up to the front of the store and talk with me. I looked forward to those visits, and eventually we started dating. After we’d been dating a couple of months, I told Tim I was quitting my job and moving to Jackson Hole for a winter to ski. Tim quit his job too and came with me, even though he didn’t know how to ski. Learning to ski in  Jackson Hole, with the steepest vertical drop in the county, at 26, that’s love! I fell in love with his humor and wit (editor: and my legs. You’ve always looooved my legs) and we’ve been laughing and enjoying the outdoors together for 23 years.

Aw shucks.

(editor: hey, didn’t this have something to do with cars or not cars or something like that? Let’s get on with it)

In the years we were car-less, car-lite, car-whatever, we didn’t get out of the city much. Sure we rode bikes, and relished everyday adventures in the city; visiting local parks and spending time at the lake trying to satisfy our nature cravings. But no matter what story REI is pitching lately (editor: because they’re trying to cope with a millennial demographic who isn’t sure yet if they want to go outside, but is sure they want to shop), those in-city outings weren’t enough.

After awhile, I started to feel trapped in the city. I needed to get outside, and experience more thrill, more serenity, and more wildness in my adventures than our (admittedly awesome) local parks provide.

As we’ve said ad nauseam, we tried using Zipcars to get out-of-town, at least for our ski adventures. If you talk to native Northwesterners, many will tell you that skiing saves them from the winter blues. Playing in the mountain snow is the prize for enduring months of sea-level rain.

So during the two ski seasons that we were carfree, we booked standing 24 hour Zipcar reservations, every weekend throughout the three-month ski season (editor: Zipcar only let members book eight reservations at a time. So Anne would use up her eight reservations and start booking in my account. I’d be minding my own business around, say, Thanksgiving, then out of nowhere, bam, my email inbox would go nuts with love letters from the Zipcar people: Confirmations, date changes, car changes, more confirmations, and so on).

So yeah, Zipcar worked for skiing. They had a few cars close by that were all-wheel drive, plus chains and ski racks. But, the expense and the routine slowly killed us over the course of the season. We spent thousands of dollars on Zipcar. Multiple thousands of dollars. When your personal Zipcar rep (editor: when you have a personal Zipcar rep) starts sending you gifts in the mail, you know you’re an idiot a valued customer. (At least our rep had good taste in books!) I mentioned routine being as bad as the expense: The drag of fetching and returning cars using folding bikes before and after long days of skiing quickly became a chore. Yes, playing in the snow is payoff for the lowland rain. But that would have been better without cold, rainy Zipcar-fetching rides bookending the playing. Tim already talked a little bit about our Zipskicar Rochambeau in the last post. This usually involved the winner (the one who gets to stay warm and dry) trading alcohol and personal services to the loser (ie, the person dropping the car off and Bromptoning home in the cold rain):

“I’ll unload the car, and hang up the clothes unpack the gear and ski clothes, make dinner and have a cocktail ready when you get home,  IF you’ll return the Zipcar”

Tim was the champion 39-degrees-in-the-rain-Brompton-riding-car-returner. And I make a mean margarita.

Car Buying Reason #3, Teen Bike Rejection Syndrome:

The Teen’s bike-hate factored into the car-decision as well. She hated (editor: still does) bikes. And we were making her ride them. A lot. And she still hated them. And teenagers can be really difficult to live with with imaginary obstacles in your path. Need I say more? No one wants to live with that much teen-hate. No one.

In her defense, she’s turned into a pretty capable bus rider. She may not ride bikes, but she’s still a transportationally independent, teenage bus chick.

Car Buying Reason #4 Kid Activities: 

I still cringe a little when I re-read this post where I talk about how easy it is to get kids to their various activities on bikes. Yikes! The 2011 Anne was excited about biking, but also a tad smug (editor: tad?).

My kids were in 5th and 3rd grade when I wrote that post. Their practices were at local fields and games usually kept to the 2-3 mile neighborhood zone. Unless kids play select sports, most elementary team sports stay relatively local. Naturally we rode bikes to practices and games when the kids were in this stage. Easy peasy.

As some of the commenters on that post note, that hyper-local-team-sport ease shifts when kids hit middle school. Kids’ sports-world expands, taking them from local to regional play. That’s when parental extreme-driving becomes commonplace.

When our daughter entered middle school, her lacrosse games took us all over the region: to Snohomish, North Bend, Auburn and Tacoma. Riding bikes for hours or taking buses to games was out of the question. Renting cars became the weekend norm. It only took one season for the family accountant (me) to question the feasibility of continuing on this path without a car. Doable, yes. Affordable? No!

Again. This is just our story. Maybe you don’t ski, or backpack or hike. Maybe your kids aren’t sporty and you spend most of your time doing indoosy things in the city, or having everyday bike adventures at local parks. If that’s the case, enjoy your in-city bike life bliss!

Are we happy with car ownership?

I’d say yes. (editor: I’d say maybe. Talk to me when I need to change the oil in the rain. But to be fair, also talk to me after I’ve come from an awesome day on my paddleboard made possible by the hated car)

But I won’t lie, owning a car has changed some of our habits. The giant grey elephant is warm and dry and convenient, but it also makes us lazy at times. When the car is just sitting in the driveway and it’s pouring down rain, it’s hard not to use it. And I do.

Tim and I still walk and ride bikes within our three-mile zone–to the store, to the library etc. The twelve-year-old boy still rides bikes too. He’s getting some payoff from a childhood on bikes. As a capable rider, he’s able to enjoy the freedom of getting around on his own; he rides between home and school and friends’ houses regularly.  The fourteen year old bike-hater has become a bus rider. She loves the confidence gained by riding buses on her own in the city. The other day she turned to me and said, “I’ve become an urban kid.”

Cheers to independent city kids who take buses!

For now I’ve decided that moderation and balance is our car-wise happy medium. For now.

We’ll see what happens when the kids move out of the house, and it’s just the two of us again. It’s kind of fun to get around on the bikes (editor: or else we could buy a sports car. Don’t all old retired men want a sports car?).

But that’ll come soon enough. We’ve only six or so more years until they’re both in college. Yikes!

Stay tuned.

– Anne

There’s a giant grey (editor: almost black, really) elephant parked in my driveway, and it’s time to talk about it. Just over two years ago, after six years in various states of carfreeandcarliteness, we ripped off our metaphoric hairshirts (editor: and said “fuck it”) and bought a very used car.  I’m (still) thrilled with our decision.

But I also understand such a disclosure could be confusing to some readers. I can hear longtime reader, ol’ Elmer in Iowa, right now (editor: we made him up):

Wait, wait… back up. I’m confused, if you have a car, why is your blog titled Car FREE Days?

Yes, this blog is titled Car Free DAYS, with the emphasis (originally, now, and always) on the DAYS part. That’s how it was from the beginning (editor: check that link. Those are some young, good looking cats!), and though we went pretty heavy into the car-free part for a while, the DAYS emphasis was always our intention.

Alrighty. I hope you’ve already had coffee. You might need it to get through this (editor: long, but very enjoyable) post.

Two years ago  a very used, very depreciated, but in good-enough-condition-for-us car entered our family. If you’re snickering or thinking about offering advice and/or wisdom or mansplaining (editor: you’re dropping mansplaining on our dear readers? That’s ballsy!) the many reasons we failed and made the wrong choice, skip it. We’ve been through all the stages of car non-ownership grief. And we’re fine with it.

I know I can rent a car when I need to get out of town. I know I can take public transportation. I know I can walk and ride my bike. I’ve done all of these things hundreds of times. (editor: We’re experts at this shit!) For the past eight years, I’ve sampled most of the available alternative transportation choices with my kids: From Flexcar (remember them?), to Zipcar to Car2go, to buses, to most of the car rental companies, to Bolt Buses to Amtrak….trust me, we tried them all. The reality is, while many of these options are simple and beautiful and cheap and carefree for one (or maybe two people), add three more and the beautifulness (editor: and the cost effectiveness) diminishes (editor: greatly). When we finally admitted that full-on, zealot-level, whole-family carfreeness involved less joy, and created more chore (editor: cue weekly parental Rochambeau for who’s going to take back the Zipcar then Brompton home after 160 miles of driving, a long day of skiing, and did I mention it’s 39F and raining?), and more money, Tim and I began to talk car buying.

A note about costs. This is America, driving is (too) cheap! (editor: unfortunately)

I’ll let you in on a secret from our family accountant (me): buying a car has actually saved us money. Yes, it’s true. We’re saving money with a personal car. Au contraire to popular pro-bike claims, it’s actually quite expensive for a Seattle family of four to be car-free, unless they bike and walk exclusively (editor: or never leave their five mile zone.). It turns out the stats and calculations about the cost of car ownership, that so many bike advocates (Editor: and yes, we’ve been those people) love to quote, include the cost of new cars. If you buy an already depreciated used car, with cash, you can cut those costs by 60% or more.

Shocking truth: our seven-passenger-European-built, four-wheel-drive station wagon cost less out the door than a electric Edgerunner set up to carry a family. So yeah, it may not be electric, but it’s still affordable to own, run and insure (editor: yes, insurance was necessary even when we were car-free. More on this later but I’ll give you a pro-tip: If you own a house and use car share, you’d better well have your own liability insurance because the car sharing companies are not  in the business of protecting your assets). I’d even venture to guess that most of these cost-saving stats are based on a one-to-one relationship: one car, one person. Shift into one-to-many territory, and the numbers start to get fuzzy, especially when you consider transit costs. Because, let’s be real, unless you are not venturing out of your 3-4-5 mile neighborhood zone, you can’t really bike everywhere with kids in Seattle. Which means, sometimes you have to take a bus (editor: or drive. Oh wait, that’s the point you’re slowly getting around to making).

Let’s check out an analysis of bus vs. car for a family of four:

Four non-peak, round-trip bus fares (two adult, two youth) cost $16 on King County Metro. At $2.69 a gallon and $2 an hour for on-street parking, that same non-peak trip in a car, including parking costs is half that. Yes, there’s the purchase of the car, but again, buying a used, reliable, depreciated car cost us about the same as one point five winter Zipcar bills (editor: so if you don’t ski in the winter and backpack in the summer you can stop reading now. Congratulations.) Then after that initial hit, we spend less per year on the car than we did on transit and car-sharing combined for just 3 months. Sure, if you exclusively (editor: but those people aren’t reading any more) bike or walk, my point is moot, as those modes really are close to free. (editor: but try to get your middle schooler to ride to his cross country meet in Federal Way, in the rain. Or try to get your bike-hating high-schooler to ride, well, anywhere. If you’re going to take a hardline on the biking and walking thing with teens, then prepare to spend a lot of time at home staring out the window.)

Another Argument: But hey, it’s not just about money. What about joy of biking and walking with kids

I’ve written about this before. Yes, there is joy. So much joy! (especially when the kids were young). Joy easily and always outweighs cost for me. Joy is priceless. We went everywhere on bikes. (editor: we rode to freakin’ Mexico! How’s that for cred?). It was easy to bike with kids-as-passengers in the city. Throw them on the back of an Xtracycle, bundle them up, give them a snack and a book and they were happy. I’m comfortable enough with my in-city traffic riding skills that trip distance was never really a problem for me. West Seattle and back? No prob. Vashon Island? Sure.

I cherish those Xtracycle passenger bike days!

But once the kids graduated beyond the Xtracycle – and even the tandem – to riding their own bikes, that carefree ease evaporated into the misty grey Seattle November skunge.

I know you blissful Seattle family bikers with young kids probably don’t want to hear this. And some of you are probably snickering and thinking I’m so lame and cranky, and that this just plain wrong.

Maybe your kids are different. I just know that once my kids started riding on their own, in the street, with cars, our entire family biking game changed. Sure, kids can do short trips on bikes; to school, to the store, to the neighborhood library branch,  all still relatively easy on bikes in Seattle.  But leaving our 2-3 mile zone with two kids on their own bikes? Crossing town to Ballard? Riding to Capitol Hill? Riding 8 miles from Ravenna to Downtown Seattle? Not easy. Sure, we did it. A bunch of times. And it was not safe. Not fun. Joy was in short supply. This city has come along way in terms of bike friendliness, but, frankly, (and this may hurt some feelings at SDOT and Greenways), it’s still a big giant turd when it comes to being a safe place for kids to ride. Even for my kids, who are seasoned riders and have pedaled all the way to Mexico.

Yet. The key word is yet.

I think our family was just too early. Seattle wasn’t ready for family biking when we started in 2007. I’d venture to say Seattle is still not really ready for family biking. Again, I’m not talking about parents biking with kids as passengers, I’m talking about kids pedaling their own bikes. (editor: yeah, they can do it, but it’s totally sketch. I’m getting up there in years. My heart can’t take this shit).

Our city still isn’t set up for kids to pedal across town safely….yet. The key word is yet. But I’m hopeful. The bike infrastructure we have now, in 2015 Seattle, is piecemeal, at best. A two-block bike lane here. A one-block “protected” bike lane there (editor: ie: plastic pylons tattooed with black bumper kisses and skidmarks. That is, where they haven’t been ripped out of the ground under the wheels of angry vehicles). Some green paint. Maybe a bike signal, maybe not. Connections? No. Seamless connected cross town routes? Not there, yet. Driver awareness of bikes. No way. Drivers don’t know the rules, the laws, or what this new bike and ped signage even means.

If you have to travel outside a neighborhood zone on bikes with young kids, you’re pretty much screwed. Fine for an adult. Not fine for kids. Not fine for a family. At least, not fine for me and mine. You may make other choices and that’s OK. No judgement here.

I know work is being done. I know safety improvements are coming. But by the time Seattle has a connected bike infrastructure that is safe for all people (ages 8-80!) to travel in the city, my kids will be out of college. They might possibly be married. And they might have kids of their own. (editor: Can we fucking get on with this already? We started caring about this shit even before we had kids and now we’re talking about them having kids and wondering if the city will even be safe by then. Christ, I’m so sick of this shit).

Apparently, we’re (ie, the editor is) getting tired. So I think we’ll stop here for the night and take up the car issue in the next post….stay tuned, part two is just around the corner.

 – Anne and Tim (the editor if you haven’t guessed)

April 1st is not only April Fools Day, centered around pranks and jokes and various forms of tomfoolery, it’s also the beginning of 30 Days Of Biking. According to their site, 30 Days of Biking started in 2010 as a way to encourage people to ride their bike. “We ride our bikes every day in April, no matter the weather, no matter the distance. We started in 2010, and thousands of people from around the world have joined in.” At this count 6997 people have signed up. Have you?

Make a pledge. Join others and ride. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

I’m not so sure. Is joining others and making a pledge a motivator? Will the pledge keep you going every day for 30 days? Maybe. Perhaps. Yes. The answer is different for everyone. But what happens if the pledge doesn’t work? What if you make the pledge and fail? What if you just don’t want to ride everyday? Maybe you enjoy a nice leisurely walk instead?

I’m not claiming that #30daysofbiking approach is bad or that it doesn’t work. There is nothing wrong with #30daysofbiking. I’m absolutely sure that it does work (for some people); those who really like being part of a group, and/or who like clubs and pledges and challenges and group rides.

But what if you are not one of those people? What if you don’t like any of those things? Should you feel bad that you can’t or won’t make a pledge and join the group? Should you hide during the month of April, avoid Twitter and Facebook and the countless #30daysofbiking tweets that remind you of your failure because you didn’t make a pledge?

Absolutely not.

I’m a classic introvert and #30daysofbiking is not for me. I’m guessing I’m not alone. I’m also not a joiner. I don’t like clubs. I don’t like exclusivity. I’m not a big-group person, instead I prefer connection and one-on-one interactions with people. As long as I’m confessing, I might as well tell you that I don’t like group rides either, I cringe at the thought of riding to Portland with 9,999 other people. I’d rather ride to Portland with my family. In general, I prefer to ride alone, or with one friend, or with my kids and I really like riding with Tim, he’s the best riding buddy I could ask for.

Maybe you still want to try 30 days of biking? Go for it. If you make the 30 days of biking pledge, but don’t make it 30 days, don’t feel bad. Maybe you can’t ride one day. You get sick. Or your kid gets sick. Or you have to go to a last-minute meeting and biking to work doesn’t fit into your schedule. If you didn’t ride one day or two days or 20 days, did you fail? Should you just give up and quit? What will motivate you to get back on your bike in 3 days or 5 days or next month? Do you need another pledge to kick-start your habit? Do you need to wait for May, #biketoworkmonth, to try again?

For those of you who don’t want to make pledges and tweet about #30daysofbiking or #biketoworkmonth I give you permission to opt out. And feel good about it.

For me, joy is the ultimate motivator. Most of the time, I feel joy when I get on my bike and ride. Joy (and freedom) helped me form a biking habit. When I started everyday biking, joy kept me going tomorrow and the next day, and the next and the next. Until eventually, I formed a biking habit and I didn’t have to think about it anymore, biking simply became the way I get around most of the time.

For me, and others I hope, one-day-at-a-time is a better approach. So here you go, my one-day-at-a-time pledge:

“I will try to ride my bike more. I will ride when I really want to; when the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, I slept well, I have lots of energy, I can think of nothing better than getting on my bike and pedaling to work or school or to the store to get groceries. On those days, I will ride.”

But tomorrow I may not want to ride for whatever reason. And I will leave my bike at home. And I will feel fine. There is always tomorrow, a new day, and I made a one-day-at-a-time pledge.

Respectfully,  Anne

Let me start by admitting two things:

1. Of the many parenting issues I’ll likely face in my lifetime, this one is minor
2. This issue definitely falls into the ‘first-world-problem’ category

Even though this issue seems trivial in the grand scheme of parenting woes, it’s one that Tim and I have been pondering, discussing, obsessing over and pondering some more: What does a ‘bike family’ do when their teen rejects her bike?

Let’s be frank: Teen-bike-rejection is a huge pain in the ass. It personally affects me, my transportation and activity choices, how I choose to spend money, and more. It’s thrown an enormous wrench into my blissful family bike life. (Not quite this huge, but close.)

Now that’s a wrench!

That said (deep breaths!), I know that rejection of bikes is a minor blip in the grand scheme of raising a teen. Surely I can flex my nimble parenting muscles and roll with it. If this is as bad as it gets in the next 10 years of parenting, I’ll count myself lucky. (I threw that in for all of you seasoned parents who are likely chuckling to yourselves about my petty little teen-bike issue. Go ahead and enjoy a knowing smirk or laugh at my expense.)

Other than a few Twitter and Facebook rants, I’ve been pretty silent about this issue.  Because, even though I (occasionally) write a very public blog about my family bike adventures for the world to read, I aim to balance sharing useful information while keeping the kids’ personal thoughts and emotions out of my story. This article gives a pretty good lowdown on how I try to (mostly) refrain from talking about my kids online “out of respect for their autonomy”.

Without completely dragging my kids personal story into this post, I’d like to share some of our struggles with continuing our family bike life now that one of our kids is a teen, and the other a tween.

I know at least one parent who shares my frustration. A few weeks ago, our blog friend, Stacy, commented on an Instagram photo I posted where I admitted that I’d ‘forced’ my son to join me on a ride. Stacy wanted to know how I did that. Turns out Stacy has a kid who doesn’t want to ride either. Maybe there are other parents of teens out there, who are going through the same frustrations, and might benefit from some solidarity (sister)?

If you’re a parent who rides bikes for transportation, raise your hand!

If you’re also doing transportation biking with your kids, give yourself a double fist bump! And if you’ve already raised kids on bikes all the way into their adulthood, jump up with your hands in the air and let out a loud ‘Whoop’!

You all deserve kudos, but the last one there, Wow. You get super kudos. Oh, and while I have your attention, maybe you’d answer some questions from your number one fan?

Yes? OK, here they are:

1. Did your teen like riding bikes for transportation?
2. Did they stop riding at some point?
3. Did they ever hate bikes?
4. If they stopped riding, did they go back to bikes? Or did they continue to hate bikes into adulthood?

Please write back soon! I’m dying here and need answers.

Kids and the Fall of Bikes

These stats, that highlight the decline in the number of kids who walk and bike to school, are repeated often; “In one generation, the percentage of children who walk or bike to school has dropped from 50% to 15%. Safe Routes to School National Partnership, 2007 – Safe Routes to School: 2007 State of the States Report

Lately national bike organizations (People for Bikes, National Center for Safe Routes to School, The League of American Cyclists) along with local walk and bike organizations (Bike Works, Cascade Bicycle, Washington Bikes, Walk.Bike.Schools and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways), have worked to encourage more kids and families to ride bikes.

The million dollar question/mission: How can we all work together to get back to the bike and walk participation percentages from the 1960s and 70s?

Why don’t we see more kids on bikes clogging our neighborhood streets? It seems most bike advocates wonder (and talk) about elementary aged kids. After ushering two kids through elementary school, I’ve learned that the decline in elementary bike-to-school participation is more of an indication of parental reluctance than kid. Elementary aged kids LOVE to bike. And they’d probably ride every day, if only they could get their lazy-ass parents to ride with them, (or let them ride alone).

What about teens? We all know that teens eventually stop believing everything their parents say. (As they should!) Parental needling aside, don’t teens want some of the freedom that bikes provide? I’d think that once teens had a sweet taste of independence and freedom, they would want to ride bikes. If nothing else; bikes provide a quick get away, enabling teens to quickly gain distance between themselves and their parents.

Speaking of stats, how do the stats look for teens?

I couldn’t find national stats specifically related to teens. But I do have some anecdotal information. Our friends and fellow Bike to Bryant elementary-bike-to-school organizers; Clint, Leslie and Lisa, continued bike to school promotion in middle school through Eckstein Bikes. While a decent percentage (I don’t know the number, but my eyeballs tell me it’s pretty good) of Eckstein kids walk to school, the bike numbers are still pretty bleak, with under 2% of the student population regularly riding bikes to school. On dark winter days, that percentage dwindles even further. This group of parents has discussed at length the methods to crack the middle school, bike-to-school-code. But maybe the code cannot be cracked. Maybe teens simply don’t want to ride bikes?

Why don’t more middle and high school students ride? Does school start too early? (yes!). Are parents afraid? (yes!). Do kids have too-heavy backpacks and musical instruments to carry? (yes!). Maybe middle-school kids just don’t want to ride bikes to school. (yes! More on this phrase and it’s origins later). Like I said, our daughter certainly doesn’t want to ride; she rejected her bike-as-transport-to school more than a year ago and now vastly prefers walking. Though she’d prefer a ride (in a car, not on the back of a bike!) even more.

I know some teens who ride bikes to get where they need to go, but not very many. I see more teens on foot and on buses in the neighborhood than on bikes. I’m not sure why more teens don’t ride, but I can make a few guesses. Social pressure. The cool factor. Maybe even parental concerns about safety or perceived safety.

They Just Don’t Want To

Most of the time, my teen doesn’t want to ride at all. For anything. When we plan family outings, her first question is usually, “Are we driving?” If we’re driving, she’ll come along. If we’re riding, she’ll often stay home. [I’ve been thinking about a future post about millennials and car ownership/drivership. Are millennials not driving because they are using feet, bikes and transit? Or are they choosing to stay home and socializing via smartphones instead of going out? Hmm…I might explore that later, this is long enough for now.]

The stars (all of them, not just the ones we can see from Seattle on a clear summer night) must align before our teen agrees to ride with us. Is the destination worth it (will there be ice cream or pie or good burgers or sweet coffee drinks when we get there?) Is it raining? Will it rain? Is there a possibility for shopping along the route? Will anyone see us who knows her? Can a friend tag along? (also quite rare since her friends don’t regularly ride bikes).

Other variables include typical teen challenges such as: mood, homework schedule, and whether or not she feels like spending time with us. (I realize not wanting to spend time with parents is par-for-the-teenage-course. But I imagine that adding bikes to the mix makes it even worse). Because our old blog pal Smudgemo is painfully spot on: most of the time, “They Just Don’t Want To”. ( A little aside, I know Smudgmo’s blog is defunct, but I still really like the title and the phrase, and I repeat if often)

I used to bike all over Seattle with my kids when they were young/small enough to carry on an Xtracycle. When the kids were young, my biking limits were self-inflicted: if I was willing to carry the kids, I could go anywhere I wanted on my bike. But now that I have a teen and a tween, who are independent thinkers (and seriously, hooray for this!) and who ride their own bikes, my limits are now determined by my kids’ desire to ride. And because their desire is low, our family-cycling adventures have all but evaporated. It’s not that I *can’t* ride certain places with my kids (because of safety or other external factors); my kids just don’t want to ride very much.

Side note: the teen factor is the main reason we rushed to complete our family two summer Pacific Coast Bike Tour before our daughter turned 13, while both of our kids still wanted to do it. I can’t imagine the bribes I’d have to throw down now to get her to ride 2000+ miles wearing stinky/ugly bike touring clothes for three straight weeks. (I won’t even mention sleeping in a tent with her family every night).

Finally, here’s some biking advice I’m qualified to dole out: If you have family bike touring dreams, get it done before your kids reach their teen years!

Peers and Social Pressure (or “I think my friends think biking sucks”)

For my teen, reluctance to ride mostly comes from perceived social pressure. Biking is still not a normal mode of transportation for families in Seattle. Yes, some families do ride. And if you believe the headlines, family biking is exploding in Seattle.

Truth be told, and despite the headlines, transport volumes are still heavily weighted toward family driving.

I don’t have stats to back up my claim, but I do have eyes, and I see a river of cars clogging my neighborhood streets on a daily basis, even in bike friendly North Seattle. The majority of the family bikers I do see include parents carrying their kids on some sort of cargo bike or tag-along attachment. I rarely run across bike families comprised of parents and kids riding independently. Maybe this is the disconnect between the huge growth in family biking and the river I see otherwise. We’ve been there; huge family bikers when we could carry the kids. Much less so when the kids won’t ride.

If our daughter had a peer group that also rode bikes, maybe she would want to ride more? Or maybe not.

Our bright spot of hope (though it totally messes with my theories) is that our 11-year-old son does have friends who ride both alone and with their families. He spent the entire Christmas break riding between friends houses, the library and University Village on his own and with his friends. It’s completely different for him, he likes to ride. (Right on!)

In general, I aim to ignore stereotypical gender differences, but I do wonder if this bike-hate is a teen girl thing? Please prove me wrong and shout at me if you have a teen girl who loves bikes!

Tim and I like to think we’re early adopters. We’ve been doing this family bike thing since 2007, before the headlines and before it was hip. Maybe we’re just too early to experience an all-ages Seattle family biking movement with our kids? Maybe when Brad’s and Davey’s and Julian’s and Leya’s and Madi’s  and Sara’s and the kids from all the families on the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group reach full-time independent-rider stage, I will finally get to experience that river of awesome teen-bike riders flowing down my neighborhood streets. We can certainly hope.

Until then, we’ll make do. And try that thing they call parenting. That means we’re not going to cave to our teen’s wishes and stop riding (sorry Dear). But we’ve also decided that the teen-bike-battle is not the one we choose fight with all our resources.

We’ll still force both kids to ride with us sometimes. When it’s my birthday. Or they haven’t exercised in a day or two (or a week). Or the entire family is riding to get a Christmas tree. Or the sun is out and we think everyone should put down their devices and go somewhere. And when we just don’t want to deal with driving and parking.

But for the most part, we’ve settled back into being a bike couple, rather than a bike family; Tim and I plan many of our bike errands and adventures without the kids, and let them stay home more often than not. When we go somewhere as a family; to a destination farther than a walk, and we can’t call in one of the exceptions above, yes, we drive.

We have so many years and battles ahead that we don’t want to go to the mat over something that’s supposed to be fun . Nor do we want to risk snuffing out any (slight) flicker of a bike-love flame that may still reside (somewhere) in her heart. Because we’re still holding out hope. High school College. Yeah, that’s when it’s all coming back to two wheels.

Maybe.

How about you? Do you have teen bike struggles? Do you have teens who like to bike? If so, please share in the comments. Or on Twitter. Or on Facebook, we’d love to hear your story!

 – Anne (and Tim, whose edits make me look like such a better writer)