1 more month
I reached the half-way point of my 2 month trial period of being car-free. The first month wasn’t too bad. I actually traveled more than I thought I would. I rode about 500+ miles so far. There were days I felt that I was struggling to stay on the bike. Most of the time I’ve been happy riding to and from work. I realize I can’t stay out during school nights too long. Riding home at 11PM or 12AM really sucks when you’re exhausted. I also don’t like to bring my Xtracycle on a train. This limits my mobility since the bike is much longer than normal and I feel like a jerk for blocking people’s way. Plus, I can’t throw it on the bus since their bike racks are built for normal length bikes. Those are pretty much the major challenges for the first month of being car-free.
Now that I just finished the 2nd day into my second month, I was presented some new challenges. I visit my folks weekly and when I got there this week, I did not have the keys to their place. I was locked out in the cold and couldn’t get a hold of them and friends. If I had a car, I would have the keys with my car keys. No, that did not discourage me but made me realize that I need to be more conscious about having keys with me or perhaps stashed away somewhere in case I forget again. Another challenge comes from the weather. Early in the week I saw rain in my forecast. Since I haven’t purchased rain gear for riding, I’m not going to ride the bike home. Instead I’ve planned it out so that I got a ride from a co-worker after my CERT training at work. The rain has raised more awareness as far as going to destinations like the library. Luckily I bribed a friend at work to take me in exchange for joining him for a lunch out. Otherwise, that would have been coming into work later than normal and taking 2 bus rides and a train stop to the library and then work, in the rain. The last but least significant thing I am experience is that I may be socially out casted from my friends who are planning to have monthly / bi-monthly poker games during the week. There’s no way in hell I’m riding over to Culver City on a school night for a poker game. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy so I’m glad I have these challenges. But this is definitely something I’m willing to live with. My spirits are high and I can’t wait till November 14th when the 8 week is done. Hopefully, nothing will change from now until then. I’ll be glad to announce that the car is for sale!
Themocracy
500+ miles is awesome!
Why make life harder for yourself?
1. It’s not like you need the money.
2. Auto insurance is cheap if you get “non-commute” coverage.
3. You have garage space.
I’m not going to discourage you from going car-free, but you haven’t made an argument for doing so (not that you need to, of course). It’s just unclear on the motive behind it.
Life isn’t harder. It’s better without the car! No worries about gas, no worries about parking, no more worries about fixing this and that. I actually have to pay more in insurance because I own a car. The savings each year amounts to about close to $6,000. That’s a good chunk of change. Heck, even if I rented a car every month I won’t even be close to that much!
Garage space is great for all my bikes and future bikes. Good for my guests for now. All my reasons for going car-free are on my older posts tagged as either “car-free” or “sustainability”. Don’t want to rehash it here.
I did a search before commenting. I sensed a little complaining/incongruence in the post, that’s all. You know I’m supportive.
Cool. This post was just a reflection of my challenges. Now that I reread it again, it does sound pretty negative. I’ve been having a blast traveling around LA with or without a bike. The challenges with the Xtracycle was just something I didn’t expect. Nothing that riding another bike can’t fix. I’ve got work-arounds and back-up plans for all sorts of scenarios so I think I’m mentally prepared. It’s just an eye-opener when something like forgetting my keys is a reality that I never even thought of so I’m glad it happened.
[...] I have officially finished my 8 weeks trial period without a car. Through this time I have expressed some displeasure in the process but now it’s finally done! I would be lying if I told you I did not drive my car during this [...]