How many birders don't own a car (1 Viewer)

[Songkhran]

looks like im going to have to bite the bullet this year and get my license as a good birding opportunity has come up but for 14 years i havent owned a car, be interested to know if theres anyone else out there who have gone a number of years without one through choice. I don't know anyone.

it certainly affects your birding quite a bit up ive never felt its hindered me, it forces you (in a good way) to do a local patch a lot and quite often your at the same site for a long time walking around a lot (resulting in finding stuff you may have missed on a whistlestop tour). I rely on public transport and thankfully theres a bus that goes all the way along the coast. Also get lots of lifts which adds to the social side but unfortunately hitchhiking seems to be a thing of the past.

 

[Pete Mella]

I'm yet to pass my test, and I must admit I've occasionally found some good stuff while being forced to walk between locations, when if I drove I'd have merely visited a site and got back in the car.

I am looking forward to passing, though - there's plenty of locations near me that are a 1-2 hour hike by public transport and walking that will be an easy half hour drive.

 

[carlj]

Never driven, but it means an intimate love of the places that are reachable by public transport.

Also take advantage of local RSPB group coach trips further afield.

 

[SiG]

Decided at 16 that I'd not allow my lifestyle to revolve around the internal combustion engine (although perhas it has been styled considerably by my dislike of cars, the petrol economy, etc) ... Managed for 30 years without one so far, other than for a few months in a war zone where public transport - and the legislative framework that enabled licensing - wasn't an option!

 

[colonelboris]

If I drove, I'd not have seen a Squacco Heron, Pied Flycatcher or Red-throated Pipit. All seen while walking to reserves or work.
I haven't a car as they're expensive things to run (actually, I do have a car, but I've never driven it. A 1965 RAF-blue Triumph Herald, but I digress) so everything is done on foot or public transport with the occasional life thrown in.

 

[wintibird]

I never had a car and I don't drive. While this complicates birdwatching abroad sometimes it's easy in Switzerland. Public transport is excellent and by cycling and walking I've seen many birds which other people missed.

André

 

[Ashley beolens]

At nearly 33 (next week) I'm still yet to drive, though will start soon. It never used to affect my birding, lifts were always plentiful, however of late that has changed and driving is becoming a must.

 

[deansmith]

i dont have a car or even a license, i use public transport quite a bit and sometimes the bike, but im an avid local patcher, and fortunatly i have a nice stretch of coast at the end of my street 5 minutes walk away and 3 or 4 nature reserve sites within a bike ride or short bus journey

 

[Robert / Seattle]

Wha'? No car?!

You writing from Europe or something?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I've had a driving license for 12 years but have hardly driven since I got it, and not at all for 11 years. I don't particularly like driving and don't really need to most of the time. I occasionally think it would be good to hire a car for the weekend maybe, but I'd need to get a few lessons to 'retrain' first. I've no inclination to buy a car.

 

[TwoDipsfromAmsterdam]

I don't have a car. As Wintibird says about Switzerland, the public transport system in France is excellent (except today, when much of it is on strike!). And a car in Paris is a liability (cost - parking can add €300-400 to your monthly apartment rent, "different" driving standards to the UK and street parking can be a nightmare). I live close to the Bois de Boulogne and the River Seine so that gives excellent access to good birding.

However, it is the case that to see different birds, whether that's shorebirds or simply "rural" species, then a car is a decided advantage. So we hire as and when we take a trip.

I expect to be back in the UK (or possibly the US) in a couple of years and I suspect a car will be an early purchase. It certainly would be in the US where public transport - apart from airlines - is virtually absent from great swathes of the country and, outside centres of cities, a walker is as rare and perplexing as an Amur Falcon in Yorkshire.

David

 

[rezMole]

I had a serious stroke 3 months ago and therefore couldn't drive - even walking has been difficult! I'm on the mend now and am just starting to drive again, but during that time I've been doing a lot of local patch birding and have met quite a few people who do nothing else just because they don't drive. They all seem happy enough though. I have learned to appreciate that you don't have to shoot off to far flung places to enjoy this hobby. And i've saved myself loads of money not having to spend 20 quid or so on petrol everytime I go birding!

 

[James_Owen]

I don't have a car, fortunately the girlfriend does and she's easily exploited.

 

[DaveN]

I don't have a car, fortunately the girlfriend does and she's easily exploited.

Ditto!

 

[rezMole]

I don't have a car, fortunately the girlfriend does and she's easily exploited.

I don't own a spotting scope, fortunately the girlfriend does and she's easily exploited. But, she won't let me take it when she isn't with me - she says that I wouldn't let her take my camera and that it's the same thing. I don't see how it's relevant myself but...

 

[Enji]

Don't have a car, or a license (although I am getting one now, at 26), so I usually bike everywhere, or explore my local patch. It's a bit of a bother biking with the scope, but it works for me. I like being able to hear all the birds in springtime while I bike, there are plenty of birds I would have missed if I had taken the car.

Although, right now in the winter, it IS rather comfortable when I can go in the car with mom...

 

[aikidoka]

I don't have a car, fortunately the girlfriend does and she's easily exploited.

Ditto!

Ditto again (only in my case it's a boyfriend).

 

[matt green]

Count me in as another who doesn't own a car and have yet to pass my test, I did start to have lessons but only racked up 14 hours worth when the money ran out!!

Bit of a difficult choice deciding wether, or when to start up the lessons again..I guess it boils down to where a person lives and what the public transport is like. At present I only use public transport to get to the north Norfolk coast from south of Norwich..it takes time and money to get there but the route is pleasant enough and all part of the adventure!!

Other than that it's long walks and cycling that gets me to the birds, over the last 6 years I've bought maps of my local area and now know the sorrounding countryside within a ten mile radius in all directions like the back of my hand and found some great birds while exploring it!!

Matt

 

[Jos Stratford]

Almost live in my car, would go without food before ditching the thing. Mind you without a car, I would go without food - no way to work, no way to get home.

And life would be sooooo boring... look at poster #4 "I'd not allow my lifestyle to revolve around the internal combustion engine" Then the signature "..... birder who doesn't get out much these days " Na, off to the ol'petrol station for me.

 

[Birdingcraft]

I don't have a car but sure would like one. Here in Costa Rica, public transport can get you to a fair variety of places but not everywhere I would like to go and not always at the best times day. Most public transport is fairly uncomfortable with crowded conditions and a few bus routes are even dangerous due to robbery. Luckily those bus routes are off the birding circuit.
When I lived in the states I had a car most of the time. If you don't have one in most of the states, where private transportation is built into the infrastructure, you can miss out on a lot of good birding.