drive less

and the new schedule goes like this…
Monday, Wednesday and Friday I drive.
Tuesday and Thursday I ride the bus to school, and I walk to work.

I have found a carpool buddy who lives a few blocks from me. Amazing we live an hour away from work and live in the same neighbourhood. I just put the word out in the fall that I was looking to carpool and eventually word got to her through the grapevine. We started before Christmas and since then have shared rides 1-2 times a week. I think that is a realistic goal. We both feel better about the gas we are saving, the emissions we aren’t creating, and it is a nice break to have someone else do the driving once in a while. I find on the days I carpool I have to be more organized and think ahead a bit, which for me is a good thing. I think a realistic goal is to carpool 20-25% of the time for now. Basically one day a week minimum. So far so good. Now I am off to do some errands….on foot.

Last November I moved to a different part of the city that allows me to pretty much put my car away on weekends. I can now walk or bus to everything I need. I still have to drive to work though, about an hour each way. I have been looking for opportunities to work closer to home, but until that happens (not likely for a while), I am trying to at least carpool or take transit when I can. Next week I am carpooling 2 days out of the work week. Public transit to work takes over 2 hours each way—just not feasible right now.

Today I had to do an errand somewhere way out of the way for work. I was thinking about bugging people I know to use a car, but decided against it. After waking up at 7a, taking two buses, and 40 minutes of travel time – I got here! It feels so great to be independent!

Keep up the great work everyone!

Since posting this goal, I routinely group my errands, walk to nearby stores when possible, am working on getting my bike back to operational (grrrrrr), and carpool to work most days. I’d say overall, done, though of course there is always room to improve on this one.

then i had to drive 2.5 hours to pick my stepdaughter up in New Jersey after her vacation with relatives, then i drove the 2.5 hrs back home. The following day i drove 2 hrs to college and then the following day i drove 2 hrs home. So, in a matter of 4 days i went through a full tank of gas in a Toyota Corolla. And that’s my non-gas guzzling vehicle. (I also own a Jeep Cherokee). So, i still have college almost every Saturday until the end of May…that’s going to eat at my gas bill, but it’s a price that I have to pay to meet another one of my goals=Master’s degree. Gotta do what I gotta do. One more trip to meet my relatives halfway to drop my nephew from New Jersey (who came back with me when I picked up my stepdaughter) and then I think i’m done with the driving except college. Whew.

Well, apparently someone heard my intentions on this one. A board flew out of the back of a truck a few weeks ago and completely destroyed my transmission. My car has been in the shop for more than two weeks now, and I’ve definitely been doing a lot less driving. Hopefully, I will get it back in the next few days (so I can try to not-drive it some more)!

I’ve been cutting back my driving drastically for about two months now and it has been wonderful. I go out once or twice a week to take my son to playgroup events and get some mom-friends face to face time, and we do all of our errands on the same outings. I used to drive to town almost every day each week – sometimes multiple times a day; now I plan my week carefully on the calendar so I can make sure I get everything done that I want to do and won’t have to make a trip out for just one thing. Living far from everything forces us to drive rather than bike or walk, but it’s so rewarding to only have to fill up 1.5 times a month now, instead of three or four times!

having my car die really helped! i’m not even looking for a new one. i just ride my bike everywhere now, and it’s great!

to the dentist and to the grocery store!