When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to have a car; to be able to drive myself wherever I needed and wanted to go, whenever I wanted to go there. But as I’ve gotten older and become responsible for maintaining my own car my feelings have changed. Instead of envying those who have cars, I actually look towards those people that I know who have successfully managed to survive without one. I have friends here in town that do it. Personally, I find it both a scary and exhilarating prospect. In the past few weeks, I’ve had enough setbacks with my car to make me wonder why I own one. I don’t think that the problem is that I have a particularly old or defective car, on the contrary I have had a lot fewer challenges with my car than most people I know. I think that the problem is, I see more (or at least equal) downsides, than upsides to owning a car (which makes me more prone to get annoyed when something goes wrong with it). When I was younger I always thought about the freedom of owning a car, but I never realized that there are burdens associated with vehicle ownership as well. Even if you’re not making payments on your vehicle, you will end up paying for insurance, gas, and maintenance (often monthly). Furthermore, there is the upkeep as well as having one more thing that you have to safeguard from accidents and theft.
I also like the environmental aspect of a carless existence: the feeling of doing something really good for the planet. One of my good friends released her old car and went a few months without one, simply getting by on just a bike. While there were definitely consequences, some rather surprising and unwelcome (e.x. high car insurance rates later on), she definitely can look back to that time in her life as a unique period. Personally, I don’t think that I’m there yet, and I’ll just have to keep hot-wiring my car when the need arises. But I do think that it might be something nice to try. If not forever, at least for a little while.