Taking the Plunge into Car-free Living
Back in 2012, after returning home from two months on the bike, I began thinking about living a car-free life. After all, I'd just spend 60 days without a car. I'd ridden a bike up mountains. I'd ridden a bike during downpours. I'd ridden a bike for hours under a sun pulling every ounce of moisture out of my body. Surely I could continue riding my bike for wherever I wanted to go once I settled back into life as usual, right?
Nope.
In fact, in July 2015, I bought myself my first ever new car. Well, it was used at a year old, but to me it was basically a new car. It only had 14,000 miles on it. The interior and exterior were pristine. It was mine and mine alone. No one else would be driving it.
The first year I put around 5000 miles on the car.
The second year I put another 5000 miles on it.
Last year to now, since I began letting Funny Delightful Son drive it to work and wherever else he wanted to go, another 9000 miles have been put on the car.
Even at the current 33,000 miles, the car is far below the national average in how much mileage it has covered during its lifetime. And right up until last week, it was still in pristine condition. Was.
Funny Delightful Son stopped by one morning during our move to take the screen door to work with him. Right after the screen door was installed -- a brand new, beautiful screen door -- Ado ran smack into it when I opened the sliding glass door. He did this at least three more times before realizing he had to wait until the screen door, too, was open before he could actually go out onto the deck. Well, those at least four times of smacking into the screen tore it away from where it is pressed into the channel along the door's edge. I wanted to get the screen fixed since we were moving out.
So FDS stopped by to put the screen door in the back of the Jeep. He was going to take it to work where he could fix it. When he began sliding the door into the Jeep, it angled up, an edge of the door digging into the headliner and tearing it. A moment of shocked stillness swirled around him. I could see his body pull into itself like a balloon deflating. He looked at me, the disappointment in himself clear in his blue eyes.
"It's just a car," I said.
"Yeah, but . . .." He looked back at the tear.
"I'm sure we'll find a way to fix it."
Two hours later I received a text from FDS, telling me one way of fixing the liner. I knew he'd been spending time researching for what to do while he was supposed to be working.
I truly don't care that the car is no longer pristine.
I don't care because the car is no longer mine. It now belongs to FDS.
We'd been talking for months about me selling him my car. I don't need it. He does. So we worked out a deal. He gets a good car that will last many years (as long as he takes care of it, which I know he will), and I get the opportunity to see if I really can make a go of a life with no car.
I have a lot of naysayers. Their comments reinforce the typical mindset of having a car: "what about grocery shopping? what about bad weather? what about going out to eat, seeing a movie? "
The few things I find myself wondering how I'm going to handle are:
Despite these unknowns, I'm going to try living car-free. My goal is to go for a year without. When I think about not having a car payment, not having to pay for gas, not having to pay for insurance, and not having other costs connected to having a car I get positively giddy. I looked up the yearly cost of owning a car: $9000. Yep, that's a lot of money not going out of my pocket any longer.
Because now I am car-free.
Nope.
In fact, in July 2015, I bought myself my first ever new car. Well, it was used at a year old, but to me it was basically a new car. It only had 14,000 miles on it. The interior and exterior were pristine. It was mine and mine alone. No one else would be driving it.
The first year I put around 5000 miles on the car.
The second year I put another 5000 miles on it.
Last year to now, since I began letting Funny Delightful Son drive it to work and wherever else he wanted to go, another 9000 miles have been put on the car.
Even at the current 33,000 miles, the car is far below the national average in how much mileage it has covered during its lifetime. And right up until last week, it was still in pristine condition. Was.
Funny Delightful Son stopped by one morning during our move to take the screen door to work with him. Right after the screen door was installed -- a brand new, beautiful screen door -- Ado ran smack into it when I opened the sliding glass door. He did this at least three more times before realizing he had to wait until the screen door, too, was open before he could actually go out onto the deck. Well, those at least four times of smacking into the screen tore it away from where it is pressed into the channel along the door's edge. I wanted to get the screen fixed since we were moving out.
So FDS stopped by to put the screen door in the back of the Jeep. He was going to take it to work where he could fix it. When he began sliding the door into the Jeep, it angled up, an edge of the door digging into the headliner and tearing it. A moment of shocked stillness swirled around him. I could see his body pull into itself like a balloon deflating. He looked at me, the disappointment in himself clear in his blue eyes.
"It's just a car," I said.
"Yeah, but . . .." He looked back at the tear.
"I'm sure we'll find a way to fix it."
Two hours later I received a text from FDS, telling me one way of fixing the liner. I knew he'd been spending time researching for what to do while he was supposed to be working.
I truly don't care that the car is no longer pristine.
I don't care because the car is no longer mine. It now belongs to FDS.
We'd been talking for months about me selling him my car. I don't need it. He does. So we worked out a deal. He gets a good car that will last many years (as long as he takes care of it, which I know he will), and I get the opportunity to see if I really can make a go of a life with no car.
I have a lot of naysayers. Their comments reinforce the typical mindset of having a car: "what about grocery shopping? what about bad weather? what about going out to eat, seeing a movie? "
The few things I find myself wondering how I'm going to handle are:
- going somewhere during rainy days
- going somewhere during freezing winter days
- going somewhere at night.
Despite these unknowns, I'm going to try living car-free. My goal is to go for a year without. When I think about not having a car payment, not having to pay for gas, not having to pay for insurance, and not having other costs connected to having a car I get positively giddy. I looked up the yearly cost of owning a car: $9000. Yep, that's a lot of money not going out of my pocket any longer.
Because now I am car-free.
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