Can we really live without our cars? Reporter Sam Lennon - a motorist since 1991 - took the challenge of giving up driving for one week, instead relying only on buses, trains and his own two legs.

But what did he learn during the exercise? And would he consider giving up his four wheels for good?

My blood pressure boiled over when I drove but the trains chilled me out.

This is what I found during my two-week experiment - one using my car, the other without.

There are many benefits of forgoing the car, from helping the environment to cutting down on costs.

But do the benefits outweigh the convenience of owning my own vehicle - which can get me from A to B whenever I need it?

Here's how I got on for the full two weeks.....

Week one: Monday to Wednesday

For my week on public transport, I commuted from home in Dover to the office at Ashford for three days by train.

In the following four days, when I was off work, I only used buses or walked.

I certainly couldn't fault the train journeys.

No more anger at slowcoaches holding you up by driving 10mph below the speed limit, no more tailgaters harassing you, no more seething frustration of grinding on in bottom gear in rush hour traffic.

Also there was no risk of being held up by a road accident.

This was the most stress-free travel you could have.

The 26-minute rail journeys between Dover Priory and Ashford International were smooth and surprisingly uncrowded for rush hour.

I was often able to get a table seat so I had the chance to start preparing for work as I travelled, checking emails, writing the first day's notes and reading relevant articles.

One woman in the opposite seat got out her laptop to start work - so this was a constructive way of travelling instead of the dead time in the car.

The trains were modern and clean, a far cry from the grubby, slam-door rolling stock I remember from my youth in the 70s and 80s.

The short walks to and from the station, at just over a quarter of an hour each, got me physically moving and the fresh air perked me up.

Stations like Dover and Ashford can get you directly to a higher proportion of destinations. For a start all have direct journeys to three London mainline stations - St Pancras International, Charing Cross and Victoria.

Ashford is on a key junction providing direct trains to main Kent centres such as Canterbury.

While it was liberating to leave the car for the train I found the journeys also liberated my pockets.

The day return to Ashford, during peak times, was £14.20, adding up to £71 for a five-day working week.

Admittedly the price would have been lowered with season tickets. It works out as £11.48 a day with a weekly one (£57.40 for a full week) or £10.18 a day with a monthly one (£220.50 for a full month).

Week one: Thursday

I grew up in London in a family with no car, so relying on buses for a couple of days was no culture shock.

In the capital, public transport has always been reasonably cheap and flows like water. But how does Kent stack up when it comes to buses?

The first journey was from home in Dover to Tesco in Whitfield for food shopping.

I had to wait until the early evening until the rain stopped as it was a 21-minute walk to the town centre stop at Priory Street.

Such are the restrictions on your movements without a car and that week it rained on five out of the seven days.

I additionally had to give up a trip to the recycling centre as moving heavy and bulky loads without a car was impossible. It is the beast of burden.

It also meant more frequent shopping trips, because I could only walk long distances with lighter bagfuls.

Overall my movements were limited, making places without good bus and train routes - and which were too far to walk - no-go zones.

The first bus I caught was the small, nippy no 61, which got me to Tesco in 18 minutes, taking me right next to the store.

It had even been waiting for me at Priory Street. Cash is still accepted though there is also option of paying by mobile phone app.

This journey was a major test as buses are needed more and more for Whitfield, which doesn't have a railway station.

Dover District Leisure Centre was recently moved to the village, which is set for a huge expansion - with up to 6,350 new homes planned over the next few decades.

It is hoped transport issues will be eased by the new rapid bus service, Dover Fastrack, which is expected to start in late 2023, taking passengers directly between Whitfield and Dover town centre and Dover Priory.

Week one: Friday

The journey from Dover to Folkestone to pick up dry cleaning was the only bad experience.

The 102 arrived at the Pencester Road terminus 22 minutes after the advertised time on the bus stop timetable, to the extend that when it arrived there was a queue of about 20 people.

With the bus almost completely full, weighed down by passengers, it moved like a snail, getting to the Folkestone bus station in Middelburg Square in 50 minutes.

However it took me into the heart of the town centre and I had been saved the hassle of finding a place to park and the worry about getting back to the car before my ticket expired and I got fined.

The journey back was quicker and the wait far shorter.

Week one: Saturday

A train strike for that day had been cancelled but rail services remained disrupted so to get to Canterbury, for early Christmas shopping, the only solution was to take the no 15 bus from Dover.

It was a straightforward run via Lydden and Temple Ewell but through the entire journey I had to listen to some space cadet sitting behind me babbling on his mobile phone.

You never endure that in the bubble of your own car.

Week one: Sunday

The last day of the no-car experiment involved a walk from my home to Marks and Spencer, waiting for a break in the rain, and being caught in another heavy downpour walking back.

The plan that day had been to catch a bus to visit friends at the Burgoyne Heights estate but there is no Sunday service.

But even from Monday to Saturday there are only eight buses a day going in one direction and nine going the other, some two hours apart.

The last one at the Lucknow Close stop - which Stagecoach erroneously calls Lucklow Close - going from Dover to Deal, is at 5.44pm.

Burgoyne Heights is a small, isolated estate that is half an hour's walk from Dover town centre, up a steep hill.

Many in communities like this are helpless without a car.

It's only getting worse, with bus services across Kent being changed or been cancelled, particularly because of driver shortages.

Elderly people fear they are being cut off, while elsewhere pupils are struggling to get to school.

Stagecoach says it "will always be ready to work with the county council to help bring buses to where they are needed", but would only be able to do so "where support funding is provided".

My bus journeys were otherwise easy and straightforward, possibly because they tended to be to town centres with more frequent and regular services.

Week two: Monday

When I got back in the car I enjoyed being back in a warm, dry cocoon - but I was soon reminded of things I didn't miss.

Driving first thing from Dover to inquests at Maidstone there was the frustrating speed limit of 50mph for Operation Brock between Junctions 8 and 9.

Then the torturing snail's pace of rush hour traffic in Maidstone town centre.

The drive of just 42.6 miles took an hour and 25 minutes: that's an average of 30mph, nearly all on motorway.

It reminded me of lyrics by the band The Police in the '80s: "Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes, contestants in a suicidal race (Synchronicity II)."

Yet a train journey from Dover Priory to Maidstone East doesn't take much longer: an hour and 34 minutes including a 40-minute gap to wait for a change of train at Ashford.

But the cost for such a return journey would be £22 according to the website trainline.com.

"There is no substitute for the door-to-door convenience of a car..."

Apart from the petrol, the cost to get to Maidstone was only £7 for all-day parking at the Lockmeadow leisure complex.

Yet that Monday, after inquests, I was directed by my newsdesk to go straight from Maidstone to Sandwich to follow up on a story there.

The AA Route Planner estimates that journey, via the M2, at one hour, five minutes.

By train, with a change at Ashford, it's a clunking one hour, 40 minutes even outside the rush hour.

There is no substitute for the door-to-door convenience of a car, the instant transport and access to the remotest places.

In 1990, a year before I passed my driving test, I was assigned to cover the rural Romney Marsh and the only solution was to buy a moped.

Until then I chanced my arm with buses, trains, walking and cadging lifts from photographers.

But as a reporter, you can be sent anywhere on your patch at a moment's notice, so you are far better off with your own wheels.

Week two: Tuesday

Again, I experienced the drag of driving from Dover to Maidstone for inquests.

Week two: Wednesday

One simple, short drive through Dover to the Poulton Close industrial estate for an assignment.

Week two: Thursday

Same stress, different roads.

To the office in Ashford from home in the rush hour hell.

"On the train my blood pressure wasn't hitting the roof..."

It was 55 minutes door-to-door while the train had been 75.

But then on the train my blood pressure wasn't hitting the roof.

Week two: Friday

I was working from home only had one simple journey, to take a photograph at St James' Retail and Leisure Park.

Week two: Saturday

I enjoyed a straightforward drive to Folkestone for shopping.

Week two: Sunday

Easy car journey to Tesco in Whitfield and then Burgoyne Heights.

So what do I think?

We've been urged to ditch our cars for decades.

There was even an advert back in 1979 - starring actress Hattie Jacques, who was born in Sandgate near Folkestone, and racing driver Jackie Stewart - with the slogan: "Think again, take a train."

But could I give up my motor?

The bill at the end of the experiment was a total £67.20 for public transport in the first week and £74.67 for petrol and parking in the second, after covering 283 miles.

And for a driver, the cost can be immense just for keeping your car parked outside your home, even for an older, small model.

For example, running a 2017 Seat Ibiza could set you back £2,630 for a year. That's £1,956 for finance, £300 insurance, £165 road tax and £209 for full service and MOT - not even starting at petrol, which is at an all-time high.

More and more seems to be working against motorists - such as rising council car parking charges and more restrictions of where to park because of resident permits.

Last month, Canterbury City Council announced plans to split the city into five zones with motorists banned from driving directly between them.

Authorities across the country are taking some form of action to deal with traffic jams, and, of course, climate change. But it tends to put drivers at some form of disadvantage.

From this exercise I found that east Kent has a workable form of public transport - but only if you are within reach of a railway station or on a good bus route.

True, driving is polluting, stressful and potentially dangerous and a lot of car journeys are unnecessary.

How many times have you walked past a traffic queue and seen most cars occupied by one person looking young and fit enough to run a mile?

Your suspicion is that some may be on a drive that could take a half-hour walk. Such is our continuing love affair with the car that we've all driven unnecessarily at some time.

But you can't have a one size fits all policy on transport. People often need their cars for work appointments. Tradespeople need their vans to carry their equipment.

People with limited mobility, and not quite at the threshold of being a blue badge holder, need them because they can't walk far.

Maybe we could all begin to solve the problem of choosing, when possible, when to drive and when not to.