Si, se puede

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES. Kent Peterson, 47, waits for a green light at an intersection in Issaquah. He commutes 35 miles round trip on his bike from his Issaquah home to his job in Seattle. "It's really the clearest part of my day," he says of his time on the road. "It's a nice block of uninterrupted time."

The Seattle Times reports on a suburban Seattle family that doesn't own a car. Kent Peterson, bicyles to work, a distance of 17.5 miles. The family walks, bicycles, and uses transit. See "A family of 4 — but no car."

Top questions people ask the Petersons

1. How do you get ice cream? "From the store." The family has used foldable shopping carts, backpacks and bike baskets to carry the groceries.
2. What if you want to go on vacation? "We take the train or the bus. We take the shuttle to get to the airport."
3. What if there's a real emergency? "Call 911."
4. What happens if you buy something big? "We get it delivered." Kent Peterson used his bike once to bring home a new 13-inch TV from Target in Issaquah. He rested the TV on the bike bar and, using it as a dolly, walked it home the one-mile distance.
5. What if it rains? "I take an umbrella," Christine Peterson said. "I wear flats, generally. I won't do cute little heels. I will never be on anyone's best-dressed list." Kent Peterson wears a bright-yellow rain jacket and dry-fit bike pants. At his previous job, he used to keep a week's worth of anti-wrinkle clothes at the office and change there.
6. How do you plan to go to the movies? "Christine has a lot of the bus stuff in her head, but sometimes we use the schedules of Metro's online trip planner," Kent Peterson said.
7. Have you saved a lot of money? The Petersons say their lifestyle afforded Christine the opportunity to stay home and raise their children. They say they have never calculated all the money they would have spent paying for two cars since 1987.
8. Is there some deep philosophy behind this? "No. We just don't like driving."

Index Keywords: bicycle; car-culture