Shifting Into a New Gear

If you're keeping tabs, you may have noticed that it's been over a year since I have posted any new content here. The reason? After living very contently without a car for seven months, certain circumstances in my life forced me to purchase one. (I know!)

Though I have done my best to set up my life to be able to live car-free, there are some things that one just does not have control over. One of those things is the Seattle Public School District. Unfortunately, last year, my son did not get accepted into the school that would have been conveniently located equidistant between my house and his father's and easily accessible by bus or bike, and he ended up going to kindergarten in an inconvenient (to me) neighborhood.

I gave it the old college try for the first month of school. Since taking a Metro bus was out of the question (due to the one-hour travel time, each way) and Car2Go is never readily available outside my door whenever I need one, I relied on renting Zipcars every time I had to drop him off or pick him up from school. At $10 a pop, about five times per week, this quickly added up to $200 per month, just for school transportation. Add that to our other, nonschool transportation costs, and that just about equaled a monthly car-loan payment.

Since we had to ride our bikes to get to the closest Zipcar (not to mention having to lock my bike up, exposed to the elements), when the winter rains started the last week of October, I realized that I had no choice but to bite the bullet. It felt like a total impulse buy (and maybe it was!), but I have not once had buyer's remorse: I found a car online that Thursday, took it for a spin and purchased it on Friday, and drove it off the lot on Saturday--Happy Halloween!

But now the question arose: What the hell do I do with my car-free blog? You all might think I'm a sellout. A bad environmentalist. Or maybe even a hypocrite. Before you start judging me too harshly, let me tell you what type of car I purchased: It's a smart car, of course! As in, the same tiny, two-seater, made-by-Mercedes cars that you see cruising around Seattle with the Car2Go logo (minus the logo, and a totally different color). It suits our school-transportation needs perfectly, and is practical both economically and environmentally. I was lucky enough to find a used one with very low mileage, which greatly upped the "green" factor for me. (I would have gotten the electric version, but for some backwards reason, they are not available in "progressive" Washington state. I'll save that topic for another time.)

I still wanted to keep my blog going, but I wasn't sure how to reconcile the seeming hypocracy of not practicing what I'm preaching. In addition, the busyness of kindergarten and a new full-time work schedule kept me from finding the time or energy that I needed to shift my blog into a new gear. It took me a whole year, but, now that the first-year-of-school dust has settled and I've gotten used to the new work regimen, I've got it figured out:

Even though I am a car owner now, it is still a part of my car-free journey--I am still committed to driving as little as possible and to using and promoting alternative transportation. I've even found a way to use my car to help others maintain their car-free lifestyles, by renting it out on the peer-to-peer car-sharing site, Turo (formerly Relay Rides). And since the journey is really about being more eco-conscious, I will be broadening the scope of my blog to promote general green living, especially focusing on reducing consumerism and packaging.

So, stay tuned to find out about how I ditched toothpaste packaging; what prompted my DIY underwear; whether the "no-poo movement" is right for you; and other inspirational insights and encouraging advice for more eco-friendly, package-free, minimalist living.

And, of course, I will still be promoting anything and everything related to alternative transportation!

Let the journey continue!

Things to See When Living Car-Free

One of the benefits I love most about living without a car is the opportunity to see and explore the neighborhood in a way that is not possible from behind a steering wheel.

By riding bicycles or walking to the bus stop or to our final destination, not only are we getting more exercise and fresh air, we are also able to slow our pace and enjoy nature and the scenery along the way. It is a special bonding time for me and my son, and hands-on learning at its finest. And what a perfect opportunity to explain and illustrate the environmental benefits of having fewer cars on the road!

Here are just a few examples of some of our car-free sightings:

Why did the chicken cross the road? We found out this summer on our epic 7-mile bike ride to Mighty-O Donuts and preschool.
 

Have you ever noticed the time-capsule seed containers embedded in the sidewalk across from U-Village? We discovered them while waiting for the bus this past spring.

(This one was a great research-project opportunity, but we never did find out what the deal is with these: real time capsules, like the one in Olympia, or an art project, as another site suggested?)
 

And, when was the last time you saw an honest-to-god, real live, actual MONSTER TRUCK parked in your neighborhood? Saw that, too, on our bike ride to the Zipcar.

There are always plenty of interesting things to see, touch, and talk about on any walk or bike outing, plus a never-ending supply of treasures to add to a certain someone's nature collection.

More pictures are available in our Facebook album "Things to See While Living Car-free"!

  

Ziptripping 101

As I mentioned in my last post, I first became a member of the car-sharing company Zipcar back in about 2004, under the original company, Flexcar, which started in 2000. Even though car sharing has been around in Seattle now for about fifteen years, it is still an anomaly to most people, and I still get asked dozens of questions about the specifics of how it works by just about everyone I talk to who isn't already doing it. And now, with the introduction of other types of car sharing, such as the one-way rentals of Car2Go and the peer-to-peer rentals of RelayRides, Getaround, and FlightCar, there are even more questions to answer and mysteries to solve about this unorthodox way of living.

So let's start from the beginning: Zipcar

Zipcar provides a dedicated fleet of vehicles throughout the city that can be reserved by members by the hour or day and then returned to the same assigned parking space at the end of the reservation time. Cars range in type from fuel-efficient Mini Coopers and hybrids to SUVs and full-size cargo vans to suit all your errand-running, furniture-hauling, and road-tripping needs. There is a one-time application fee of $25 and a few different plans starting at $7/month or $70/year. Driving rates start at $8/hour and $73/day. Gas and insurance are included, with optional additional liability coverage available. There is a minimum one-hour reservation requirement, and then thirty-minute increments thereafter.

Once you have a membership, reservations can be made online or on your smartphone with their easy-to-use app. To start your reservation, you hold your membership card over the scanner in the vehicle's windshield, which unlocks the doors. The keys are kept in the ignition, and from there you pretty much just drive it like it's your own vehicle. You can stop and go wherever you please and just have to return the car on time, in the same spot that you started from.

Unless your salary is somewhere in the realm of Bill Gates's, you probably wouldn't want to use a Zipcar to commute to your job, since you would be paying for the vehicle while it's just sitting in the parking lot all day and you're hard at work. Zipcars are best used for running errands, such as grocery shopping, where you have an idea of how long it will take, or for weekend getaways, where you can get the daily rate.

I've found that the best way to use Zipcar is to combine errands whenever possible. Since there is a one-hour minimum for reservations, it's possible to squeeze in a quick trip to the store just by adding on an additional half hour. And by taking advantage of the fourteen-minute early-entry trick, that can turn a one-hour reservation into one hour and forty-five minutes! For example, I rent one whenever I have to drop off my son at his dad's house, which only takes about thirty minutes start to finish. If I add another half hour to the beginning of my trip and get to the car fourteen minutes early (as long as there isn't a reservation just before mine), that gives me enough time to do a full grocery run, drop kiddo off at Dad's, unload groceries and booster seat at home, then return the Zipcar.

As convenient and economical as Zipcar is, it is not a perfect system, and will not work for everyone. The main complaint that I've heard from most people since Flexcar began fifteen years ago, is that the cars have to be returned to the same location. So they are not suitable for one-way trips. As I mentioned in my last blog, that "con" created a market for Car2Go, which does only one-way trips; but that is a discussion for another article. Here I have put together my personal list of pros and cons for Zipcar, which I hope will help answer any further questions that I did not already address. 

Pros: 

• Cars can be reserved up to a year in advance, so you know when one will be available
• Lower hourly and daily rates than Car2Go
• Variety of vehicle types allows for traveling with more than one passenger and using for multiple purposes: moving, Ikea shopping, camping, etc.
• Refer-a-Friend program: referring member and new member get driving credit
• Member benefits: discounts and/or driving credit with various local businesses
• 14-minute early access if car is not reserved before your reservation time (with no additional fee)
• Easy access and reservations with cell phone apps; 
• Courtesy text messages ask if you need more time, if car is not already reserved; extend reservation with a quick text-message reply ("ext 30" or "ext 60")
• Gas, insurance, and maintenance included
• 24/7 roadside assistance
• Clean, well-maintained, newer vehicles

Cons:

• No one-way trips (but stay tuned, as they are testing a one-way program in Boston!)
• Monthly or annual fees apply, even if you don't drive
• One-hour minimum reservation requirement (but 30-minute increments after that)
• Parking fees not included during rental period (parking meters, garages, etc.)

As always, I'm happy to answer any questions about Zipcar or car sharing in general. If you do wish to join Zipcar, you can get $25 of driving credit by signing up through this link (or any of the Zipcar links throughout this article and blog)! And don't forget, Zipcar isn't just in Seattle--it's available in over 50 cities in North America and Europe!

Car Sharing: The Ins and Outs

I would love to be able to say that being car-free truly means living without a car or not being dependent on fossil fuels. But let's face it: sometimes a car is just a necessary evil. Maybe in some metropolitan areas such as New York City or San Francisco, where public transit is a reliable alternative, one could get by without ever stepping foot on a gas pedal. But, in my experience, Seattle just doesn't cut it when it comes to bus service. And the rain and hills do not make it a conducive area for year-round biking, especially with a young child. (Yes, I admit that I am a fair-weather biker!)

But what we do have here in Seattle is a lot of technology, green thinkers, and creative entrepreneurs. It's not just our music that is alternative; you could say that we put the alternator in alternate transportation. Seattle may not have been the first city to come up with or implement the idea of car sharing, but it was definitely a forerunner in giving the idea a jump start, with the creation of Flexcar in the year 2000. It started with a small trial in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and then expanded to the full city. I was intrigued by the concept, but didn't have a need for it at the time. It wasn't until a few years later, when I decided to ditch my car for the second time since moving to Seattle in 1993, that I joined Flexcar.

The dedicated fleet of Flexcar vehicles (which included many hybrids) were parked in assigned parking spaces throughout the city, available for members to rent by the hour or day. The technology was pretty sophisticated for that time: reservations were made through the company's website, and car doors were unlocked by holding membership cards over the scanners on the windshields. Not all of the vehicles were that high-tech, though--the pickup truck that I often rented didn't have a card reader. Instead, a four-digit code was used to open a lockbox that held the keys. (Not surprisingly, that truck was stolen, at least once, from its parking space.)

I didn't use Flexcar very often because I could mostly get where I needed to be without a car. And then I didn't use it at all for several years due to moving out of the area and other life circumstances. But now that I am living in Seattle without a car once again and have a young child to transport around with me, I have renewed my interest in the car-sharing concept. And I am happy to find that over the last fifteen years, car sharing has come a long way--both in scope and technology.

In 2007 Flexcar merged with and became Zipcar** to create a car-sharing super power in Seattle. But because no one type of service can meet the needs of every lifestyle, two new types of car sharing evolved. In 2012, Seattle's car-sharing market was rounded out with Car2Go, which offers a "floating" fleet of tiny, fuel-efficient Smart Cars that can be rented for one-way trips and parked (almost) anywhere in the city; and RelayRides**, a peer-to-peer car rental service where car owners rent out their personal vehicles for daily, weekly, or monthly rates. And now, in 2015, some form of car sharing can be found in most major cities in the United States and Europe, as well as many other countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Russia, Iceland (Vikingcars, of course!), India, and Turkey, just to name a few. All the latest technological advances with cell phone apps and GPS mapping have made car sharing even more accessible and convenient than ever. And I'm sure that the desire to find greener, more economical, and more socially conscious ways of getting around will continue to shape and expand car sharing throughout the globe.

In Seattle alone, we continue to see the forces of supply-and-demand economics, healthy competition, and eco-consciousness bring about creative and evolving transportation alternatives. Two other peer-to-peer options are also now gaining ground in the Seattle area: Getaround**, which is currently just preparing to launch in the Seattle market, seems to combine the features of both RelayRides** and Zipcar**, offering hourly or daily rentals of privately owned cars for even lower rates; and FlightCar, which offers privately owned cars for rent from airports while owners are out of town (making use of cars that would otherwise be sitting idle for days or weeks).

It is not surprising that traditional rental car services are now also getting in on the short-term car-rental action. Enterprise and Uhaul have each entered the scene, but still with limited or no presence in the Seattle area. And, in fact, Zipcar** was purchased by Avis Budget Group in 2014.

With so many options to choose from, you might be wondering which one is best. There really is no "one size fits all" when it comes to car sharing; each type has its pros and cons. I've found that having a membership with ALL of them makes the most sense, since each trip that I take has different requirements. Some trips require planning ahead, and sometimes I need to figure out transportation on the fly. The mobile apps that all of these services have, combined with the ones available for public transportation (One Bus Away and Trip Planner) and peer-to-peer taxi services (Uber**, Lyft**, and Sidecar) make it possible to do on-the-go trip planning and even compare rates versus time and convenience among the various options.

So, while Seattleites patiently wait for the powers that be to tear down viaducts, bore enormous holes under the city, continuously reduce and reroute bus service*, and ever so slowly build tracks for the long-promised Link light rail service expansion, we are fortunate to have so many other options. And with so many new condos and high-rise apartment buildings going up in just about every neighborhood, the market is ripe for even more creative transportation alternatives. I'm holding my breath for an all-electric car-share option, which would greatly reduce the fossil fuel dependency.

Until then, I will continue riding the bus, biking, and walking whenever possible and fill in the gaps with whichever car-share option best suits my needs. And I hope that my efforts will encourage more and more Seattleites to give up their personal vehicles too. If I can manage it with a five-year-old in tow, anyone can!

On my Links & Resources page I have a brief summary of all the different car-sharing services in Seattle, and future posts will give a more detailed description and analysis of each.


*Beginning June 6, 2015, major transit changes to King County Metro will be under way due to the approved funding budget from Proposition 1. We shall see if these changes make any significant improvements to traffic congestion or entice any new bus riders.

**Signing up through these links will get you free driving credit!

April Fools Bring May Jewels

Wednesday, April 1, 2015, was a beautiful sunny day. I was on my way to yoga class in my 1986 Ford Escort, and as I was driving along, I started thinking to myself, "I should really be riding my bike to yoga on a day like this!" About two minutes after that thought, I heard a minor popping sound, my engine cut out, and I could no longer accelerate. All attempts to restart the engine failed, and I had no choice but to flip on the hazard lights and go get some help.

Fortunately, I did not have my five-year-old son with me, and I happened to break down right in front of the restaurant that I work at. It couldn't have happened in a more convenient place--it was quick and easy for a couple of the kitchen guys to push my car out of the street and into a legal parking space.

After having a car-savvy friend and a greasy old mobile mechanic (who, ironically, since this was April Fool's Day, uses a joker for his business card logo!) diagnose the problem, it was determined that it was beyond what was reasonable to repair for such an old jalopy. (Timing belt, interference engine, busted valves, say no more.) That Saturday I had my beloved little five-speed, moss-covered wagon towed away by a salvage dealer, who gave me $60 for it. It was a $500 car that I got two years of use out of, with a few minor repairs. Easy come, easy go.

Surely the Universe was trying to tell me something. But now what to do? Getting to work was no problem; I live within walking/biking distance of the restaurant, and my other job, freelance proofreading and editing, I do from home. But I also have a kid who gets transported back and forth between my house and his dad's every couple days, goes to preschool two days per week, plays t-ball and other extra-curricular activities, and is still required by law to ride in a booster seat. That was the challenging part.

I have always had it in the back of my head to be prepared for being car-less. That's why I moved back into the walkable Wallingford neighborhood two and a half years ago. I had even checked the bus schedule to my son's preschool long before my car departed, in preparation for such an event, but was discouraged by the route: four buses and two hours of travel time to get him to and from a two-hour class!

My first thought was to buy a new car. I was approved for a loan from my credit union with a great interest rate, and my boyfriend was really gung ho on the idea. We went out and test drove some cars and both fell in love with a Subaru Legacy wagon that would have been perfect for all our camping and other outdoorsy activities. Unfortunately (or luckily, depending on how you look at it), the car had a rebuilt title, which my loan would not cover. So, back to the drawing board. I continued to scour the internet for used cars and read countless reviews and Carfax reports. The more I read, the more disenchanted I became with the idea of owning a new(er) car. I could certainly afford to purchase one, but the routine maintenance, repair costs, and insurance rates would add tremendously to my monthly expenses.

In the meantime, I looked into the two main car-sharing options available in Seattle--Zipcar** and Car2Go--to see if it would be cost effective to use either of these services, rather than spend two hours riding and waiting for Metro buses twice a week. The answer: it depended on the day and what else I would be doing during preschool time. (See future posts for details on our car-sharing trips.) There are two Zipcars** parked about four blocks from my house, which, so far, have always been available when I needed one. I also discovered that it wasn't that much of a hardship to do the bus thing since preschool is done at the end of the school year. I could live with that, at least for now.

Before I knew it, the entire month had gone by, and I was actually enjoying being car-free. The best day was when I called my insurance company to cancel my policy--so satisfying! I started thinking about how much money I could save by not owning a car--no more insurance, no more gas, no more maintenance or repair expenses--and it was an easy decision to continue life without owning a car.

I finalized my decision on the last day of the month, April 30, 2015, by purchasing a new cell phone. In order to take full advantage of the many transportation alternatives, especially while I am on the go, it was necessary to upgrade my tiny, out-dated phone to one that could support the apps that all of these high-tech services offer and require. I am no longer the last Luddite in Seattle!

So that is how Shifting Gears came about. All I had to do was start shifting my thinking first (with a little nudge from the Universe), and I discovered that being car-free is surprisingly liberating! With a little creative and prior planning, it is possible to get around using a variety of transportation options, even with a five-year-old and his booster seat in tow! I look at each trip as a fun, creative challenge to figure out the best way to get from point A to point B using all of the many modes of travel at my disposal: biking, walking, busing, car sharing, and cabbing.

I hope you will join me on my journey by checking back often or following my blog.  I would love to hear from others who are also using alternative transportation, and I welcome any questions from those that are considering making the shift to a car-free lifestyle!

**Signing up through these links will get you free driving credit!