For the first time in my driving age life I don’t own or have easy access to a car. Yesterday, I sold my 2003 Hyundai Elantra with 80,000 miles on it. Elantras are apparently in demand, perhaps because word has gotten out they are inexpensive but reliable. Mine served me well. If you have one and have contemplated selling it, this may be the time. Even while living in Japan- the epitome of convenient and efficient train transportation – for two years after college, I was far enough out in the country in a town with no train station that a car was necessary. Let me be clear up front: I did not sell my car for environmental reasons. This is not some attempt to show how green I am, for I never claimed such. While I do what I think is reasonable to conserve energy and help the environment, I am not a radical or even ardent environmentalist and getting rid of my car is not a “get back to nature” move. Plus, someone else will now be using that same vehicle, so it’s not like its taking a car off the road even though it may keep a new car from getting on the road. It is nice, however, to know that I won’t be buying gasoline that is expensive and refined from oil that is increasingly foreign and fraught with political, security, and environmental instability. And yes, I think we should move quickly toward sustainable growth, a part of which is driving less, upgrading to more efficient vehicles, and using mass transit when and where feasible.
I’ll use this experiment in “carlessness” to refine my behavior, cut costs, and hopefully contribute to a healthier planet even though environmental concern was not the main reason for ditching the car. Just as we take out insurance policies on our houses, we should insure that our one collective house- the earth- will not catch fire, be flooded, or otherwise be destroyed; all for the simple reason that right now, we’ve got nowhere else to go. We don’t fully understand how our home is being affected by nearly 7 billion people living on it. One of the main points of this website is to promote technology, business, and behavioral change as the main drivers of the sustainability movement. This is the only realistic combination of forces that will bring the second green revolution to fruition. But enough pontificating. Back to selling my car.
The motives for selling the car we’re largely financial. I wanted to save more money and the only way I could do that was to increase my income or decrease my expenses. Increasing income isn’t so immediate or so easy a proposition. So I went for decreasing expenses. And boy was owning a car ever an (often necessary) expense. I tallied up all the receipts since I bought my car 6 years ago. This included two new sets of tires, numerous oil changes, as well as scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. All told, I spent over $5,000 on my car over 6 years for maintenance. This total doesn’t even include gas, parking permits, car washes, and several speeding tickets and parking violations along the way. Nor does that include $100 per month minimum for insurance.
I’m lucky to live in Washington D.C. where the bus and train are convenient and fairly reliable. There are only a few cities in America where you can get by without a car. New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, D.C., Portland, and Minneapolis come to mind. But even in most of these cities, if you go anywhere outside the city limits transportation becomes awfully difficult without a car. Forget trying to live in the suburbs without one.
The experiment is now upon me. While I didn’t use the car much if at all during the week, I often took it around the city or to places outside the city on the weekends. It will be interesting to see how I respond to this change. I know I’ll miss the ease and freedom that comes with owning a car. I took my first cross country road trip the summer after graduating high school. I’ve made 6 trips across or nearly across the country and back and love driving. A car is most definitely freedom but selling a car, canceling the insurance, and getting rid of one “responsibility” and possession to worry over is also interestingly liberating. Plus, now I can mooch off of all the friends that always used to pester me for rides. Anyway, here goes nothing. In a few months I’ll write a post letting you know how life without a car is turning out.
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What a huge commitment! Kudos. I’ll be interested to read how that works out for you. Cheers!
Thanks, Derek. It’s a big change, that’s for sure. But so far so good. Definitely easier on the wallet. I’ll write about being “carless” again after a few months to see what I’m thinking then.
Here’s wishing you tailwinds, Justin. I quit driving in June, and haven’t looked back. You can do it!
That’s good to hear, Chris. It’s encouraging to see you’ve had success!
I did the same thing and for the same reasons, largely financial, but also thinking in the vein of the great experiment…not quite two years later, I feel smug in being a person w/o a car and still managing but also thinking about the Toyota Prius I’m soon gonna get.
I happen to live in a city where you can’t be w/o a car because the public transportation isn’t good, St. Louis. I have lived in both New York and Chicago with and without cars in my life and know how to get by w/o one, but this is the first time I’ve lived in a place w/o a car that is trying to improve their public transportation and not quite cutting it. And this is exactly why it’s so difficult to get cars off the road. We didn’t build our infrastructure largely w/o cars in mind with the exception of the cities that you have mentioned.
One alternative is the WeCar and in some cities it’s the ZipCar. I use it and have found it invaluable and how I’ve also come to know the Prius. Several are parked around the downtown St. Louis area in very convenient spots. I can go online and schedule a time I want to pick up the one that is most convenient and available to me for $10/hr. That includes gas and insurance. If I keep it for a 24 hour period I only pay $60.00. It’s a deal.
However, I have a daughter whose car I will borrow for other things. Bottom line as far as I am concerned? Yes, you can live w/o a car with even deficient public transportation today with such amenities as the WeCar but not for very long. I say I’ll have another car by next year.
At least it will be one of the hybrids. And my 2.5 years of no car? Well I can write about it, say I’ve done it. I can also attend town hall meetings and tell them how to improve their public transportation so more people will use it; I can go on my own blog and tell the world why people won’t be giving up their cars anytime soon….not unless the rest of the world wakes up and joins in on the experiment and DEMANDS public transportation become better.
Other alternatives are the high speed trains Obama has talked about. Now that I’ve spent the time I have sans car and taking the train up to Chicago instead of driving this plan makes great sense and many would use it. I do see this a being part of the future we must learn to create. As well, I see urban centers becoming hotbeds of activity again especially if there is public transportation that can support mobility.
Meantime, good luck. Washington D.C. is not such a bad place to go carless. Many options….
Kim- Two years later, huh? More power to you, especially in St. Louis where it can be awfully tough sometimes to get around without a car. I also like the Prius and when I do get a new car, it will definitely be a hybrid- hopefully a plug-in version if I have a house or place to plug-in by then. These next couple of years should see an explosion in electric car offerings (hybrid, plug-in, and all-electric ) and I hope they catch on.
You make some good points in your comment. I hadn’t heard about WeCar but we have a fairly plentiful selection of ZipCar spots, including one just down the street from me which I’ll try out sometime. ZipCar also includes gas and insurance but there’s a yearly fee of $50 when you do their occasional driving plan. We’ll see. Like you said, D.C. is pretty convenient to get around without a car (even less of a hassle sometimes considering traffic, parking, etc.).
Justin, I would encourage the yearly fee. WeCar has it too although I think they reduced it to $30.00. Nonetheless it’s well worth the price. It’s the only way I’ve been able to manage being w/o a car. The first time I used it and then parked it and walked away, it was the strangest feeling. I didn’t have to worry about it. Wasn’t mine…I did what I was supposed to do. It’s a different way to live and yet I highly recommend it to anyone living in a downtown metro area. I’ve also used it for 24 hours and as long as I don’t go over 200 miles it’s only $60.00. Now that I no longer have car insurance, it’s the best thing available.
New day, new way. But, I long for the new auto, plug-in, hybrid, whatever saves the most fuel. Now I’m an evangelist for high speed trains to help get more cars off the road.
Hi, I work with Geez, a non-profit magazine, and I’m really interested in your “carless” experiment. Would you be interested in writing a short piece (50-500 words) on what you are doing, why you are doing it and what you are learning from it?
I am the section editor of the experiments section and am always on the hunt for people who are trying new things and making an effort to live sustainably, wisely, or just differently.
You can check out our mag at geezmagazine.org.
Please email me at editor@geezmagazine.org if this is something you would like to do.