Divorce Your Car.

[NNadir]

I've just started reading it, but I can tell already it's going to be good.

"It is the greatest health-giving invention of a thousand years," wrote Frank Munsey in 1903...

Scientific American predicted in 1899 that cars would "eliminate a greater part f the nervousness, distraction and strain of modern metropolitan life...

http://www.amazon.com/Divorce-Your-Car-Ending-Automobile/dp/0865714088

[regnaD kciN]

1. I can't divorce my car...

...it would probably wind up with my house! ;-)

[purduejake]

2. I'm about to divorce public transit.

What used to take 45 minutes on the bus/train now takes over 2 hours in Chicago. It'd take 30 minutes by car and as much as I want to do my part, this is getting ridiculous when we can't get proper funding and competent management of the infrastructure.

[deadmessengers]

7. oh, definitely.

Divorce your car? For the overwhelming majority of Americans (those of us who do not both live and work in the central part of large cities with usable public transit systems) that's just simply divorced from reality. I tried a "commute on mass transit" experiment. I said to hell with it after a week or so, when I figured out that I would have to be out of the house by 6:40am every morning just to reliably (somewhat) make it to work by 9am. My afternoon commute got me home somewhere around 8:30pm.

Fuck. That.

I'll just keep driving (27 miles/45 mins each way) and plant the occational tree, thank you very much. There are better ways to worry about the environment than to spend 5 hours a day commuting.

[TomInTib]

3. I gave up my drivers license (but I kept my great car)

I only drive as far as the grocery store (only when it is raining) that is right down the hill.

And I drive a Honda CRV.

Except when I want to have some serious fun.

And then I drive to Stinson Beach in the fastest production car made.

Maybe ten times a year.

Meanwhile, I walk everywhere in town.

You meet the nicest people when you walk.

[deadmessengers]

8. You drive without a license?

Uhm, did I misread that?

[TomInTib]

9. I do drive without a license...

A few years ago (while I was living north of Houston) I began to wonder just how I could improve my quality of life via the least number of factors.

Canceling my drivers license was my first move.

I am now in a little town in Marin County, California, and I know practically everyone.

Everyone in the Police Dept. knows me and they just do not hassle me.

But not having a license has its advantages.

[Nederland]

19. But not having a license has its advantages?

Ummmm, like what? You've got my curiosity peaked now...

[EST]

4. Don't know about this particular work, but, having read

quite a lot from that era, I am aware that, before the advent of the auto, had there not been an enormous staff of cleaners the streets of New York would have accumulated horse crap up to eight feet deep in a year's time, and that food was impossible to keep clean. With the constant mulching up of horse and ox shit, everything was always covered with a layer of feces dust. Life expectancy went up enormously with the exit of the horse.

[NNadir]

5. This is true.

However nobody is talking about bringing horses back into cities.

It is certainly not true that horseshit in New York City was destroying the planet's atmosphere wholesale.

[CountAllVotes]

6. I wish I could do this tomorrow

There is only one bus that comes by near where I live once an hour maybe and it is not close either.

It takes well over an hour to get into town to the doctor's office on it (maybe more like 1-1/2 hours).

So, I continue to drive my Honda Accord. It doesn't have many miles on it and still looks new. People always ask me if I plan to sell it and I tell them no.

I checked into Dial-A-Ride and they were supposed to send info. but have not done so yet. One person I know said the best way to go is to simply call a taxi if you need to get somewhere.

I wish I had a better answer/solution. :(

A scooter/bicycle is not an option for health reasons unfortunately.

[lakeguy]

10. i guess i'm lucky...

i only live 10 miles from work so i can bike it most days. only when we happen to get buried in snow do i have trouble...but so does my shitty little vw!

[wtmusic]

11. Good old Scientific American

Always reaching a little too far for the story.

[hunter]

12. My wife and I used to commute in Los Angeles.

Never again. We've done whatever we can during most of our marriage to avoid commuting. When choosing a place to live, having to commute is heavily weighted against a place. Maybe it's just me, but I've always feel like time spent commuting is lost time, like an amputated limb, you can never get it back. Time with family is always more valuable than time at work, and if you don't value your own time more than your employer does, than you are a slave to your work no matter how much money you make.

Right from the start, I always do the grim math, subtracting the cost of commuting from the wages, and adding the time to the hours. An eight hour job that pays sixty dollars an hour with a one hour commute each way is actually paying $48 dollars an hour before you even subtract the cost of the gas. The drive is part of the work, and not somehow "free," even if you use it to listen to your music or an audio book.

I work at home, and we can see where my wife works, about a mile away, from our house.

Living near your work, or near public transportation hubs, will be increasingly attractive as the price of gasoline rises.

Nice condos in the city will become more desirable than mini-mansions far from any employment opportunities.

It's sort of sad to me that so many people are forced to commute -- that it's the only choice they have to achieve a lifestyle that is acceptable to them.

I do like to drive. I've driven across the country a few times. I've driven up, down and across the Western United States multiple times since I first got my driver's licence, but never for work, I did it because I could, not because I had to. There was never a timeclock where I was going.

[gollygee]

15. I agree with this

I don't work, but we live about 5 miles from my husband's work. In fact, if the weather is nice he prefers to bike there. He loves the extra time he has home too. I don't understand why people choose to live out in the country and drive so far to get to work - and to get groceries and everything else too (where i live if you commute you live in the country anyway).

[phantom power]

13. And TV was going to give us an age of universal education and enlightenment.

Come to think of it, the Inter-tubes were going to give us that too.

[gollygee]

14. I wish I could

but our public transportation is sketchy at best.

I combine trips, walk whenever possible, ride a bike in good weather, carpool as much as I can. Not only do I have a car - I have a minivan - so I'm only getting 20 mpg and I really do try to use it as little as I can and carpool whenever practical - like when I'm going somewhere with my kid and a friend and her kids.

If I could rewrite history, I would have bought a smaller car. I've made some changes in my life since I bought it and it wouldn't be a choice I would make at this point. But until this minivan wears out I'll do what I can.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Bookmarked that link, thanks.

Now if only they would stop laying out towns and cities around the assumption that EVERYONE will be traveling by car.

[Not Sure]

17. You just described my job

That is, "laying out towns and cites around the assumption that EVERYONE will be traveling by car." Granted, this is Texas, and more to the point, the Dallas/Fort Worth metrosprawl, which is the epitome of excess. Without seeing this area first hand, it's hard to comprehend how spread out it really is. Imagine the entire state of Connecticut, less the area west of a line drawn north and south through Waterbury - that's the size of the metro area.

This gigantic metro area is home to the largest city in the US without a public transportation system. And what we do have is very limited compared to the likes of Chicago, Boston, New York City or Los Angeles. Some progress is being made, but it's so late it can't possibly catch up to demand or even keep pace with growth. There is also the matter of each county managing their own transit agencies, which are always fighting over where the train stations will go and other matters like that.

It's a matter of philosophy here. I think people must imagine South Fork Ranch from the TV show Dallas when they think of this area. Because that's where the company I work for - and every other land development/civil engineering company here - develops property (among other far off places). Just like South Fork, which is actually in the metro area now, every one of these massive developments starts off as a pastoral farm tract. When we're done with it, it's become a gated community with stone screening walls (you know, you don't want to see those trailer houses on the other side of the property line), a giant pond with a fountain (which is a drainage retention facility) right out front of the amenity center (a large pool with a water slide) and houses built so close, when one catches fire, the plastic siding on the houses next door melts (no kidding - saw this last month). There are developments closer to Oklahoma than Dallas filled with houses whose garages have two cars - one for the mom and one for the dad - to drive into Dallas 5 days a week for work.

And I'm no saint - I drive to work in Dallas, too. It's like a post above describes (20 something miles, an hour each way). Public transportation is available, but it ain't cheap and it would take nearly an additional hour each way. Do I move closer to work? Uh, I already live in a dilapidated neighborhood that's as good as I can afford and I'm not moving to an older more run-down version of the same. Do I work closer to home then? I would if I could, but I just got laid off of the job I had here locally and it took a month and a half to find the job I've got now.

I'm sure there are places where I could get along without a car. But Texas isn't one of them.

[Javaman]

18. We are going through a trial separation as I write this...

I was never a admirer of large vehicles but the bus, well, is just so sexy. I had to break the news to my car, it was tough, we were together for 20 plus years. Oh sure, this car wasn't with me for 20+ years but other members of it's species have. And my car representing all the cars I have had in the past was pissed off but at the same time, understood.

What worries my is when that sexy little electric number that has been rumored to move into my neighborhood soon effects my bus relationship. I have to admit, I find petite cars, well, really sexy. And it being electric, I think I may have found the love of my life.

but the bus, dang. No dealing with traffic, allowing me to read or sleep in the morning or afternoon. It's hard to pass up. I think I may go for the electric number and keep the bus on the side for a little fun.

What do you think?

[depakid]

20. I take light rail and bike pretty much everywhere

It's a win/win situation- good for the environment and good for my health (reading calmly on the light rail rather than fighting traffic and listening to crap on the radio is good for the mind as well as the body).

Of course, that's fairly easy to do living in Portland. Once gas starts to get prohibitively expensive a lot of towns and cities will wish that they had the foresight that Portland did. I can't imagine what LA area will be like with $6 - $8 - $10 per gallon gas. A lot of people are going to suffer.