car free
I recycled my car.
Recycle Utah picked it up last Friday.
The question of discarding it has been floating around in my mind since 2021!
I don’t remember when I considered it a good idea to do car light experiments (for the purpose of testing this question, whether it was feasible or not, for me personally). This is how I like to approach life now, perform these small tests (I think I always have but especially reading Derek Sivers’ blog post on doing small tests, I’ve come to realize I have done this for a while).
I have an idea, I do a small test, I write about the experiment.
One test I did before but never managed to write about here was tackling the trailhead problem. How would I get to the trails without a car? Test: I rented from Turo (I love the sharing economy). I didn’t have a credit card (I do now). I rented it for one day. Could I do this twice a month? I asked myself. Would I actually go on a pre-planned hike or do I need options? Why is it just for hiking, I thought? I could also use it for groceries, for hauls. I could even go to a meetup with it.
This is when I thought I would be going out of downtown a lot more.
But that hasn’t been the case.
Since having access to the train, I’ve actually been going downtown more. But if I want access to a car, I can do it with Turo!
Hence, the experiment.
It began by going on a trip to Huntsville, UT with my friend.
I drove on the freeway, then the highway, through the pine-covered canyons and spruce-filled forest. Driving the rented sedan to the reservoir, we were going to paddle board (this was in July). After our time at the reservoir, I drove back.
Everything went smoothly.
I wrote in my notes after this experiment, what was keeping me from discarding my car?
That was then! A few months later, I’ve already decided!
And now I don’t have it anymore.
I mentioned in one blog post that I have a friend whose car I use to go to the trails (they drive). The trails right at the edge of the city are feasible to get to by transit. Salt Lake City has also started putting bike parking at some of their city trailheads. Because even without access their car, I could easily get to the city trails if I wanted. I feel better living my values.
As a current suburbanite, I know it’s a risk. But as an emerging urbanite, it aligns with my future self.
It’s also much easier to just pick up and leave for another city, another country. To me, that is freedom, not the American freedom of the open road. I believe life is about calculated risk. Existentialism is about choices, about owning your choice even when the outcome is “bad.” And this outcome might be “bad” for a future job or getting to a date or any number of things I haven’t anticipated.
I want to move, breathe, exist in urban environments, with accessible, reliable, sustainable urban mobility options. I also love just using my own feet to get places. I recently took a trip where I walked everywhere. I was without a car for six days and it was fantastic. I got to know the different neighborhoods that would only been a flash through the sterile plastic of a vehicle.
So if my goal is to live as an urbanite, reject the suburbanite paradigm while living in it, why was I holding onto my ugly metal box from 1999, the door covers falling off, the seat covers continuously ripping open? It was causing me to lose money even when it was sitting in the driveway and I resented that.
I’ve realized that, while hiking in Utah is great, it’s not as important to me as it once was.
Who knows, I might make another friend who has a car and wants to go hiking. If I do want to hike deep in the mountains (this is not a big desire right now), I do need to rent one if I didn’t have a friend (or hitchhike).
As an environmentalist, it felt wrong to me to know the fumes would still be polluting the atmosphere if I sold it. The money wasn’t important to me. This decision to recycle….how would it make me feel, how did I personally feel in the moment, and how am I feeling about it now? I feel good knowing the metal and parts will be used well.
Right now, I don’t regret it. Just like I didn’t regret selling my electronic keyboard. I sold that when I discovered, through real trial and error, that I didn’t care about losing my piano skills much as I thought I did in my head.
David William Rosales’ post, listening to “The War On Cars” podcast, reading “A Walking Life” by Antonia Malchik and “Life After Cars” by Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, learning about how “urban ranconteur” George Hahn never owned a car living in Cleveland, helped me to see I’m not alone in this decision.
On another note, I intend on becoming a more social person and talking with strangers. I was inspired to do this seriously (just like I did in 2022) after reading the book “The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World” by Joe Keohane, learning about how he transformed himself into a socialite and collector of stories.
Hopefully, not owning a car will assist me with that, as well as using my Punkt phone more downtown. Because I won’t be isolated as much, and also, offline, I’ll be present.
David William Rosales’ post about how he lives car free
Derek Sivers “Err On the Side Of Action, To Test Theories” article
A Walking Life by Antonia Malchik
Life After Cars by Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon
How “urban ranconteur” George Hahn bikes around New York City and never owned a car in Cleveland