Ped Life

Back in the early 90s I was without a car for a couple of years, by choice. I moved to Chicago after college, my 1981 Buick Skylark stuffed full of the few belongings I had. After several years of break-ins, hustling for parking spaces on crowded neighborhood streets, trying to stay one step ahead of the tow trucks, and paying for parking tickets (plus the exorbitant fees to the auto pound when the tow trucks got me), I started seriously reconsidering my need for a car.

I lived a few blocks from the el. I worked a few blocks from the el. I only drove to work a couple days a week anyway. It might be worth a shot, I reasoned. 

Then the Skylark quit working as well as it had been. I don’t remember what was wrong with it, only that it was driveable - but barely. I found a place on a non-permit-parking neighborhood street near the shop I owned, and left the car there for a couple of months. I would walk by from time to time, start it up, drive it around the block, move it to other parking spaces if any were available on the same street. But mostly I left it alone. 

Finally I was ready to make the break. I told my Dad I wanted to sell the car. I drove downstate to the town where he and my mom lived, and he sold it for me. 

I figured I'd be fine. 

And I was. Truth be told, I was glad to be relieved of the burden. 

Chicago is an extremely walkable city. Getting around was easy. I could take Amtrak downstate to visit my parents and my brother. When I absolutely needed wheels, there was a car rental office less than a mile from my shop. For everything else there was the Chicago Transit Authority, and my feet.

I ended the carless streak by purchasing a used ‘89 Chevy Blazer. The thing was a money pit. I replaced every major component on it at least once in the three or four years I had it. Plenty of times I ended up on foot or el or bus, simply because driving was more hassle than it was worth.

After I bought the Jeep I moved away from Chicago, living in a series of smaller cities and towns in Northern Arizona. Walkable, hikable places. The Jeep wasn’t always necessary, but with it I could get to the remote places and back-country trails I loved.

In 2004 I moved back to Chicago. I lucked into an apartment in Old Town that came with a garage space - no more street parking! My boyfriend at the time parked his truck there; I kept the Jeep in the garage at my best friend’s house. With the apartment so centrally located and the vehicles so conveniently garaged, it was hard to justify driving anywhere that required us to spend effort finding and/or paying for parking. We mostly walked, took the el - the Brown Line stop was half a block from our place - and rode our bikes.

I lived a couple other places after that stint in Chicago: Northern California, Central Illinois. Places where a good balance of walking and driving were possible. 

Then I spent two years in sprawling Phoenix. Phoenix is a car culture city, partially out of necessity: there are times of the year when it's just plain dangerous to be out in the baking sun and scorching heat for too long. Few places in the metro area are set up, or even intended to be, pedestrian friendly. After about six months, the two- to three-hour daily round trip commutes to work took all the joy out of driving for me. Acre after acre after acre of asphalt and concrete took most of the joy of walking out of me, too. And the crazily erratic driving I encountered in my daily commute with the Phoenicians and attendant snowbirds had me extremely leery of biking anywhere.

When the opportunity arose for my current job and subsequent return to Northern California, I was ready to live in a town again, a place that was built on a more human scale. I wanted - planned - to rely less on my Jeep. It was 14, it had 210,000+ miles on it, it deserved a break. I planned to walk and bike more, in areas where doing so wouldn’t make me feel like I had a giant red ‘hit me’ sign taped to my back.

I sought out the building where I live because of its proximity to simply everything (it has a walkscore.com rating of 98). My daily work commute on foot takes all of twenty minutes round trip, less if I take the shortcut. Yet until I no longer had the Jeep I still relied on it nearly every day, even for the minor trips I could have easily done on foot or by bike. Yes, I was reacquainting myself with old favorite haunts: the Marin Headlands. Stinson Beach. Mt Tam. Bolinas. Pt Reyes. Perhaps I was also still in Phoenix mode; drive-everywhere mode. 

Now, without the Jeep, my radius of travel is considerably smaller than it’s been in a long time. It requires me to take advantage of transportation options I neglected when I could just turn the key in the ignition and go. Sometimes it’s frustrating. Being car-free requires patience and planning, two things I’ve had in short supply the last few years. It also requires a kind of creative thinking I haven’t used in a while. Most purchases, for instance, are limited to what I can carry and/or fit in my backpack (if I’m on the bike). 

Creativity, extra planning, patience…making use of these parts of my brain in a new way have been soothing. I feel more relaxed. Less stressed. It could be the extra exercise working its magic; either way, I’m going to stick with it for a while.