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By Brian, January 8, 2009 8:14 pm

Being car-free arouses a lot of derision, but after a while you get used to it. People assume you’re poor, or an alcoholic. They’ve bought into the car culture they where raised with, and to see someone getting by without ever owning a car kicks a reflex.
However, with global environmental concerns getting more news coverage and fluctuating fuel prices, people are getting less freaked out about it.

That is, until winter arrives.

Most winters, I can honestly say, I’ve been a wimp. I put the bike away and take the bus or walk to my destination. Last winter was the first time I ever rode a bicycle in the snow to get to the store. It was surprisingly easy, but I didn’t really have a bike in condition to do it on a regular basis – so I filed it away in the back of my mind.

Over the course of the summer of 2008, I collected a few bicycle frames, wheels, parts and whatever bicycle related items I could scavenge when people cleaned out their garages. I found a fairly intact department store mountain bike – I’m usually fairly picky about these because of their low-quality manufacturing and questionable design decisions. This one I saved with the intent of putting it on the heavily salted roads in Ottawa. It’s a bike that I can get to the store with, but can leave covered in slush outside without concern about how badly the water and salt are corroding the parts.

Here we are, part way into January and I’m still riding it nearly every day. I even took it out twice yesterday during the massive snow fall we had, just for kicks. I’ve discovered not only is it a great workout, it’s fun and easy! The roads are usually kept clear for the cars, so riding on those is not much different from riding in the rain. The snow, when it’s powdery presents little challenge to cut through in a low gear.

I guess people just aren’t used to the idea – I wasn’t until recently, so I guess I can’t blame them. These same people would likely go skating or skiing in the same weather however, so the name calling is a little undeserved. I think the neighbor that called me ‘brave’ was really only searching for a polite term because I’d shoveled her walkway that day.

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By Brian, July 16, 2006 10:34 pm

I went into a vitriolic rant a few minutes ago which my girlfriend was the unfortunate recipient of (sorry, hon!) and it occurred to me that this was something of a sore point for me lately.

Nearly everyone I meet gives me this dumb pie-eyed look when I explain that I don’t own a car, don’t have a drivers license and frankly have no interest in obtaining either. I’ve spent the majority of the past nine years living in Ottawa, Canada’s fourth largest metropolitan city.
The bus service is adequate for my needs, despite fare increases over the past years is still vastly cheaper than an automobile, besides which it’s healthier to walk or ride a bicycle.

According to this page by the US EPA, the average passenger car emits approximately 5,400 kilograms of pollutants per year. Since most of my travels would consist of my being the sole passenger this would be squarely on my shoulders. I’ve been hard pressed to find exact data regarding how much city bus emissions per passenger are, but the estimates I did find place it at 66% less. This means that I personally am contributing at most 1,600 kilograms of pollutants from transit. I’d like to think it’s less since I walk or cycle whenever I can do so.

Let’s factor in that gasoline sells for over a dollar a liter here in Ottawa, and automobile insurance (which is mandatory) is also a few hundred dollars a month. Cars, like any mechanical device have parts which wear out and break. They need maintenance and replacement parts. Eventually the entire vehicle may require replacement. Heck, they’re at least a few thousand dollars to obtain one in working condition, and most people I know have owned several in their lifetimes. How is this device saving me time? Most of my paycheck would go to operating and maintaining it! I can ride the bus for about a day’s pay per month. Now that’s saving me time, since at the absolute minimum I’d be losing over a week’s pay per month for the ‘convenience’ of a darned car.

I don’t need to go through several levels of testing to ride the bus, and the initial investment for a bus pass is about $10 for a photo ID. Drivers licenses take years, at least three tests, and several hundred dollars to obtain.

When I travel around on the bus, I glance out the window now and again to make sure I’ve not passed my stop. If I was driving a car, I’d have to be paying constant attention to not only my vehicle and it’s speed and heading, but all others around me including pedestrians. I’d have to watch the traffic lights, street signs, random debris on the roadway and various weather conditions which change quite often here in the capital.

I’ve actually dozed off on the bus. That’s death in a car! I can sit down, let someone else worry about these annoyances, listen to music on headphones, read a book, text message on my phone, daydream, whatever.

So, in reality I’m saving time, money, effort, stress and the environment all at once. Understandably if I lived in a less urban area it would be a different situation.

But I don’t – So why ruin my life for what would amount to merely caving to peer pressure spawned by industrial marketing?

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