What I've learnt from a car-free year

Just over a year ago, in February's storms, part of our house's roof blew off and totalled the car! Double insurance whammy. We said goodbye to the Alfa we'd had for the best part of 10 years but rather than immediately buy a new one, we thought we'd see how we could cope without.

Why we do it? To address climate change and reduce air pollution, we need to reduce car use and move to more environmentally-friendly forms of transport. We thought this was an opportunity to see if we needed to actually own a car, or could do without.

A year on I've been reflecting on life without a car. But before I launch into how its panned out, a few important caveats:

• Neither my wife or I need to drive to work, but we have a busy daughter, visit family relatively often and used to drive on holiday etc. We used to drive about 10,000 miles a year.
• We live in South West London where public transport is pretty good - lots of these observations obviously don't apply in rural areas.
• I really like driving, and have driven a lot in the last 12 months, but we don't own a car any more.

So what's it been like not owning a car for the last 12 months, and what have we done differently and learnt as a result?

We don't need to own a car - I haven’t missed not owning or driving a car regularly. Not having a car parked outside the house, worrying about it getting damaged or when it's going to cost money, has been liberating. I thought I would miss the actual car and not driving it, but I haven't. I have driven, and the occasional journey has been great fun! I certainly don't miss sitting in traffic or all the hassle associated with car ownership.

There are lots of alternative ways to get around (where we live anyway) - having your own car is obviously very convenient, but it's been interesting exploring the alternatives and gaps in provision. We've:

• Walked - pretty much every journey of 1-1.5 miles, and occasionally running longer journeys when practical (#runsome)
• Cycled - for shorter journeys, weather permitting, especially with my daughter. And I've started to hire e-bikes which can be used in some parts of outer London.
• Used public transport - always commuted by train and tube, but now using the bus more, and trains are the go to option for inter-city travel. We've just got the sleeper train to northern Spain and will be doing the same to south-west France next month. Both are pretty cheap, fast and comfortable. And expanding at the expense of domestic flights.
• Hired Uber, Bolt etc. - for those short journeys when you're in a hurry and there is no simple way to get from A to B
• Tried Zipcar and Turo - brilliant alternatives to car hire in the UK, still building their networks, but convenient and not too pricey for when you need a car for hours or days doing journeys that cannot be done any other way.

The cost savings aren't huge - people always say "you must have saved a fortune"! I can't even begin to do the maths but it doesn't feel like we've saved much. We're still paying for transport and sometimes that can be costly. And we had an old and fairly reliable car that had done all its depreciating. So while for some this might be a biggie, for us it's not a major plus.

Not owning a car forces you to make different (and better) choices - in the past we'd simply have jumped in the car because it was there. The weather's poor, we're in a hurry, or can't be bothered with the alternative... But by virtue of a car just not being an option we’ve cut out lots of short journeys by car, and you should too. That short hop to the school when it's raining, rush to the shops when you're feeling tired, or nip to the gym and you're running late. All these can, and should, be done by other means. But the car is simple and convenient, and it's only in taking it out the equation entirely can we really see there is another way.

The status quo is not acceptable - while I hope we haven't suddenly become eco-bores, not owning a car has made us more aware of congestion, poor air quality, and the lack of active transport infrastructure in this country. It's also very apparent that our over-reliance on cars, and subservience to them and the car lobby, needs to change. We need to imagine a different, better future, where cars play a different role and where we use other forms of transport that are more appropriate in urban areas.

What now? We may own a car again in the future, especially if our circumstances change. Or maybe we'll carry as we are, or car share with neighbours who commute. Or perhaps the car revolution will come and soon we'll all be sharing autonomous cars that will free up the streets, so many of which have becoming huge ugly car parks.

But one thing is certain - we're facing a climate emergency, and there need to be big changes, changes to the way we all live our lives. Sometimes we have to force that change by making what might seem like difficult decisions. But for many people living in cities the car is a luxury and not a necessity. So be brave, lose the car, you might like the alternatives.