The Car-Day
I apologize for being a slacker. But I have plenty of excuses. My favorite one is that I’ve been saving electricity by not working on my computer. This is the same template I use for why I never wash my car: saving water.
How many of our proclaimed sustainable behaviors are really self-serving? How many of us are only really, really starting to reconsider our driving habits since driving across town became a splurge?
Over the course of 5 days last month I drove 150 miles in town. This distance may be well under par for 5 days in L.A., but in our medium-sized city, most things are not too far away. The gym, the grocery store, work, and most of our friends and relatives are all within about 8 miles. I took what felt like 12 trips back and forth across the river that goes through the middle of town and got really, really sick of driving.
As the driver of a Honda Civic, I’m used to feeling smug at the pump, but the combination of driving recklessly close to the bottom of the tank, until the warning light came on, and recent price hikes wiped the self-satisfied smirk off my face the other day.
So the combination of being a cheapskate, feeling like a rat in a maze last month and and an affinity for new units led to the creation of the car-day.
So here’s the idea: there are 7 days in a week, and we have two cars, making for a potential maximum of 14 car-days in a week. I’d say that, on average, my husband walks or takes the bus to work once or twice a week, and I don’t use my car once or twice a week. So let’s just say that out of 14 potential car days, we usually use 10My initial goal is to get to 7 car-days in one week by carpooling, walking and biking.
I know this is a bit of a blunt instrument, and we should really chart our weekly mileage and try to reduce that, but I don’t think that would be as much fun. But I don’t have “fun” out of selfish enjoyment. Remember that I am always thinking of you, dear readers, and your enjoyment of my blog. Oh, the sacrifices I make for your sakes!
How many of our proclaimed sustainable behaviors are really self-serving? How many of us are only really, really starting to reconsider our driving habits since driving across town became a splurge?
Over the course of 5 days last month I drove 150 miles in town. This distance may be well under par for 5 days in L.A., but in our medium-sized city, most things are not too far away. The gym, the grocery store, work, and most of our friends and relatives are all within about 8 miles. I took what felt like 12 trips back and forth across the river that goes through the middle of town and got really, really sick of driving.
As the driver of a Honda Civic, I’m used to feeling smug at the pump, but the combination of driving recklessly close to the bottom of the tank, until the warning light came on, and recent price hikes wiped the self-satisfied smirk off my face the other day.
So the combination of being a cheapskate, feeling like a rat in a maze last month and and an affinity for new units led to the creation of the car-day.
So here’s the idea: there are 7 days in a week, and we have two cars, making for a potential maximum of 14 car-days in a week. I’d say that, on average, my husband walks or takes the bus to work once or twice a week, and I don’t use my car once or twice a week. So let’s just say that out of 14 potential car days, we usually use 10My initial goal is to get to 7 car-days in one week by carpooling, walking and biking.
I know this is a bit of a blunt instrument, and we should really chart our weekly mileage and try to reduce that, but I don’t think that would be as much fun. But I don’t have “fun” out of selfish enjoyment. Remember that I am always thinking of you, dear readers, and your enjoyment of my blog. Oh, the sacrifices I make for your sakes!
posted by Nev at
11:42 AM
1 Comments:
I'm with you on not trying to drive your car. I have a grocery store about 1/4 mile from my house. For a while there, I did a really good job walking to and from with Marley to get that days groceries, but that has stopped. I really need to start again. I enjoyed it and so did Marley. I am also going to sacrifice time with my friends this summer to save on gas. All my friends will have pool passes for our old neighborhood pool, which is about 5 miles away, but I will get a pass for our new neighborhood pool, which is about 1/2 a mile away. I don't see many no car days in my future, but maybe one trip per day car day. It's a start.
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