My husband and I do not have or want a car. The last time I even drove was when we were in Australia, nearly two years ago. Now I admit that living in London (or any major city with a decent public transport network) makes it very easy to live completely car free. But I have also lived in semi-rural Australia and managed to limit my car usage to once a week.

Here are some simple steps you can take to reduce or eliminate your car usage:

Use public transport whenever possible

This is an obvious one, but you’d be surprised how often people jump in the car because it’s “easier” rather than be slightly inconvenienced by taking a bus or train. If you don’t have local public transport but are heading towards an area which does, compromise and drive part of the way then switch to public transport when you can.

Reduce and combine errands to make a single trip

If you do have to use the car to run an errand or two, try to fit as many as you can into that trip so you don’t have to make a separate journey at a later time. Also try to reduce the number of errands you run. As an example, do you need to go to the grocery store every second day? Could you menu plan and only shop weekly?

Relocate to a more convenient area

Ok, this isn’t necessarily a simple option – particularly if you have to sell a home in the current market. But long term, relocating to an area which has better local services and/or is closer to your work can greatly reduce your need to drive on a daily basis – or even at all. Even in London, we are looking to relocate to be closer to work to save on commuting time.

Are you trying to reduce your car usage? What steps have you taken so far?

Image credit: Ben Barden