I posted here a few days ago seeking advice on what type of car to buy, having determined that it wasn't really realistic to think that I could live in a large-ish city without one, especially since my whole family lives 350 miles away, and I like to visit places out in the surrounding (loooovely) countryside that are not accessible by bus or bike (unless you are VERY fit indeed and have lots of time - the area is hilly).
However, having done a lot of calculations based on web tools regarding the real cost of automobiles and on my own estimates, I figure that having a car is going to cost me $400-500 a month. So, basically, I will be forced to work a certain type of job (and be desperate to keep it) just to finance this car. I also already know that I only want to live in the center of the city, where all the action is (and where all the suburbanites by definition AREN'T). The city has a great, cheap, comparably reliable bus system, and cabs aren't prohibitvely expensive ($25 fare from the area I intend to live to the airport, for instance). I am willing to live in a very small apartment in order to stay in the center of the city. My job will come second!
I figure that by doing away with the $400-500 cost of a car, and even if I therefore take a lower-paying job, I will have more than enough money to occasionally rent a car or take a train or bus. These are all issues I am considering. I may be in a position just now to attempt to leave the rat race. I am only 26, so this would be quite a feat, but I figure the best way to escape it is to avoid getting fully trapped in it to begin with (I was in a rat-race type of job before I returned to Texas this summer).
Do you refuse to give in to the pressure - and live without a car?
Is it actually possible to live a life driven by one's own values and (lack of traditional) ambition? Please share your stories.* * *
Here a few relevant quotes from the magnificent webpage of the late Kent Kifer (who was killed by a drunk driver while cycling)... these are in the spirit of my inquiry:
'Bill Yoder wrote: My favorite excuse of my high school students for not having time to do their homework is "I have to go to work." When asked why they have to go to work, it's "I have to pay for my car." When asked why they have to have a car, it's "I have to get to work." It's hard to defeat such circular logic. Too many kids are hooked on cars at age 16, and live the remainder of their lives enslaved by the concept of "freedom of the road."'
European Transportation by Trips, 1988 (my apologies for the visual density of this info)
Country/Auto/Bicycle/Walk/TransitW. Germany --- 47.6% / 09.6% / 30.0% / 11.4%
France --- 47.0% / 05.0% / 30.0% / 11.0%
Netherlands --- 45.0% / 29.4% / 18.4% / 04.8%
Denmark --- 42.0% / 20.0% / 21.0% / 14.0%
G. Britain --- 42.0% / 04.0% / 29.0% / 14.0%
Austria --- 38.5% / 08.5% / 31.2% / 12.8%
Switzerland --- 38.0% / 09.0% / 29.0% / 19.0%
Sweden --- 36.0% / 10.0% / 39.0% / 11.0%
'Now days, it costs a year's wages to buy a car, and up to a quarter of the space of the house is taken up by the garage. Yet, when someone has blown a whole year's salary on a new car -- even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the old one -- everyone comes and congratulates the fool, as if he had won a prize or something!'
'I never lift weights, I never condition my abs, I never stretch, I never diet, I seldom see a doctor, I just walk and ride my bike.'
'A bike doesn't have to cost much. Unlike a car, a chrome-moly bike will outlast the owner, and few parts will ever break or fail. Some parts will wear out: the tires, the chain, the cogset, the sprockets, the brake pads, and the bearings. The wheels will fatigue. Replacing the tires is the greatest maintenance cost. When I had little money, I was able to keep my costs to about a penny a mile by using tires and chains from discount stores and rear cogs from a flea market. My costs are greater now; I have paid $2,000 over ten years and 50,000 miles (4¢ a mile), but I still have my two bikes and gear in good condition.
'On the other hand, the average car cost about $5,700 a year. These costs break down to $2,883 for depreciation, $724 for insurance, $696 financial charges, and 9.3¢ a mile for fuel, maintenance, and tires, for a total cost of 45¢ per mile. For some reason, these government figures don't include repairs, parking costs, or taxes. Nor do they consider the earnings necessary to save $5,700. Nor do they include a host of hidden costs, indirect costs, and costs passed on to others. If all costs are included, the total might be as great as $1.25 a mile.
'An unmarried cyclist living in the South can live quite comfortably on that $5,700 a year. An apartment costs $200 a month, utilities (gas, electricity, phone, Internet, and water) from $100 to $150, and food from $60 to $100, leaving $300 to $1,400 a year left over for miscellaneous expenses, such as bike tires. Because of being a cyclist, I can save half of my income while I'm working, or I can afford to take a year off to go back to school or to write.'
'Henry Thoreau, speaking 150 years ago, foresaw the problems our civilization was headed towards. He did not attack change ("When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact in his understanding, I foresee that all men will at length establish their lives on that basis."), but he pointed that we were not happy ("The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."), that we had the wrong goals ("Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at."), and that we expected a free lunch at some point ("Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough that all will at last ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing.").
'The solution, both for us as individuals and as a nation, is to quit following the piper and to rearrange our priorities. True improvement is not always outward ("The kingdom of heaven is within you"). We have to learn to value people over property, Nature over luxury, love and affection over sex and money, and meaningful experiences over financial success. While I recognize that riding bicycles can't solve all these problems, I think that cycling can help people begin making healthy changes in their own lives. Cycling, by itself, can be a good alternative to massive traffic jams, a million injuries and 42,000 deaths a year, high insurance costs, double bypass surgeries, high taxes, and mile after mile of sterile, God-forsaken asphalt.'
http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepagesKen took this picture of himself in Kansas on his way to Washington state during his last trip. (© 2003 Ken Kifer)