I’m revisiting an old topic here, because I’m frustrated over not having a car, and I need to remember why I got rid of my old one. It can be a pain taking the bus, but I chose this for a reason. Difficulty concentrating was a big part, but it’s also a social movement. I read a book about it!
(photos taken from book cited below)
Almost three years ago, I made this post which included everything I was reading about. One thing was this book:
Balish, C. (2006). How to Live Well without Owning a Car. Ten Speed Press. (ISBN 9781580087575)
In the post, I described some of the reasons the book gave for why life is better without a car. Now that I’ve been doing this for over two years, I thought I’d give an update.
The reasons I came away with for going car-free were:
- It’s less stressful to go through life without having to worry about accidentally killing someone
- Cars are horrible for the environment. (In 2024 I would add, even electric cars have a huge environmental impact, due to their production and disposal.) Mass transit is massively more efficient and the environmental cost is much lower.
- Procuring oil has led to a lot of international conflicts. If everyone reduced dependence on oil (not just foreign oil), I’m not saying we’d achieve world peace but we’d have one less thing to fight about.
- It’s financially much better not to own a car.
- Living without a car encourages physical exercise
- Not relying on a car unlocks access to a lot of locations where parking is difficult, expensive, or outright impossible
- As I put it last time, “Living ‘car-free’ encourages planning ahead, delayed gratification, and generally a more mindful approach to life.”
Surprisingly, I absolutely still agree with most of these. When I witness road rage, I’m just so glad that I don’t have to deal with that anymore. Yes, finding other transportation can be difficult, but my life overall is much less stressful without a car.
I’ve gotten really good at finding cheaper alternatives to rideshares like Uber and Lyft, so I’d have to crunch the numbers but it definitely seems to be helping financially. And the thing is, that even if we posit that not having a car costs the same as having a car, a key difference is that if I don’t have money, I can theoretically reduce expenses to $0 if I don’t go anywhere outside of walking distance. I’m not locked into monthly payments.
I’ve lost a lot of weight over the past couple of years despite taking Zyprexa and a ton of other psych meds, which I primarily attribute to going vegan and not driving. It’s virtually impossible for me to prioritize going to the gym, but if I have to walk for transportation purposes, I do it all the time.
I’m surprised that I had already thought of the mindfulness piece, but I have noticed that since giving up driving. Driving contraindicates mindfulness for sure.
I also believe that living without a car is in keeping with my values. The square footage of our country that is occupied by cars is ridiculous. Fewer cars on the road means less traffic congestion, which allows for more population density, which is huge in a housing crisis. Homes don’t have to be spread out as much if we aren’t making space for everybody’s cars.
Another thing is that the more people who rely on public transportation, the better the infrastructure will be. More demand would mean more busses and more routes, which would make it easier not to have a car, creating a positive feedback loop.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world,” as they say.
So, I’m glad I read the book because it’s been a really healthy lifestyle change for me! There are a couple issues with it, as with anything in life. First, it doesn’t cite its sources which is incredibly frustrating. It’s also just really old- it was copyrighted in 2006. So if Balish ever wants to make a sequel, there aren’t very many books on this and it’s an important topic! Just plug in a citations page in the second edition and it will deserve to be a bestseller! But as it is… 100% still read the book. It might change your life.
