I hereby declare November 11, 2011 to be my Carmistice Day.
I've been talking about it for 25 years; it's time to fish or cut bait. One year from today, I will be carfree. (Or else look like a total schlub. Either way, a win/win.)
Currently I drive a 1998 Chrysler Sebring convertible. For what I've spent on it just in the last six months, I probably could have been hiring a limo instead. Its problems are legion, but the biggest one is that it's a car. I don't need that - or at least, I hope to not need it. By this time next year.
I ride an Electra Townie, pictured above when it was brand-new. I absolutely love it; I've never had a bad day riding it. I also ride the bus quite a bit -there's a stop a block away - and have a convenient discount pass so I don't have to worry about correct change. Mostly, though, I do a combination of both. Whoever invented the bike rack for city buses should get a Nobel.
Earlier this year I signed up with car2go, but I've only used it once. It's a great concept, but a few months after joining I moved outside their "geofence." I'm still tempted, when I see one of their cars parked around town, to get in and drive it somewhere else. Just because I can.
Sometime soon I will go into a long philosophical discourse on why I want to be carfree, but for now I'll just say that I've wanted to for a long time. And now I've set a date to make it happen.
(That's all it takes to make something happen, right? Just set a date?)
