My car ownership to end in December

I talked to my son this week and the current, tentative plan is for he and his Dad to drive to Cincy right before Christmas to visit and to pick up the car. So, I will be really carless in January as my car will be gone and my parents will drive themselves to Florida for the month! I expect that will be the next big transition time for me.
At the moment, I've gotten used to having my car just sit in front of my house. I did use it once this month. Last Friday, I drove old tires to the county transportation center so that they could be recycled. I acquired them when I moved into my house in April and discovered them stashed behind some bushes. I've been waiting for some recycling event to get rid of them and didn't want to put them into my parent's trunk which has stuff stored in it and the tires smelled rank. I ended up stopping 2 other places on route- mostly just because I was going by- once to get a chocolate milkshake and once to buy beer (too heavy to carry home on the bus from the grocery store). This week I will go to the grocery store with Dad in their car later in the week. Also, the folks from our local farmer's market have found a place to have an indoor market through the winter so I will go to that on Wednesday. I had great bread from a vendor there last week! I will walk there, about a mile there and then a mile back. Later Wednesday, I will walk to a meeting a mile in the other direction from me though I'm sure I can get a ride home. It's the fact that I do so much walking to get places that I've slacked off on going out and walking just to exercise!

Second month evaluation

I have been doing well on being carless for the last 2 weeks. My car has been sitting, motionless, in front of my house for that long now. I haven't missed it though there was one day last week when it poured rain and it turned out that was the day that TANK/NKU temporarily moved the bus stop...! I was soaked through my underwear by the time I got home.
I think about driving places occasionally though I've worked out all my normal, regularly scheduled trips so I don't need one. I think about driving for odd things; e.g.,my county has a take junk day next weekend and they'll take tires, of which I have 2 old ones left by the prior owners. As my main reason for not owning/driving a car is environmental, but, recycling things responsibly is also sound environmentally I may use my car to take tires to be recycled. I hate to put them in my parent's car as the tires are so filthy and Dad has things in his trunk.
The other reason I thought about using a car was to socialize with someone from across the river in Cincinnati and once to go to a lecture in Cincy. I'm not crazy about the idea of taking multiple buses, especially for routes I don't know, at night. I'm still considering how to deal with these kinds of situations- rent, borrow, taxi?
I have become much more local in my orientation and am developing communities of people in town (Fort Thomas) and at work. I'm also having a bit of trouble keeping weight on as I walk so much more. I have to adjust up the amount I'm eating (without eating so much I start to gain weight)!
I am working on a syllabus for a new course, Auto Economics, short for "The Economics of the American Love Affair with the Automobile". I will post it when it's done and approved. There's a lot of applied microeconomics and environmental economics in what I'm doing. It's amazing how many institutions and industries are related to auto use. As I've discussed the idea with people everyone has new ideas for me to add- very interesting and I hope I get to teach the course!

Shopping by Bus

Today, for the first time, I went to my local shopping center by bus. It involved a different bus than I take to work, but, it was just as easy. I have to say that TANK (Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky) seems to run buses on time, they're clean, and the drivers are friendly. And, for me, with my trusty NKU ID, it's free. Even if it weren't, I'd get a bus pass for a month on-line because that is easier than having $1.50 in change each time you get on a bus. I went clothes shopping at Village Discount Thrift, a great second-hand store, purchasing a coat, jacket and 4 sweaters for $28. I checked out several other stores, ate a cheap lunch (not vegan- oh well), and bought a few things at the grocery store. And I had fun. So, shopping by bus- no problem!

I haven't driven my car in over a week now; it's still parked where I left it last Sunday after Ann flew home. I am debating going to a talk tonight in Cincinnati and would have to drive to that. As I could easily borrow my parent's, this is not something I would be constrained from doing with no car. On the other hand, after all the excitement(!) this morning, I may just stay home and get ready for classes tomorrow. I don't anticipate needing a car again this week. I will walk or bus to everything else I have planned.

I must be walking even more than I thought I was because even with eating way too much Halloween candy before the event, I haven't gained any weight.

Parking the car again

I used my car this past weekend because I had a friend come visit from out of town. I picked her up at the airport, toured her around and dropped her off again. I figured I would have rented a car for this if I didn't have one sitting in front of my house. Now, I'm through with my car use for the foreseeable future and have parked it in front of my house. I haven't used it since Sunday and won't this week at all.

Right now, I don't have any particular need. However, today I want to use it to go somewhere, anywhere because I'm feeling slightly bored and lonely. If I went to a store or somewhere where there were people! In my car! Could I get rid of this feeling? Probably yes. Sigh! But, I'm not going to do that. i'm going to take a walk and work on my garden instead. Oh well.

Cars and shopping

I realized that virtually every time I get into the car to go someplace, it involves spending money. I don't know whether this is true for everyone and it wouldn't be for me if I drove to work. I bus to work, walk to church, walk to library, etc., and these don't involve spending money. If I drive it's almost always to a store of some kind and I spend money. Would American households spend significantly less if there were fewer cars? And I'm not asking about any costs directly associated with owning a car.

Yesterday, I wanted to go to Chipotle's to get dinner. I can get a great vegan dish for less money than any other restaurant. I decided not to because it would mean driving, however, it made me think- I get in a car and drive to spend money- even if I do enjoy it. I had dinner at home and didn't even spend $6.31 for it!

Falling off the wagon

Okay, it's confessions time. I gave up on not using my car for this week. I feel pretty guilty about this. I've been working/struggling to get the first phase of renovation work on the house done and I just reached a point where worrying about how to get from point A to B ceased to matter. If I didn't have a car in front of my house, I expect I would have called Enterprise and rented a car for the week. Trips to IKEA, Lowes, grocery store, etc; if I were an alcoholic, this would have been a binge. Mostly, I had too much to do and think about and just couldn't add no car to the mix. Now, the good news is that my projects- Phase 1 construction projects- are completed and my house looks great! The next few days, I'll hang things on the wall and then, rest and go back to normal life.

The good news is that I still feel it is/will be easy to live without a car. I probably would rent a car under these circumstances in the future. I still took the bus to work and combined trips in efficient ways.

On a related front, I'm considering teaching a class next year called Auto Economics, short for, The Economics of the American Love Affair with the Automobile. Have to talk with my Chair and see what he thinks.

How'd I do the first month?

I did well for the first month of my experiment in becoming carless. I used my car a total of 6 times during the month; 3 of these were trips in the last week of the month. Most of them involved trips to Lowe's to get construction materials. During the last week I went shopping twice with my father and we used my car as my mother was using their car. Clearly, we could have waited until she got back, however, this allowed us to shop for food and glass to fix a window when it was most convenient. My goal for October is to use my car even less than this. I could have used my parent's car for any of these trips and using it 6 times a month doesn't seem too much of an imposition on them. I'm reluctant to impose so that's why I still tend to use mine. I suppose this is part of the independence thing. It's also true that my car needs will decrease soon as I am within 2 weeks of completing construction (at least phase one!). All but one of my trips involved this one way or another.

The most positive aspect of the month for me is how easy it has been for me to quit the car using habit. I go 3-4 days now, not only without using a car, but, also even without thinking about using a car. I've lost the habit. I still use my car occasionally; when I do it's very deliberate. I make do more, I plan better, and I walk a lot more. I used to take walks for exercise. Now, I take walks to get places! I guess I thought it would be psychologically harder for me than it has been.

My parents have been out of town for several days so I haven't gone food shopping for over a week. On the bus home today I thought about needing food for dinner. I know 6 weeks ago I would have simply driven straight to a grocery store. Instead, I took the bus the rest of the way home, checked out what I had and realized that I have 3-4 meals I could make from the ingredients I have. It's just that I ran out of apples and I normally eat at least one a day. I had a carrot for lunch with my sandwich rather than an apple and I will cook myself something for dinner. I can wait another day or two to go food shopping. Or I could walk to the convenience store and buy an apple.

Right now, I'm off to walk to the bank and then back home for more painting!