Reflection: I am repurposing this essay in the hopes that readers recognize there is another option: they do not have to continue to depend on fuel and automobiles for their daily existence. In fact, perhaps now is the time to take the alternatives seriously. Perhaps scarcity will be the impetus for the societal change to go car-free.
A version of this essay was published in Elephant Journal in 2015. In August of 2016, I made the difficult choice to buy a new (used) car out of necessity because my sister had cancer and lived about 400 miles away, and I needed to have my own transportation for frequent visits. But I chose to continue living in a neighborhood where I was still able to use the bus, walk as much as possible, and participate in a more local lifestyle.
I sold the car in 2019 when I retired and moved back to Costa Rica. Because Costa Rica has a highly functioning bus infrastructure, taxis and Uber are plentiful and cheap, and neighborhood grocery stores are easy to access on foot or by bicycle, owning a car is more of a liability here than an asset.
In 2022, the sudden change in the price and availability of gasoline and the sudden shift in supply of cars has made cars more of a liability than ever. But in the United States, unfortunately, transportation infrastructure continues to be scarce or impractical, and people who don’t live in urban areas with subways and buses are forced to continue owning cars.
Will the choice to be car-free determine where we live, where we work, what we do? I hope so.
“Invention is the mother of necessity.” –Constance Lynn
What If?
What if Henry Ford had met Mother Teresa? What kind of conversation would they have had over lunch? Henry, with his cryptic mottoes about hard work and success; Mother Teresa with her wise observations on self-sacrifice and love. Who would influence whom, I wonder?
What a different world we would live in today had Henry Ford applied his genius to something other than putting a car in every family garage.
More than a century of factory-produced cars (not to mention the assembly line production they introduced) has created toxic carbon emissions that threaten our fragile planet earth. Add to that the immeasurable misery caused from deaths by auto accidents, wars over oil supply, and credit card debt from the increased “need” for new cars and the high prices of “affordable” autos. Did I mention the millions of boring, meaningless jobs that have resulted in labor unions created to anchor workers to these boring jobs?
I choose to live without a car. People look at me as though I am either stupid or politically dangerous: why on earth would I not want my own car? they wonder. Well, it’s because I have found myself more persuaded by Mother Teresa’s ideas about the world than by Henry Ford’s: Community vs. Rugged Individualism. Mercy vs. Pernicious Capitalism.
My Car-Free Experiment
Car-free: (noun) The choice to not own a car. The state of being without a car. The choice to not depend on a having a car for one’s livelihood and well-being.
Back when I worked at a downtown medical campus, employees were up in arms about losing a succession of parking lots to construction sites for new medical research and office buildings; even though these lots were permit parking only, and we paid a premium, the university decided to replace them with buildings that would produce more profit. Instead of providing new parking areas for us, the university made a deal with TARC, the metro area bus system: anyone wearing an employee ID could ride the bus for free.
After about a year of daily parking wars, I reached the place where I was just frustrated enough to try taking the bus to work.
I met a few other colleagues who were also riding the bus because our neighborhoods were near enough to the downtown area to have a convenient bus schedule. Most of our co-workers were dubious, even argumentative, about taking advantage of the free bus option. They argued that the bus from their neighborhood was slow, or the route took 45 minutes to get to work, or they’d have to take three buses to get to work. Many of them complained that they didn’t think the bus was safe; the bus system was so bad, so outdated, that it was unreliable.
But based on my own personal experiences, I had only positive things to say about riding the bus to work. I actually preferred riding the bus to work during the summer in order to save myself from heat exhaustion during rush hour traffic jams.
When the air conditioning in my car broke one summer and I decided it was not economically feasible to replace it with a new system, driving my car to work during the summers and parking it on the street was a lot more dangerous than riding the bus.
From my experience, most of the bus commuters were car-less young folks who lived on the Wrong Side of town and had to take the bus all the way across town to their jobs at the mall or to the fast food ghettos on the Right Side of town.
Medical students from Asia who were accustomed to bus transit crowded onto buses heading to the medical campus. But very few professionals or middle class people rode the bus. In fact, there was a common stereotype floating around that contaminated the very idea: “Riding the bus is dangerous: you never know what’s going to happen.” This was bald racism.
From 2009-2014 (with a brief stopover in an isolated Smoky Mountain village where a car, by necessity, became my virtual legs), I lived in 2nd world countries without a car because a good majority of the people lived that way. I became so accustomed to being car-free that I dreaded the thought of returning to the States and having to buy one.
So, when I returned home to the smallish city of Louisville, Kentucky in 2014, I made an intention to do without a car for as long as possible.
Framing the Experiment
Let me explain: this intention was the result of a lengthy, mindful process of weighing the pros and cons, as well as of careful research of the best locations for work and home.
I would not look for a place to live until I had landed a good job, with a bus route between them. Home and work would be within the limits of a reasonable bus ride or better yet, within walking distance—and, within walking distance of shopping.
I decided that the ideal place to live was in the neighborhood where I had previously lived because it was on the bus line for downtown jobs as well as shopping areas uptown. The neighborhood was also perfect for pedestrians, with everything imaginable within walking distance. Everything, except a supermarket and gas station.
I began narrowing down my job search, applying only to those on a bus line. By serendipity, I immediately found a posting on Craig’s List: “Housemate wanted in Crescent Hill.” This was my neighborhood: The situation was perfect. I made the decision to move in, although I hadn’t yet heard back from any of my job applications.
As soon as I had settled into my new home, I began the experiment.
“It’s an experiment,” I told curious and concerned family and friends. “I am just going to try this for a while, to see whether or not it is even possible to live in Louisville and maintain a satisfactory lifestyle (job, social life, health, and economic status) without a car.”
I explained to anyone who would listen that I had written out a list of the pros and cons. Here they are:
Pros:
*Living car-free will immediately eliminate the costs of gas, insurance, and repairs – and, accidents
*I will save a lot of time not buying gas, getting car repairs, and sitting in traffic jams
*I won’t have to sit for hours at the DMV every year
*I will save a lot of time not driving to places where I don’t need to be
*I will stay home more: read and write more, cook and garden more, entertain friends more
*In staying close to home, I will buy locally and get more exercise walking to local businesses
*Living more locally will reduce stress and anxiety, and increase my sense of personal control
*By living in a smaller world, I will continue to make intentional choices about travel and activities
*Most important: Not having my own car will drastically reduce my personal carbon footprint.
*And: I will be creating more demand for public transportation, and will be advocating for the existence of the bus system, which will eventually force local, state, and federal governments to do something about the infrastructure. “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Cons:
*Living without a car will restrict me in terms of travel options
*I will have to borrow or rent a car in order to take a trip
*Workplace options will be limited to jobs on the bus line or within walking distance
*Bad weather will limit my travel, or make me miserable while waiting at a bus stop or shopping
*I will need to plan bus routes and schedules whenever I want to make a social engagement
*I will have restricted choices of health care facilities
*I will have to stay home more
*Shopping will be inconvenient, limited to buying only what I can carry
*I may eventually decide to change my shopping habits.
You Decide: Which list is longer?
Ultimately, to be car-free is to be CARE FREE: free of all the headaches and responsibilities and yes, even the dangers, of owning and driving a car. We will walk more, or go out less; we will plan our activities more carefully to make them time and energy efficient; perhaps we will decide that we need fewer activities than we think we do.
We will begin to live more locally, to know our neighbors, and to care about where we live.
Of course, there are drawbacks to being car-free. But these cons are countered by the benefits of eliminating the financial, health, and environmental liabilities of car ownership.
Will the experiment succeed?
My car-free experiment fits the definition of a real (scientific) experiment for this very reason: I have only hypotheses regarding what I will find. I am doing it “to see what happens.” If at some point I discover that it is not possible to live alone and car-free in Louisville, then I will admit that my experiment has failed.
At that point, I will either choose to buy an environmentally friendly car (which in my opinion is an oxymoron), or explore emerging options of car-sharing, or live in a sustainable community within Louisville, which would involve car-sharing or working from home. Or, I will move to a place where it is possible to thrive without a car, which is commonplace in many countries and even in some US cities on the Eastern seaboard.
But since my experiment is limited to where I live, this is where I will begin.
Epilogue
If enough people choose to be car-free, the direction of our economy, and of society in general, will begin to change course.
Maybe people would be able to save money for things more important than having a car for driving farther and more frequently. Maybe they would stay home more; have better and closer relationships with their families and neighbors; maybe they would get involved locally; maybe their health would improve; maybe their mental health would also improve…the list goes on and on.
Having fewer cars on the road will create cleaner air and a less toxic environment; and less demand for cars would also mean retooling the car manufacture industry to something sustainable. Perhaps we could even begin to solve some of the world’s pressing problems if we turned our focus away from cars.
You get the idea: Our choices matter.
