Faced with another mammoth repair bill ($1290), we have decided to ditch the car.
Well, at least trial it for 4 weeks...
We believe it is possible, without there being any major impact on our quality of life. And we believe it would be more affordable.
We will:
- Walk and cycle more than we all already do
- Take public transport more than we currently do
- Take taxis and hire cars, where a vehicle is necessary (for business and pleasure)
- Simply not travel as much
- Slow down a bit
We will have to plan ahead a bit more; booking taxis, cars and planning trips and major shopping to coincide with use of a vehicle.
However, in our favour:
- I walk to the station and catch the train to work every day and don’t use a car
- My wife’s employment is mostly near public transport (but not always so)
- Brisbane remains reasonably well served with public transport
- Though we chose to live where we do because of the train line, perhaps more fortuitously we live near the airport and so have 3 or 4 car hire businesses within 5 minutes walk
- The kids mostly walk and cycle to school
There will be a few tricky things. Rugby training and away games will cause some thorny problems. Also visiting friends who don’t happen to live near public transport, will be hard... and time consuming I suspect.
This blog will follow our success… or otherwise...
2 comments:
Most people I know who support public transport (with their mouths) use cars. They tell me how much more efficient PT is while they are driving me somewhere in their car.
So because they don't use it, they simply don't know how efficient it really is to use. They have no practical experience of it.
They say they can't use it now because the "have too much running around to do", but they will use it when the government imroves it.
But will the government improve it? Can it be improved? Anyone who uses it knows that there is more difficulty to PT than just the wait for a train or bus or the walk between stops and home or destination. That's not even most of it.
These difficlties cannot be eliminated - they are an inherent compromise of any communal system.
These car users say will they "do their bit" by using PT when they can. But what about having to use it when it isn't convenient? Of course it is easy to use PT (or walk or cycle) when it is convenient to do so.
I hope you find all of this out during your experiment. Keep it in mind.
Slow down a bit? Slow down a lot!
I can get from Albion to Milton by car (a lift) in the time it takes me to walk to Albion Station from where my class is. It takes me at least 30 minutes by train and foot.
I am tall and physically able. The walking would take longer for some other people, more so if they are lugging something big. So it could be 40 or 50 minutes - instead of 10 by car.
Albion to Milton - 30 minutes.
You make slowing down sound like a good thing - like it's relaxing and enjoyable, a relief. With public transport your travel, and so all activity which requires travel, is slowed down by difficulty and waiting. Taking it easy means getting things done with less effort, faster - not harder and slower.
Add up all this lost time "across the City", in all industries and homes, and you have a third world lifestyle.
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