Living without the car
Firstly I have to say that I have this idea is just a concept I have been entertaining. I can’t yet claim to have freed myself from the automobile trap and I can’t imagine it would go down too well with my wife. However we are suburbanites and the past month has shown us both that most trips we make can be done comfortably by bicycle.
Our car was put off the road about a month ago when Sam took it in late for it’s registration and roadworthy inspection. Of course the inspector went over it with a fine-toothed comb and subsequently it came home without registration and with a list of repairs to be done!
So after a trip to the mechanic two extensions of our special licence (allowing us to drive to the mechanic and the MVR only) and a mounting pile of bills we have only been granted a temporary registration for one month because the seatbelt we ordered 3 weeks ago still hasn’t arrived! This is the reality of owning a car. Total cost so far:
$BIG MOBS!
Am I pissed off? YES I AM!
Last year we must have payed about $3,000 to keep the thing on the road! Then there’s the escalating cost of fuel. I have to ask myself do we really need it? We could go into debt and buy a new one but would still have expenses and the trouble free lifespan of a car is not long. Is it even necessary to own a car? Most of our travel is within a five km radius of our home. Obviously we do like to travel further and for longer trips a personal automobile is quite essential but is it worth what it is costing us? Or is it just some kind of weird social prank that we have been conned into.
I recall a line of Aidan Quin’s from the film ‘Song Catcher’. In the scene he’s an Appalachian Mountain man having a brief conversation with a professor from the city. He says about the city folk they’re too busy “….work’in and gett’in and work’in and gett’in…” Well I guess that about sums it up really! Working to support the car; that seems to be the objective.
I do not hate cars. In fact I quite like them and on long journeys a car is quite a suitable form of transport. What I can't understand is how have they become so necessary for us who live in cities? In the bigger picture it is not sensible, practical, healthy or sustainable. It does not improve our lives and contributes greatly to environmental issues on a local as well as a global scale. It appears to be complete madness!
It is just one of those weird situations that we human beings have created for ourselves, kind of like painting ourselves into a metaphorical transport corner. But there is hope; if I am discontent with this situation I need only remember "The revolution is just a bicycle ride away"
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