We leased a 2010 Toyota Matrix three years ago. We love it. It has been a great car for us. Especially for when we had two children in car seats, we could still fit the third in the middle who no longer needed one. The hatch has ample room for groceries, basset hounds, and other items one might wish to transport from one place to another.
We live in what I suppose you would call a "semi-urban" area of Hamilton, Ontario called Westdale. It is in the lower city near the university, but about 3 km from what most people would conventionally begin to describe as "downtown." We have good public transit, including a bus stop about 20 m from our front door. Being a university community, we have many amenities within 1.5 km, including a grocery store, pharmacy, movie theatre, restaurants, a bakery, and more. Typical of most "car" families, we travel outside of our community for most of our shopping, and we drive to our favourite restaurants, which are downtown.
I teach at an elementary school 11 km from home and my wife is an educational assistant who works at a school 3 km from home, which I drop her off at on my way to work. Most of my family lives within the city, (a 20 minute drive), but my wife's family lives in Waterdown (a 15 minute drive) and in Dunnville (over an hour's drive).
Our three children walk to public schools in our neighbourhood. Our eldest takes piano lessons a block away, and the younger two play soccer in the local community league. Many of their games are a few short blocks away, but some are in Ancaster, which is about a 15 minute drive. We all like to go swimming, which we do at either of two recreation centers that are a short walk away, and in the winter, the kids and I go skating at one of the local recreation centers.
We drive, on average, about 20 000 km/yr.
No comments:
Post a Comment