Photo courtesy of Rob Mooy, KTW
Coming up two years ago (September 2008), my partner, Don, and I got rid of our car. As with most forward-thinking moves in our household, Don was the driving force behind this decision (he maintains he was the undriving force). He’d read that the biggest single way to cut your carbon emissions was to get rid of your car so after yet another consultation with our (great, honest) mechanic, and anticipating a $3,000 bill merely to bring our not-very-old car up to speed, we decided to try doing without a vehicle altogether. We sold it for scrap, and took the leap into car-lessness.
Then we waited for things to change, because surely things would change dramatically once we were without a car.
And we waited.
And we waited.
Yes, there were some changes, but they were minor. I now had to take the bus to work at the Isabel Turner library out near the Cataraqui Centre mall. This added some time to my day, but the first day I realized there was a huge payoff: while in transit I could read. I didn’t have to pay attention to weather conditions (no more getting out and scraping the car on frigid mornings; no more last-minute discoveries that the gas tank needed to be filled and I’d have to leave earlier than planned); I didn’t have to pay attention to other drivers on the road who clearly didn’t know how to drive. Instead, I left my house, walked to the bus stop, got on the bus, and arrived at work in a mellow frame of mind — whether it was raining, sleeting or snowing, it made no difference, and since I had no idea whether anyone cut the bus off in traffic my blood pressure remained even.
I was surprised at how good the bus system was, although I’d like to point out to the transportational Powers That Be that many of us who work in the west end do get off work after 9 p.m. and don’t want to have to spend the hour it takes to get back downtown now. Maybe a few more post-9 p.m. buses could be put into circulation.
Back to our adventures in car-lessness: to do the family grocery shopping we took a bundle buggy, or two of us took knapsacks, and here was another revelation: once I factored in driving, parking, loading and unloading the car, it turned out that it took about the same amount of time to do the shopping with a bundle buggy as it did with a car, plus I got outside and I got exercise (yes, that’s me you’ve seen pulling a bundle buggy up Ordnance Street hill on Saturday mornings — great cardio workout). On top of which, without a car there was NO impulse shopping, no thoughts of “Oh, I think I’ll just pop out to the mall to pick up a door mat,” which invariably led, once I was in the store, to other, ancillary purchases. Not having a car saves you money in so many ways.
But — and it’s a big BUT — it’s possible for us to lead a life without a car primarily because we live in Kingston, which, so far, is a walkable town, a town where you can live in or near the downtown core and find all you need within a ten or fifteen minute walk. I say so far because in the last few years we’ve lost several important resources: No Frills closed (thank goodness for Food Basics), as did the S&R department store. I’m not here to plug for any specific retailers, but (and the mayor knows this, because I e-mailed him about it) S&R was the only place in downtown Kingston where one could purchase reasonably-priced kids’ winter wear, household appliances, realistic bathing suits, shoes, and any number of other day-to-day items without breaking the bank. I realize other stores are attempting to step into the void left by the closure of S&R, but so far no other retailer can offer the wide selection that S&R did, and City Hall has a responsibility to people and families (taxpayers that we are) who live downtown to do its best to ensure the core doesn’t turn into a wasteland of boutique stores and high-priced restaurants, which seems to be the way things are going, which would be too bad. Because the main lesson I’ve learned walking around Kingston is that the things that make it easy to live here without a car are the same things that make Kingston a great place to live: accessibility; a sense of community, which grows when you run into your neighbors and friends around town, and which makes the city feel like a safe, friendly place; and the easier it is to get around, the more you get around — which is good for you, the community, and the environment. A city where you don’t have to get in a car to get what you need is the most sustainable city of all — let’s keep Kingston that way.
Melanie Dugan lives in Kingston and loves to rant, since she believes ranting is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. She is pleased and honoured to be included on this august blog.
Annie Wilcox
September 17, 2010
And it is an adventure! We too have gone car-less and are using our legs and our trusty bikes now. We thought about it for several years ahead of time and began easing ourselves into no car. Our driveway, which is a sunny spot, has become a little container garden (now, if I can just dissuade passers-by from nicking my plants…) I agree, Melanie, we’re both getting a good workout and we’re definitely spending less money on impulse buying. On the other hand, when we do have use of a car we make sure we do all the large article purchasing. ‘Is that woman buying six bags of toilet tissue?’
Jonathan
September 19, 2010
This is a great post and hopefully will inspire others to follow your lead. I’ve been trying out these arguments with Leslie for years. I’m hoping they’ll slowly wear her down. My economic argument is that if you add the cost of a new used car, which we’ll need soon, plus gas and insurance and maintenance, you could save a bundle and have the luxury of taking cabs if you needed to.
There’s an even stronger argument on our street where we have no driveway and often no place to park on the road. All this really does beg the question of why, in the face of all this, do we still have that liability called a car?
Doug Nesbitt
September 24, 2010
Great article. I’m new to Kingston and am really impressed with the downtown in comparison to where I grew up: London, Ontario. Even though London has triple Kingston’s population, it’s downtown has few residents besides the rich living in condos, terrible traffic problems because of people commuting from the suburbs to work, and no grocery store to sustain a population of people who can’t afford cars (or people with cars who simply don’t think it’s a good idea to live somewhere with no grocery store). The result is that businesses actually suffer. There are huge blocks that have been knocked down and turned into parking lots. Empty store fronts are everywhere. Pubs and nightclubs can survive because of weekend partying from Western students and crowds pouring out of the hockey stadium after a Knights game. But there is insufficient local, residential support for businesses beyond a mix of high-end stores and places to dance and drink. Downtowns have to stop being treated as commercial districts and as actual neighbourhoods where people live.
As for the transit question, I’m baffled by Kingston’s transit plan – if there is one. It seems there are far too many people commuting by car from west to east, from the burbs to wherever they work. With Queen, Princess, Johnson and Brock, it makes the downtown like a thruway. Since that’s how everyone travels and we can’t exactly tell people to move out of their homes to a place closer to work, wouldn’t it make sense to make a street like Princess free of cars, expanding the sidewalks out for more pedestrian spaces and making space for restaurants and cafes to set up chairs and tables, and then run a streetcar up and down Princess – all the way out to the burbs? They’re quieter, cleaner, and a nicer ride than buses and would contribute, like the new streetcars in Portland, to a densification of development as opposed to more sprawl. Just an idea