Nineteen days into the month and I’ve only used the car three times, and those times were for trips to and from work. Late hours and Sundays, when limited COTA schedules are the culprit. I’ve put a total of $30 in gas in the tank this month, and I’ve still got just over a half-tank left.
Not much of my daily routine has changed. Going to the grocery or out for dinner and drinks, when choosing establishments in the area offers a chance to walk or take the bus. A jaunt to Nordstrom was squeezed in during lunch, rather than making a special trip. Dinner at a friend’s house was accomplished, though I let my host know that I’d have to leave at an exact time in order to catch the last bus home. I’ve entertained an out of town guest, and had a few friends over for martinis. I did have to pass on a Sunday invitation in Upper Arlington because the #3 does not operate on Sundays.
I have more time for reading now. Almost two hours per day on the bus are now reserved as “me time”. A quick nap, podcasts or a few chapters make the time fly by. I’ve run into a couple neighbors that I only ever see on the bus.
Much of the week’s news has centered around the looming recession and the average $1,460 in annual costs that each American is assuming as rising oil costs cause virtually everything to rise in price. Another report about how bottled water’s packaging uses enough petroleum to power 100,000 cars for an entire year. (Chicago imposed a tax on bottled water this month to fund it’s water infrastructure and landfills).
Inextricably, these, and other reports about dollars being snatched from American wallets are tied to our thirst for oil. Ultimately, its really not about oil consumption. The challenge lies in our attitudes. I witness friends and colleagues making decisions to move to far-flung suburbs to get a better deal on housing costs, only to be unable to escape using their car for all of life’s necessities.
There’s those with children who blindly put their house up for sale in order move to the suburbs, claiming those school districts are better. And perhaps they are. The time and energy (literally) put into their new automobile driving culture could easily be spent working with their city school to improve it. Discussions about “getting involved” in their school often leads to the “there’s no time” answer. And perhaps that’s true too. They’re too busy driving to the grocery or stuck in traffic to do so.
There’s yet another group who wouldn’t dream of being “inconvenienced” by having to use public transit, even for a day or two a week, despite the fact that it could easily be accomplished with just a slight bit of planning.
The fact is that the challenges facing every one of us also have the potential to be curbed by every one of us. Food prices are rising because farmers compete for fuel to produce them. Heating our homes costs more because refineries are busy making gasoline for our cars. Construction costs rise because it takes fuel to create the products. The dollar is losing value because the Federal Reserve printing presses continue to print to fund military procurement of oil.
My choice to make a change in fuel consumption has been relatively easy and painless because of where I live. That too, however, was a choice. Reducing the miles driven by over 75% isn’t something that everyone can easily accomplish. And certainly not overnight or for a fun monthly challenge. However, a vast majority of folks I know could reduce their driving by 10-20% a month. Their thought process inhibits their choices and thus, helps perpetuate these challenges.
The part about kids and schools is spot on. I work at CAS and have hardly any coworkers who live close (I’m about 5 minutes away).
The real challenge is how to reach out and convince these people it’s much more convenient to live closer to work and that the schools are pretty much what the parents make of them. Tough problem.
Jeff, I have a similar story. I’ve been walking and taking the bus for about a year and a half, for various reasons. I, like you, hate driving – at least the city driving type: stop and go on Sawmill, waiting for red lights at empty intersections, etc. I’ve always been game to walk (especially away from home, as I’ve walked Manhattan, Chicago, Berlin, Dresden, Brussels, Seattle and so on) but now I make a serious business of it, even in my own city. I recently had the oil changed in both my cars, and the total mileage accumulated in over a year was less than 3000 miles between the two of them – and most of those miles would have been inter-city travel that I could easily enumerate if I pored over my receipts.
I started walking in earnest after the doctor tried to put me on Old Man statin pills for supposedly high cholesterol. I’m not one for voo-doo medicine: you know, the current fad of removing your breasts if you have the BRAC gene, removing your prostate if you have a high PSA count, or consigning your life to arthritic like pain and sleeplessness due to statins if you have a “high” LDL count. Frankly, I don’t think voo-doo numbers and the other mumbo-jumbo that passes for medical “science” really means anything, but I did want the doctor to shut up. So, besides loading up on (expensive) fruit and cutting out all sugar and high fructose corn syrup (made the easier for not having drunk soft drinks in decades), I pretty much gave up the car (the TV had been given up years ago).
I say “gave up the car” because that sounds better than “started a walking regimen.” The latter sounds like “exercise,” which I adamantly refuse to do: pointless motion, watching your life evaporate in-place on a treadmill watching CNN. That sounds so sad and lonely.
All my walking is to go to a place – to work, the grocery store, post office, bank, coffee shop, library, the movies, Target, etc. Long perambulations are broken up with visits to bars along the way (I do drink a heck of lot more since eliminating the car for most trips). I don’t walk just to walk, but rather, to avoid using the car. Having said that, I’m not stupid, and will never refuse a free ride or the bus if it conveniently fits my schedule. I live right outside one bus stop for the #3, and within a mile of the #5; I now know most of the bus schedules and can get most anywhere within 270 with a little planning. Some of my adventures have been noted on the Dispatch’ Cranky Commuter blog at http://blog.dispatch.com/commuter/ . By the way, after a couple of months of walking, my cholesterol numbers were “normal” and now I don’t have to listen to any nagging.
I’m only telling you this, so don’t repeat it. I usually don’t admit the reason I gave up the car is due to wanting to stave off “Old Man” syndrome. I had nightmares picturing myself in a wife-beater with my cane on the threadbare couch in front of the TV, picking out my twenty pills, trying to read the bottle labels with a magnifying glass because my eyes have gone bad due to the diabetes. Instead, I usually tell people that I went “green” or am protesting the war in Iraq and our oil addition. Sounds a hell of lot sexier and more youthful.
What do you think about car-share programs like ZipCar? I take the bus as often as I can, but sometimes it’s difficult to, say, haul six bags of groceries onto the bus and then from the bus stop to the house. In that case a car would be handier.
Could you go to a grocery every couple of days and just have less to take home?
I think this challenge is great. I used the bus all of the time when I first came to OSU. I took a chair home on the bus once and got some stares.
Do you run in to any problems with having your car parked on the street longer than 3 days?
For me, the grocery is within walking distance, but I do see folks packing groceries home all the time.
No problems with leaving my car, as I have off-street parking.