This is a bit rambly, as I’m still unsure where I’m going with these ideas. So, if you stick with this post, thank you!
I’ve been doing a lot of research and thought about how I want to get around town (and beyond) this year. Gas prices are up, but that’s not the only reason I’m thinking about this. I’ve had a long history of trying to drive less, or be carless. When I first moved to my town, we lived right downtown and I was going to college. I decided to get rid of my car and ride the the bus everyday, relying on DH (then DBF) to transport me farther if the need arose. I loved the freeing sensation of not having a car to maintain and pay insurance on. And that worked fine, so I never did replace the car. When we bought this house, our real estate agent had been told we had to have a house close to a bus route - because I wanted to keep my car free lifestyle.
We’ve been a one car family for most of the time since, with only a few times that we had to rent or borrow a 2nd vehicle to meet a temporary lifestyle need. We borrowed a car from my in-laws for 3 months when I was student-teaching and DH was back and working again. Then they gave us a car, and we did have two cars for a while when I was a footloose and fancy free SAHM, running around all day. We sold that car after I started doing daycare, and I wasn’t going to leave the house anyway. I felt great going back down to one car.
That brings us to our new lifestyle change, with my new job starting next month. I’ve found a nanny (yay!), that lives pretty close to the church. She wants to watch them at her house (fine), but unfortunately her house is out just past where the bus goes. So, if I were to ride the bus, I’d need to ride it as close as I could, get us off and walk along some pretty busy 2-lane roads for 1+ miles, then back by myself to the bus stop and back along that route back to work. Reverse the procedure at the end of the day - I think I could spend hours a day doing that.
I’d love to be hardcore enough to ride my bike and haul the kids, especially if I bought myself an xtracycle (I want one anyway - they look cool!). When I was much younger (teens and early 20’s), I used to ride my bike to get around in Seattle. Now that I feel so much healthier, I’d love to get in that kind of shape again. But, could I really haul the kids that far? I’m not sure that would work consistently. I would still like to fix up my bike and try to bike to church on Sunday mornings and times I’m going over there without kids. I also picture myself biking to the food co-op, or down to the gym that I’m going to be joining soon.
The other appealing alternative transport for me is an all-electric car. I have been seriously considering buying a ZENN. They are cute, not too pricey, and available in Seattle. The kids and I would fit in it together, and we only need to travel about 12 miles a day total, so that would work fine. But, the car will only go to 25mph, so it’s not legal on streets with a speed limit higher than 35mph. Over the years, we’ve talked about moving out onto a little bit of acreage. That wouldn’t work at all with this car as rural roads have higher speed limits. But, do we really want to move out where transportation becomes so much harder? How realistic is that desire anyway?
And then, the ThinkCity car is coming to the US next year. Priced like a regular car, this electric gets up to highway speeds and can go farther on a charge. So, if I wait a year, I could get one of these and not be stuck to the low speed limit streets. That would be great! Of course, just switching to electric won’t solve all of our energy problems (where will all that extra electricity come from?).
And I don’t have to do anything right this minute. We still own a car, that we love, that has been great to drive, and that is almost paid off. It’s not great gas mileage (it’s all-wheel drive - not good for the gas mileage), but it’s not the worst either. And, I’m only going to be needing to do the nanny/church/nanny/home run 3 days a week. DH is very happy with his scooter, and he got 85 miles on it before he had to go fill it up (with a single gallon of gas). That’s great for him to run back and forth to work. His work is only 1 1/2 miles from our house. In the depths of winter, he could ride the bus if the weather was too unpleasant on the scooter.
We aren’t going to sell our station wagon. We’ll need it for getting out to trailheads and taking it camping and things like that that we like to do. And I mean to do more and more hiking and backpacking again, now that I feel better. But, can it just sit in the driveway most of the time? I hope so.
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