Mad Times

Car-free

Back on March 6th, our car suffered a mishap. No one was hurt beyond the inevitable soreness. The repairs would have cost a couple hundred dollars less than the current value of the car so the insurance company totalled it. We'd had the car for a couple of years in which time it had depreciated by about $3,000. We were still paying on a small loan, so between paying that off and our $1,000 deductible, we ended up with no car and a check for something like $4,000.

Apart from the financial loss we weren't particularly traumatized by this event. We'd never really bonded with this car. It was just transportation.

But even so, it was our only transportation.

Take a look at that last sentence. Nothing shocking about it. No reason to question it. No car = no transportation.

Of course, it's completely untrue. We have proven this repeatedly over the last two months because we have not replaced our car. It has taken some effort and some compromises, but we've managed to live in Issaquah without owning a car.

Shocking, I know.

I've been mentally composing a grand epic article about our experiences living car-free in the suburbs of Seattle. I know enough about myself to realize that if I keep on thinking of it as a grand epic then it will never get written, so I'm going to try to write it in little pieces. Stay tuned.

Posted by jeffy at May 18, 2005 10:21 PM