September 2012

Well, we discussed the possibility of going car-free with the family.  Our two youngest were curious and a bit unsure of what to make of it.  Our eldest daughter declared that she would be embarrassed being part of a family that did not have a car.  Point noted, but...

There are a couple of considerations we discussed.

• Travel time:  I spend about 45 minutes a day driving to and from work.  This is basically "dead time."  All I can do is drive.  If I take the bus, I will be spending at least twice, and closer to three times that time travelling.  It is almost an hour each way.  The trade-off, though, is that I can do a lot of my school work on the bus.  So, instead of sitting in my classroom or at my desk at home, much of that time can be spent sitting and working on the bus instead.  Geez, maybe I'll even actually read a book!
  
  We'll need to be more organized for our shopping trips.  That's fine.  I'd rather just go once and get it over with than go four times for a bit here and a bit there anyways.  Of course, if we do need a thing or two here and there, there is a grocery store 800m from our front door.  One of us could just jump off the bus early and walk the rest of the way.
  
• Our dog is sick, and our veterinarian is in Brantford.  (a 30-minute drive)  Fortunately, the emergency appointments are over with (at least for now), and it is mostly just maintenance.  These kinds of visits would be a great example of when to use car-sharing, but what if it is an emergency?

My own parents were a bit gob-smacked at first.  Upon some discussion, though, they were really quite supportive and interested in the idea.  Living out in suburbia-land, it is an idea that would be neither practical nor desirable to them themselves, though.

It hasn't been brought up with Jacqui's family yet.  Of course, the irony that we're blogging this on the world-wide web is not lost on us.  Haha.

Overall, though, based on my Facebook post on the topic, there has been a really strong sense of support and encouragement.  Of course, our friends don't really constitute a "representative sample" of  the population as a whole... but we don't really care much about that.  In fact, the marginal subversiveness of going car-free is also appealing.  (of course, it's all fun and games until you're the poor sucker out at the bus-stop in January when everyone else is driving by in their nice warm cars....)

To do list:

• find out what is involved in breaking our lease
• clean out the garage so we have a place to put our lawn furniture and bicycles.  (Geez, I love irony!)