Baby You Can Drive My Car

I’ve decided to perform an experiment for the month of June. No, it does not involve beakers or Bunsen burners, but rather bicycles and buses. Oh. And my weird feet, of course. From June 1-30, 2011, I will park my car and use alternate forms of transportation in order to get where I need to go. Instead of driving, I will take the bus, walk, or ride my bicycle.

I am allowed to beg for a ride somewhere twice, once from my mom, and once from a friend. I’m only allowed to catch a ride with someone if they are going to the same place that I am, and if they don’t have to go more than one mile out of their way to pick me up.

I’ve given myself three outs for using my car, which is currently parked on the street in front of my house:

1. In the event of an absolute *emergency* – someone’s in the hospital or stranded on the freeway
2. If it is going to be inordinately dangerous; for example, if I have to go somewhere alone and will be coming back too late at night or have to transfer buses in an unsafe neighborhood
3. If it is going to jeopardize my job in any way because I’m unable to get where I need to be when I need to be there

I think these are reasonable exceptions and I’m interested to see how often I’ll need to use them. I’m also interested to see how many times I flake out and use my car just because it’s too much of a pain in the ass not to.

I started thinking about this when I moved at the end of March. I lived in my little apartment for a year, just one year, and managed to acquire a shocking amount of stuff. I’d go to Bed, Bath and Beyond for a shower gift and come home with a cake stand (only $10!), and an extra laundry basket ($2!!), and who knows what else. I’d go to the grocery store and buy every beautiful vegetable in sight and end up throwing far too many of them in the trash because I couldn’t eat them all before they spoiled. It was easy to acquire stuff because I didn't have to think about how to transport it, I could just toss it in the back of my car and presto! I started to wonder, what if I actually had to carry all that crap I consumed, in my arms, all the way home from the store?

I'd have a lot less shit in my basement.

One day my friend Sara and I began discussing what it would take to go completely without a car in metro Detroit.

Me: “It’d be hard. Especially in February.”

Her: “If you’re seriously considering it you need to try it for a month in the summer and a month in the winter, to see if it’s even possible.”

This was, of course, a brilliant idea. (I really love having brilliant friends, but that's beside the point, back to my experiment.) I knew she was right. If I was serious I was going to have to commit to a serious test.

So this is my summer test drive. Or rather, my summer test walk. Twelve days in to my little transportation experiment I’ll say that it’s been… interesting. Easy at times, difficult at others. Sometimes relaxing, sometimes stressful. I’m tracking all of my miles and the method of travel. I’m taking notes and making observations. I keep reminding myself that if I could manage to go without my car it would save me $350/month.

We’ll see where I land in another 18 days. Wish me luck.