Step Away From The Car
Like millions of other families throughout the U.S., we went away for the long holiday weekend by car. Our 340 mile round trip broke an eight week string of near carlessness, excluding a random business trip my wife took to Seattle in which she ended up being the designated carpool driver. The dent to our statistics was well worth it, given the relaxation this trip back to nature afforded for my family. These trips send my conscience through the ringer, as calculations of the carbon price of my family’s happiness flash through my mind as we whiz down the highway. I comfort myself with the knowledge that our car trip is significantly less harmful than loading the entire family on an airplane, and I’ve reconciled myself to the reality that some places are only accessible by car. Unfortunately, these trips also bring out the naysayers, who, aware of our family’s efforts at limiting car use, are quick to point out any violations. They seem far more interested in our inability to be perfect than their own unwillingness to eliminate even one car trip. Oddly, I find the whole moral quandary created by our few car trips far more challenging than all the time spent living without the car in the first place.
The hangover from using the car is so much greater for the mostly carless because once you’ve figured out how to avoid using the car for most trips, you take it as a challenge for every trip. Turning the key in the ignition is admitting defeat. I’m able to sleep at night if we’ve weighed the various options and determined, as we did for this weekend’s trip, that a car is the only way to go. I get heartburn, on the other hand, from trips over which I have little control, like (usually someone else’s) last minute errands that could have done without a car with a little more planning. Or trips to the suburbs for activities that can easily be performed closer to home, like soccer games and birthday parties. As the word “curmudgeon” forms on your lips, I readily admit this attitude doesn’t make me the life of the party. More importantly, this way of thinking defies the spirit of our efforts, which, on the whole, have been fun and life affirming.
It’s not that I’m obsessed with perfection, although I certainly wouldn’t mind logging a few weeks without any car use. I’m more concerned about the slippery slope of car use. The car is always near, ready with a quick answer to any problem. One goal of trying to go carless, at least for my family, is to show it can be done even when it’s not easy. If you aren’t scrupulous about questioning every car trip, then you really haven’t reassessed the role of the car in your life. You’ve just replaced the quick local errands that shouldn’t have been car trips in the first place. Continuing the Home Depot or Costco runs every weekend simply pushes your car addiction into the closet, only to reappear for a weekly two day blowout. In the end, scrutinizing your car use is really about examining your own priorities and ferreting out those luxuries that we have been fooled by the car to think of as essential.
Still, I’m aware that I should lighten up. A lot would have to happen for my family to return to its old ways. And when I’m not stressing about one-off car trips, I’m enjoying our new lifestyle immensely. I need to keep this in mind next time we absolutely positively have to drive somewhere. Things could be worse. I could be doing this every day.
Photo Credit: David Kolb
Comments
Welcome back! When naysayers attack the next time you need to use your car, just remind them that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.
Posted by: Jeff Singer | June 1, 2007 6:51 AM