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Five Months and Counting…. the realities of giving up driving
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
I often liken breaking our collective and individual addiction to oil as being like giving up any other addiction. My family has now passed its fifth month without a car, and the process of getting used to life with no car has been very similar to giving up drinking or smoking. I can’t for a moment say that it has been easy and hassle-free, but at the same time, we are still here, no-one has starved to death or died of boredom, life goes on, and we are, in many ways, the better for it. What I want to do here is not to give some rosy ‘it’s been so easy’ account of the process, but rather to give a warts’n’all account of where we have got to, in order to stimulate discussion and debate.
It maybe useful first of all to set the scene. We live about 2.5 miles from the centre of Totnes, and about the same distance from the different schools my kids go to. We live in a small cul-de-sac of houses, and there is a general store with a post office about half a mile from the house. We have 4 kids, all at school, and I work in Totnes. We had a car until just after the summer, when the car we were car sharing stopped being available.
We decided at that point that we would just see if we could make it for a week without having to buy a new one. This goes back to the alcoholic thing. If we were to decide to give up having a car for ever, that would be too much, we would have panicked and bought one. So we just decided to see if we can get to the end of each week without one, and when we get there, to look to do the same the following week.
My eldest kids walk or cycle to school, and the youngest two go on the bus, walk, or get lifts from passing parents of kids who go there too. I cycle to town and back, and if I need to go further afield I go on the train. Some things are easy to do, other things harder. So here, as a condensed overview, are the Transition Culture Pros and Cons of Not Having a Car.
(7 January 2009)
Australians buying more bikes than cars
AAP, The Age
Australians continue to buy more bicycles than cars with the economic downturn, health issues and climate change driving sales, the Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF) says.
Figures released on Tuesday put total vehicle sales for 2008 at 1,012,64 while bike sales were 38 per cent higher at 1,401,675.
The CPF said it was the ninth consecutive year demand for bikes had outstripped vehicles.
“The economic downturn and the affordability of cycling is one of the key reasons for the continued surge in bicycle sales,” CPF policy adviser Elliot Fishman said.
(7 January 2009)
50% hike in gas tax pushed
Joan Lowy, Associated Press via Philadelphia Inquirer
A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.
The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.
With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4-cent-a-gallon gas tax and 24.4-cent diesel tax are failing to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.
(2 January 2009)
