It seems like a very far away experience for me, now that I’ve been living in Portland for nearly 9 months (aka the sky has been Pantone Warm Grey since October), but before my current situation I was living in Los Angeles for grad school. And, as you might have picked up from the title of this post, I was living there without a car.

Just to be clear, yes, I lived in Los Angeles for two years without a car.

And I did so intentionally. Before I left the Midwest, I sold my beloved Volkswagen GTI, bought a bike, and moved to LA car-less. I did the math, not having a car in LA for two years would save me an estimated $10,000, and when you’re living on a shoe-string budget and trying to put yourself through graduate school, every little bit counts. And I’ve always been a big fan of public transportation and bikes, and since you can bike almost year-round in LA, I figured I would do just that. Besides, I told people – I wanted to prove that it could be done. I wanted to put the system to the test and see if my life was severely impacted by not having a car, in one of the most car-obsessed cities in America.

You might be wondering, how did I do? Well, would it surprise you to know that this blog-happy cyclist started a blog specifically about my experiences in LA while car-less? It’s called, ahem: “Living in Los Angeles Without A Car.” Original, no? I called it LILAWAC for short, because that’s the abbreviation, and because it sounds cute. Please feel free to have a look. Although I stopped posting well over a year ago (this little thing called a “graduate thesis” got in my way), it’s still up and public, and every once in a while I get an odd comment on there. I even got picked up by Curbed LA a couple of times, which was fun.

Sooo… If you are moving to LA, or just visiting, and you’d like to try and do it car-free and carefree (ha), here’s a crash course for you (ha ha, crash course):

* Bookmark your LA Metro Bus and Rail Trip Planner. Even after a year of living there, I’d occasionally find a quicker way to go from point A to point B using this widget. Check out my tips for riding the bus here.

* When possible, take the DASH buses. They are awesome and only cost 25 cents. Plus, they take pennies!

* Oh and don’t forget that Los Angeles isn’t the only city in the Southland… keep an eye out for Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus or the Culver City green buses, in case there are some gaps in your public transportation route.

* Trying to get from LAX Airport to anywhere in Los Angeles is daunting, but not impossible. That is what the LAX Flyaway is for.

* Car sharing, on the other hand, is nearly impossible in LA. At least, I found it troubling.

* If you’d rather go by two wheels instead of Metro, keep in mind these points:

1. Riding on the sidewalk is not only irritating, it is illegal.

2. Ride in the street when there’s not a bike lane, and when in doubt, take the car lane. Yes, LA drivers are crazy, and yes, it’s scary riding on the same road with them. But if you try to squish yourself in between a car lane and the parked cars on the side of the road, you put yourself at a much greater risk of getting sideswiped or doored … better to just be IN the lane. Very few drivers will straight out mow a cyclist down if you are in front of them. (At least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.)

3. Cycling in LA can be tricky, but it can also be awesome.

Now, another thing you should know is that although I may be the only one with a Blogspot LILAWAC, I’m certainly not the only one who ever lived in LA without a car. In part because of my blog, I was approached by a very nice woman named Diane who decided to put together an exhibit of all our experiences. She’s a photographer by trade so the exhibit was sort of a pictorial essay, a series of short testimonials by 100 people like me, all of whom went car-less for various reasons. One of my quotes even made it into the exhibit.

I hear the exhibit is still making its rounds about Los Angeles, and although I am not still making my rounds about LA, and yes, I do now have a car (although one can hardly call it a big expense), I still look back on LILAWAC with fondness. I wish I could bequeath my old blog to some other car-less buddies still in the Southland who wouldn’t mind sharing their experiences for the benefit of all Angelenos. In fact, if you’re interested in being the face of LILAWAC for the new decade, leave me a comment! Just remember, car-bound people need not apply.

This blog was provided by our friends at the Green Design Collective.

Do you live car-free in LA? Share your experiences below.

Care-Free In… is a regular column exploring life without a car in North America. If you have a story of living car-free in a city we have not yet covered, we’d love to hear from you. Email Elizabeth Sorrell at elizabeth@impactdash.com for more information.