How To Live Well Without Owning A Car, Chris Balish, Ten Speed Press, 2006

I received a call early on a recent Thursday from the Humboldt County Sheriff's office. They asked me if I knew where my car was. I thought I did, but I was wrong -instead of its usual spot in front of the apartment, it had been taken to Eureka. The journey had left quite an impact: all of the lights were missing, the hood was missing, the front quarter panels were missing, the front bumper was gone, and the steering column had been taken apart to hotwire the car.

The insurance company decided that it would cost more than the value of the car to repair, so they simply wrote me a check. I had hoped to be able to keep the car, both because I was emotionally attached to it, and because I had just read that 50% of the car's lifetime carbon emissions come from manufacturing the vehicle. The environmentalist in me just wanted to put a few parts back on - after all, the rest of the car was still fine! I had even just gotten an oil change on Tuesday. But the insurance company assured me I that would rather purchase a new vehicle.

Now I was faced with the daunting task of shopping for a "new to me" car, starting a new job, and trying to finish up my thesis all at the same time. Perhaps I could simplify my life by doing without a car for a little while? Thankfully I had just come across a recent book by Chris Balish (2006) called How to Live Well Without Owning a Car. Chris, a young active professional living in St. Louis, was overwhelmed financially and stressed by the attention he had to pay to keep his SUV in good shape. So, he decided to save just a little bit of money and sell his SUV in exchange for a smaller, fuel-efficient car. Only he didn't get around to purchasing a new car right away, and by the end of the month he was startled to find out just how much money he was saving. On average, American's spend one fifth of their income on automobile ownership. Chris was hooked on the idea of living without a car and decided to write a guide to car free living so that the rest of us could see if we wanted take the same step.

The first section starts with a chapter called "The car free way to financial freedom" and then goes into detail about the financial, environmental, and quality of life benefits of living car free. The next two sections get into the gritty details of how to get to work without a car and manage everyday shopping and chores. He even has a special chapter on how easy it is to still date and maintain an active social life. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to find someone who shares your passion for the environment, or simply appreciates your novel approach to life. Spread throughout are helpful hints and pieces of advice from other people who have taken the step to live car free, or to start driving less. Once the reader has an idea of how it could be possible to live without a car, the final section guides the reader on their first steps to car free living. The final section also provides valuable advice for families that want to reduce their automobile dependency.

But, does car free living makes sense in Humboldt County? Chris Balish is quick to point out at the start of his book that living without a car is easiest in an urban setting. Nevertheless, the financial argument sounded compelling enough that I needed to a look into it a bit more. I decided to start with a quick comparison and figure out how much it would cost for me to visit my brother in San Francisco by car versus public transit. I also took a look at how much it was going to cost me to commute to my new job in Eureka. Using a cost per mile estimate developed by the American Automobile Association (AAA) it would cost $279 round-trip to visit my brother by small sedan (this includes gas, insurance, the price of the car, depreciation etc...). In contrast traveling by Greyhound would cost my partner and me only $112. However, my new job provides me with a limited amount of vacation and I would rather not spend a day of vacation on the bus. Chris suggests renting a car if you want to get away for the weekend. So, I called up Enterprise and discovered that if we rented a compact car for three days and made the same trip to San Francisco it would cost $115 including gas at today's prices (If you're carpooling with someone else, renting a car can be less expensive than Greyhound). My commute came out much the same. Driving the Honda Civic I had owned between Arcata and Eureka for work would cost just over $40, while taking the bus for the same week would cost only $14.

Wow, living without a car in Humboldt County might actually work. I can get to work, and I can get out of town for much less than it would cost for me to drive a car. There are a number of other things to consider such as how close you are to the grocery store and whether or not you're comfortable picking up your kids from day care with a bicycle trailer, but it is possible to live here without a car. For more information I highly recommend picking up a copy of How to live well without a car at your local bookstore. As for me? I have decided to try the car free lifestyle for a couple of months. I am sure that there will be a few bumps in the road but I am really looking forward to saving a bit of money, reducing traffic, and no longer worrying about my car getting stolen.