Ride Jones

Dodge Caliber SXT 5-door

Originally, I was going to just blog about how, now that I have a car - similar to the Dodge Caliber SXT that you see above - after over five years without, I feel incredibly free. (Prior to this car-free period, I had access to a car for most of my life since become a legal driver.) But Alison at Drawing Out the Color, wrote a post about living car-free, pointing out the good and the bad that she’s experienced. I’ve taken her six points and rephrased them to suit my list, then added my own. So I suggest you read her article first. My general premise is that while there are many cars to lust after, you can go for affordable and functional and not feel guilty.

1. Biking is not always a healthy way to commute. In the small city I currently live in, cycling is extremely dangerous. It’s considered one of the more dangerous places in N. America because working commuters returning from Toronto traffic jams everyday don’t shift mental gears and still drive aggressively upon entering city limits. I’ve even seen police officers in their cruisers cut off children at crosswalks, and other drivers intentionally splash pedestrians. Sometimes, biking or being a pedestrian is not healthy.

2. Getting groceries can be a problem. You can say that again. For me, I either accept a ride with a family member once a week or I have to walk to a grocery store and return by bus. But transit in this city stinks and it’s actually faster to walk, provided you’re not weighed down by a lot of groceries. Except since it’s a university town with a special “ride free” pass to all students (as of a few years back), don’t expect anyone to give up their seat.

You’re then limited as to how many bags of groceries you should safely buy, since you might have to stand. A backpack sometimes helps, but you’d need a hardshell case, which annoys other riders. Now that’s just groceries. I’m lucky to have had close access to laundry facilities in that time.

3. Options: zipcar. Zipcar is one option if it’s available, but not here that I’m aware of. However, there are car sharing programs, though they require a $300-600 deposit, which I didn’t have available until more recently.

4. Options: Internet-sourced deliveries. There are a limited number of options here for ordering groceries on the Internet to be delivered. But the cost is actually prohibitive - at least for the options I have. Because of my limitations, I fell into this cycle of ordering regular delivery 2-3 times a week and not only overspent but gained significant weight. (I suffer from a thyroid problem that causes my weight to fluctuate, and when it’s up, it triggers diabetic symptoms.)

5. Options: campus transport. This doesn’t apply to me. When I returned to college as an alumni auditing student in 2005, I was allowed to buy a city bus pass that let me ride free. Though once I finished, I was not eligible.

6. Being car-free is character building. Maybe. I know people with cars that have great character as well - though there really are a lot more assh*les driving these days than five years ago. And it’s not just oblivious soccer moms but all the drivers who can’t pay attention to the traffic because they’re on their cell phones. You know, the ones who’ll suddenly inject themselves into your path, even though you have the right of way?

On the flipside, I remember the bicycle couriers in Toronto in the mid-90s. They’re just as prone to road rage as the driver who hurled racial epithets at me in Italian and threatened me and my car with a tire iron. Why? Because I refused to run over pedestrians crossing at the traffic light-less intersection.

But in general, I’d have to say that the people I’ve met that cycle regularly or solely tend to be of calmer demeanor than pretty much every driver I’ve ever met or interacted with. That includes the cyclists that carry rolls of pennies to defend themselves from those American (and possibly Canadian) truckers who think all guys who cycle are gay. (I had a friend whose brother used to cycle competitively, but when he was on the road practicing, he swears that American truck drivers often tried to run him over.)

7. Car owners have more choice in career. While I love walking in big cities, it’s not a pleasant prospect in small cities with crappy transit systems. What’s more, your career choices are severely limited without a car. That’s not as true in a big city - especially one with a reasonable transit system.

8. Car owners earn more. Most of my early career in Toronto was spent without a car. However, my last working years there required me to be mobile - especially when I was a contract consultant. I would have earned far less without a car.

9. Having a car is really expensive. I know this is obvious, but I want to emphasize it. My final two years as a computer consultant were my most expensive because of the amount of driving. I also had jumped from one expensive Subaru to another, with no money down on either.

Add in the Hwy 407 toll road north of Toronto - which I had to take to get to one contract in a reasonable time each day - and my minimum monthly cost for transportation was about Cdn$1400. The toll rates on the 407 are criminal, but my options were nil, thanks to the insane traffic jams in Toronto. (Which really are worse than the ones in Atlanta. I’ve worked and driven in both cities.)

Now, I’m not even adding the cost of my meals, I had to drive so far that taking my lunch with me wasn’t a good idea - especially with no fridge available. And when I worked late, I had to eat nearby. Everything in Markham (north of Toronto) was expensive.

Since last having a car, both gasoline and insurance costs have increased immensely. I just don’t know how some people are coping.

10. Having a car is a necessity to some. Shortly after getting my first car in five years just less than two weeks ago, my personality seemed to transform. My brother made the interesting comment that I’ve tied up my identity in being mobile. (It’s true. I called myself “The Wanderer” as far back as my first year in college.) I feel like a bird without wings if I don’t have a car. And despite spending over five years trying to be green and live without a car, in some cities it’s nearly impossible for a young person to have a healthy life without one.

After 9/11, I went through a serious downturn in my career that was so bad I couldn’t afford to eat sometimes, let alone renew my driver’s license and insurance, or afford car payments and gas. But now, even though I work at home, my latest job requires that I have a car or that I move to a city where I can easily get to a movie theatre with minimum commuting.

My planned move to Toronto, Canada, has been running into snags, though I’ll have to move before the Toronto Film Festival, which starts Sep 1st, if I’m not mistaken. But I now earn less than half what I did when I lasted worked in Toronto.

So I still have to figure out how I’m going to make this move work financially, and still save to get into film school in January 2009. In the meantime, I’m enjoying having a car again, visiting friends I haven’t seen in 3-4 years, being able to get the groceries from where and when I want (instead of ordering delivery), actually being able to get to a movie theater in less than 45-60 minutes, and being free.

As The Who once sang, I’m going mobile, and I’ll stay this way until the day I retire in some Spanish villa.