About two years ago, I started thinking how nice it would be if I could get rid of my car. Between the car payment, insurance and gas, I could save at least $500 a month. It was impractical, though, because I was a single mom living in Southeast Portland and working the swing shift up on the hill at OHSU. My daughter was going to school in the Pearl, and on the days I worked I had to pick her from school at three, deliver her to her dad and get to work by three-thirty or so; this would have been impossible using public transportation. I sometimes worked until 1:00 a.m., which ruled out taking the bus home after work, and riding my bike at night was something I couldn’t even imagine. And shuttling Isabel and her friends between school, home, soccer and assorted other activities could not be done without a car.
This year, though, things are different. Isabel will be going to school in our neighborhood, and at 10.5, she no longer requires after-school care. I have a part-time day job and work up on the hill much less often, and I’ve discovered that night riding is doable after all. We are ideally situated: Fred Meyer and New Seasons are both less than a mile away, there is a weekly farmer’s market across the street, and a first-run movie theater three blocks away. Also within walking distance are the library, post office, rock gym, OMSI, Eastbank Esplanade, Next Adventure, downtown Portland, my day job and all the stores and restaurants on Belmont and Hawthorne. And of course, gas is now $4 a gallon.
The tipping point for me, though, was finding out how awesome ZipCar is. I had imagined that depending on carsharing would lock me into a structured, pre-planned life, something I could never tolerate. The reality, though, is very different: cars are all around me and are readily available at a moment’s notice.
The day I signed up with ZipCar, I reserved a Mini Cooper convertible named McGann that lives just over the Morrison Bridge at SW Washington and 2nd. I swung by and picked up Isabel and her friend Zoe. Isabel screamed when she saw the Mini, but was crushed to find we only had it for two hours. After puttering through afternoon traffic to the requisite stop at Taco Bell, I wanted to get out somewhere where we could really drive, so I extended our reservation by an hour and headed out to Sauvie Island. It was a beautiful, sunny day and cruising with the top down and a CD in the stereo was the best feeling I’d had in a long, long time. Traffic was light and we had time to stop off at the beach on Sauvie for a while. By the time I turned McGann in and hopped on my bike to head home, I felt refreshed and renewed. I never knew driving could actually
relieve stress.
I owned, and loved, my 1997 Subaru for five years, until one week ago, when I sold it to a scooter afficianado who was thrilled to have it for his wife and kids. I placed an ad on Craigslist at midnight on Sunday, and 15 minutes later I had two offers. I could have sold it the next day, but that morning the key broke off in the door lock and my neighbor who had my spare key was out of town. The buyer couldn’t get off work on time Wednesday to handle the transaction, so Thursday we went together to the credit union to pay off my loan and transfer the title. Today I decided to start this blog to document my first year of living without a car of my own since I was 18.
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