Planning to Go Carless
November 29, 2009
We have an ’89 Toyota Corolla, and last time I took it in for a tune-up, I came out with a $2000 + estimate for everything that needed to be fixed sooner than later. The biggest issue is the brakes. The entire system needs to be replaced, and it’s just a matter of time before it’s no longer safe to drive.
Tonight B and I had a good discussion about what it will look like when we go completely carless. We’ve had this discussion in the past, but it never seemed feasible. Until now. We are paying off business start up debt, and we just don’t have the cash flow for a new car or monthly car payments at this time.
We can do this.
We live within walking distance to my son’s school and the “village” area that includes a pharmacy, grocery store, bank, health food store, etc.
We are within walking distance to the ferry terminal.
We have a couple options for our bi-monthly trips to town to pick up supplies for the hair salon. B’s dad lives in Nanaimo, and would be more than happy to pick supplies up for us and either meet us at the ferry, or bring them over once or twice a month in exchange for his ferry fare and a hot dinner.
If my FIL is not available to pick up supplies, my parents have a truck they leave on the Nanaimo side that they have offered to loan to us on occasion, and it would be infrequent enough I’m sure we could work something out.
We both work from home so there’s no commute.
There’s a great taxi service (and they use hybrid cars for the taxi service locally) for times we need to bring groceries home, or the weather is too miserable for walking.
If we need to go to Victoria or Vancouver we can rent a car quite inexpensively, and the car rental lot is within walking distance from the ferry terminal in Nanaimo.
There are some major benefits to going carless.
Physical activity. I often feel guilty for the amount of driving I do when I have two perfectly healthy legs and the time to walk, if I just plan my day more efficiently.
Financial savings. We would save $60/month in insurance, another $60/month in auto fuel, $109/year in roadside service membership fees, about $300/year in maintenance costs. Yes, we would have to fork out a little money for a taxi periodically, but on the other hand we could get a wagon to bring groceries home, or get a trailer for B’s bike (I don’t have a bike yet).
Fun activities. I absolutely loved bike riding when I was a kid and into my teens, but since going over 200 lbs I have a real fear of riding. This could very well force me to take it up again and get over my fear of looking stupid or feeling like a dork on a bike.
B thinks we should just ditch the car now. I’m still holding onto the convenience factor. But I’m really starting to accept that this could be happening in the very near future.
Sounds pretty feasable! Werd on the convenience factor. We live close to everything and Should be walking….Its just soooo cold in the winter tho!!! Excuses, excuses lol
I don’t even have the cold excuse.
It actually stays pretty mild here year round. We did get a big dump of snow last year that lasted about a month or two (I’ve blocked it out), and our car was stuck in the driveway for a few weeks so we were walking anyways.
Good for you for deciding to live with a smaller carbon footprint and a “less is more” kind of attitude. I admire that!
I look forward to hearing how the car-less existence goes. Could you sell the car now and get anything for it?
The plan as of now is to park the car without insurance, and when our debt is paid off fix the brakes and use it as a trade in on a hybrid vehicle. We’d like to have something that we could use camping, maybe even pull a small trailer (tents aren’t as attractive the older I get!), but is low on fuel and inexpensive to maintain. Who knows though… it’s quite possible that we will get so used to living carless we’ll forego the vehicle idea altogether.
The other option is to just get the brakes fixed. There’s less than 130k on it, and it runs well…
I think that this is a great idea, and was thinking about going mostly carless myself in the spring. I would love to know any issues you come upon as you work this out, so that maybe I can plan ahead a bit.
driving has made my life miserable. I ma goiong to go carless.