Car free

Several people have asked me about how I like driving here.  Answer:  I don't.  As in, I don't drive.  We haven't bought a car, and have no plans in the near future to do so. 

Aside from the psychological bigness of moving to the other side of the world, going car-free has been the biggest lifestyle change for us.   Cars rule in LA, of course, and you just can't NOT have one if you hope to accomplish anything.  Why ditch them now, after being so dependent on our vehicles?   Well, precisely because we were so dependent on them and we were sick to death of the cost, hassle, and aggravation. 

Can I even tell you what a large proportion of my stress came from driving?  ...If I only had a nickel for (every time I was sitting at a dead stop on the freeway / every minute I spent circling, looking for parking / every unsafe driver I saw on the road / every close call / every repair / every vandalism / every time I reflected that it was really only a matter of time before one or more of us are involved in a serious collision)...  So, although this is an adjustment, it's quite a relief.

And it's actually a lot easier than I anticipated.  Here's how we're doing it and some of the results.

• We live in the central business district (CBD), the densest, downtown part of the city.  Within a 1-km radius are the grocery, several parks, the kids' daycare/kindy, the library, all sorts of shops.  This is all very walkable, even with the kids in tow. 
• We have a bike for longer/faster trips, and there are some nice bike trails through town. 
• We sought out an apartment just a few blocks away from Britomart.  This makes the entire city (whole country!) easily accessible.
• Buses are plentiful, on time, usually not crowded, and usually not yucky.
• Taking the ferry to the North Shore is reportedly actually faster than fighting traffic across the Harbor Bridge.
  
• Big once-a-week shopping trips are not possible, nor is bulk shopping, because all our purchases need to fit inside our backpacks.  We just make more frequent, smaller trips.
• We get more exercise.
• We think more carefully about our purchases (and therefore waste less), because they're more 'expensive' when you add in the hassle of carrying them home on foot.
  
• We save money:  gas (at nearly $5/gallon), maintenance and repairs, insurance, registration, parking, etc.
• Hiring a taxi for transporting a big shopping spree home is always an option--doing this a few times a month is still cheaper than owning a car.
• We make money:  we sublet out the carpark that came with our apartment to a neighbor.
  
• We minimize our aggravation.  Driving in any big city is hard.  Driving in a new big city, in an unfamiliar car, with all the controls on the wrong side, on the wrong side of the road, with new traffic signals and signs and roundabouts.... that's extremely hard.  I just moved across 19 time zones with two babies, okay, I don't need to look for ways to add challenges to my life.