Still carless, still happy

Well guys, it's been one revolution around the Sun without a car, and life is still good.

Last year, we sold the Echo to Arone and Kristi. We were sad to see her drive away to the cold city of Edmonton, but she had to go.

Prior to sending Echo away, we did a trial-run of not using her but still having her close. What we found was that, when we did want to use a car (fewer than five times, I think), the Echo was never very healthy. I guess, to keep a car at its best, you have to drive it more than once every three months. The sediment in the gasoline and oil settles and then gets churned up when you turn it over. So, it made more sense to get rid of it altogether than just keep it handy "just in case".

So in the past year since Echo left, not much has changed. I did have to give up floor hockey, but not because people got tired of picking me up or the cost of renting the co-op car. The team actually disbanded... and I don't think it was the car's fault.

We do use a carshare from time to time, and I used it quite a bit for going to floor hockey. Now that I don't use it for hockey, I find I don't miss worrying about getting the carshare car back before my reservation ends.

We certainly don't visit Edmonton any less. In fact, we may have been visiting even more lately. We rent a car to go up for the weekend and that only costs about $20-$30 per day (insurance is covered by our Visa).

We do find that we put off some errands so we can rent a car for a day and then run around town getting those errands done. So, those days aren't too restful, but we survive.

Probably the biggest sign of how comfortable I am with our car-less lifestyle was during my business trip to Lincolnshire, a suburb outside of Chicago. When my department boss phoned me to inform me that I was going (I had to write a manual) she said I had to rent a car. I asked if there was public transit, she paused and said no.

And she didn't lie. To be fair, Lincolnshire is a suburb and I saw mainly the business park... but there were no sidewalks--not a pedestrian/public transit-friendly town.

So I buck up and rent a car. My second day there I had already tired of driving around to get to dinner or lunch.

I guess I'm a bit spoiled with regards to where I work in Calgary. There's the delightfully named Short Pants Plaza next to my work and it has a Subway, a shawarma place, a Jamaican place, and a Filipino place that specializes in digestive troubles. So if I don't bring a lunch, I just pop over next door. No such luck on my business trip. I had to get in the car and become irrationally frustrated that I had to drive to pick up lunch. I had to drive 10 minutes to some bagel place and the entire time I'm fuming.

I didn't have a problem with driving but I enjoy not driving. I like looking out the window during my 20-minute LRT ride. I like reading the Globe and Mail online or observing my fellow passengers.

I'm glad we were able to take the plunge and get rid of our car.