One year later and everything's different

"An Inconvenient Truth" finally pushed America to the tipping point -- four-fifths of us now believe that climate change is a reality. Now it's a race against the rising mercury as well as the rising seas. Why are we rebuilding in Biloxi, Mississippi in a flood plain?

In the year since my last post, the price of gas in Massachusetts has gone up 22 percent, from $2.60 to $3.20 a gallon. The escalating price of gas hasn't had much of an impact on demand or our driving behavior. It usually takes a few months for the inflated prices to add up and for people to realize, "Hey, I have less money leftover for frivolity at the end of the month. How can I squeeze more out of my paycheck?"

Although money is not the only motivator for people to carpool, it can be a fundamental reason to give up the convenience of driving alone. Driving less saves more. It's simple. Taken to the extreme, not owning a car can save thousands of dollars a year.

I was skeptical about the possibility of going car-free, especially in non-urban areas, until I read "How to Live Well Without Owning A Car" by Chris Balish. It’s easier to accomplish, especially for families with children, when you live near public transit.

I grew up in a medium-sized city, Wilmington, Del., population of about 100,000 in the 1960s and 1970s. I could catch a bus right outside of my house several times an hour. It doesn’t get much better than that. My parents, born in 1919 and 1921, came of age in the Great Depression, so it permanently impacted their financial choices, complicated by having nine children.

We were encouraged to be independent – which is the complete opposite of children today, whose parents hover over them. The last option was for mom [never dad!] to drive us somewhere. Our first options were walking, taking the bus, biking, getting a ride from someone – a stranger or an acquaintance would do, roller skating or skateboarding.

The only places my mother ever drove me were to the doctor, the orthodontist, and to school when my sister needed to get her ‘cello here. It was just too heavy to carry. She would also drive to the grocery store, but it was simple to walk or bike the eight blocks there if we had a yearning to cook something special.

Contrast that to my own four children, brought up in a commuter suburb of Boston, with no sidewalks, much less public transit. The only place I didn’t drive them was to the TV and computer in our house. Occasionally, they could walk the quarter mile to the soccer fields- when their age groups and divisions used that field. As teens, they biked 2 miles to work at the shopping plaza on back roads with no shoulder. It wasn’t the safest bike route, but they survived.

Chris Balish makes a really strong case for car-free living. Besides the TRUE cost of owning a new car – at least $44,177 over five years – there’s the time and attention cars require.

Life without a car is simpler is more social than driving alone because you invite friends to go places, like, “Let’s go to Costco today and I’ll buy lunch.” Cars can be rented or shared, like ZipCar. After reading his book, I concluded the most important thing about going car-free is attitude, followed by planning and making different decisions.

We have friends who live in the first ring of suburbs around Boston in Arlington, who have a teenage driver. Three drivers share one Toyota Sienna Minivan.

“Do you know how much you’re saving?” I asked my friend Janice.
“Yes, especially because the car is 10 years old,” Janice answered, and her husband is an accountant and knows exactly how much things cost.

When I carpool regularly, it’s easier for the three to four drivers in our household to have fewer cars. Carpooling extends the life of my 2001 Camry, and saves me money.

The greatest benefit to carpooling is making new friends, who I would have never met otherwise, or had the time to meet. I look forward to commuting with them – and we only share a ride one or two days a week. That is a silver lining to saving money and polluting the environment less.