Green family transport

[emd]

How does your family get around town?
What would you be using for transport if you could?

We live in a suburb with no school buses, and the nearest school is 45 minutes walk. So I drive to school every day. I can't even car pool because our car is full of our own kids and I couldn't return the favour by picking up someone else's kids sometimes. I'd quite like to drive a car that could run on WVO (waste vegie oil), but need to research it more before I can commit.

Other greener alternatives I've thought about...
* public transport, of course.
* cargo bikes - those bikes with a box on the front, so you can carry multiple kids plus the shopping. Not suitable for us as we live uphill, but would be good if we lived in a flatter area.
* cars that run on biodiesel (there's no local fuel retailer though) or CNG (compressed natural gas - the only place we could buy it is too far out of our normal route to be a sensible alternative).
* hybrid cars - easily available, but no use to us until there's a model that can fit three baby seats.

I also like the idea of moving to an area where walking to everything is possible.

[Marmee]

We are *very* fortunate. A casual walk to school and preschools is 15 mins, a walk to the local supermarket with take-aways, bakery, butchers, video shop, chemist, and more......30 mins.

Other than that, we drive.

[Dorasmum]

I have a long term goal of getting into a hybrid once the kids are a bit bigger and out of boosters, still driving tribute to school twice a day, but starting to think about some sort of bike arrangement. Hard with 2yr old as well. School is about 2km so we may even walk with ergo too eventually. God knows I need the exercise..

Actually I would love one of those cargo bikes, might get some odd looks around here though.

Em

[emd]

I was driving through the suburb I want to live in the other day, on my way back from another kids drop-off, and saw another mum at the lights with her 3 kids in a cargo bike. I was more than a bit jealous, let me tell you...

[Merry]

we have bus's here but they don't come down our deadend street and to walk to the other end where it joins the highway is about 40mins uphill! I walked home from somewhere about halfway to school and it took an hr and that's with the long downhill part, we have just applied for a bus pass so we'll be driving to the bus stop lol you can't ride or walk anywhere from here unfortunately so we are looking at somewhere closer to "down town" so we can walk or ride and there will be a bus stop somewhere in the vicinity.
I really want a hybrid car I love the prius's but they are all waaaaayy out of our price range at the moment

[Dorasmum]

I really want a hybrid car I love the prius's but they are all waaaaayy out of our price range at the moment

Yep same here, that's why it's a long term goal....

Hoping there will be a few second hand ones around, although the demand will probably mean the resale prices will stay high, or that the car companies will get off their butts and start producing a bigger more affordable range. The technology is there but too many people are still making too much money off the old technology. I think we could have all been in electric/hybrid cars yonks ago.

Em

[Merry]

apparently the Vic childrens services not sure exactly what they are called lol sell theres after a year for a reasonable amount, still to way to much but apparently pretty good lol

[Dorasmum]

Oh they sell the hybrid cars.....at first when I read that I was thinking you meant the cargo bikes...haha

Em

[Dorasmum]

Just found this, $1200 isn't all that bad...hmm now I'm really interested.

http://www.cargocycles.com.au/content/view/12/27/

Em

[Dorasmum]

http://www.gazellebicycles.com.au/co...go-bikes/cabby
http://www.bicyclestore.com.au/Trail...ies-c-411.html

If you're interested, some more links to read
Em