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Journal tomhudson's Journal: Reducing My Carbon Footprint Experiment - The Carless Winter 9

Journal by tomhudson

Can you park your car for 3 months?

I decided to give it a go, and parked my car in the garage on December 15th, and plan to take it out in 2 more weeks, on March 15th. Work is 5-1/2 kilometers away, which makes for a fine morning walk, after walking the dogs, so I do about 12 km a day all told.

Now that we're past the worst of the Canadian winter, I'm confident that I'll finish this little "experiment". I may even start riding a bike to work in the summer months. So, what did I accomplish, aside from proving to myself that I could do it during the worst part of the year, weather-wise?

  1. Got into much better physical shape, lost a few pounds where I wanted to lose them :-)
  2. Probably saved a few hundred $ (I like to think of it as getting a free Wii);
  3. Had time to think about work without actually being at the keyboard, which is great for finding ways to solve problems;
  4. Had time to just think about stuff in general;
  5. Started shopping at the local supermarket instead of the one near work - and found I like the local one MUCH better, even though it's smaller;
  6. Reduced my negative environmental impact.
  7. Convinced my Russian coworkers / comrades that Canadians are either tougher or crazier than they thought - and to a Russian, both of those are GOOD THINGS (tm) ;-\

Will I do it again next winter? Probably not ... at least not every day. But I will try to find different ways to continue to reduce car use, such as telecommuting, and the aformentioned bicycling. It's funny - we're high-tech, but we don't use the tools available, such as virtual offices, to improve efficiencies and productivity, because of the outmoded "if you're not in the office you're not really working" mentality. As a planet, we need to start moving in that direction. As individuals, the health benefits of doing so are certainly worthwhile.

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Reducing My Carbon Footprint Experiment - The Carless Winter More

Reducing My Carbon Footprint Experiment - The Carless Winter

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  • 'Cept for pussy, of course. It takes a lot of carbon to make a cow, so I stopped eating them. I would love to get rid of my car too, but that's far more difficult.

  • If it were closer I'd walk. I drove 40 miles round trip in the Bay Area (SF Bay in CA) for 5 years, which on average was 2 hours a day. I am so glad that I can sit and read to and from work now. Now what you need to do is convince your employer that having dogs at the office is good and you bring your puppy dogs with, and walk them at lunch! :-)

    • There's just 2 problems with that:

      1. He's so allergic to dog fur that he mostly avoids the office when I'm there - and when he DOES come, it's "stay away form me - the last time I had [insert symptoms] for a week!"
      2. What is this "lunch" you talk about?

      Mostly, I work straight through the day (It makes it easy to do 45-50 hours a week, and bank the extra hours for things like court, snow days, leaving REALLY early, etc).

  • ...when living in London. I skipped the tube and started walking to work. Required only a little more lead time, and was immensely more satisfying and money-saving.

  • Try 25 years. I made a personal promise never to take any work that requires a car. Just not worth the hassles. And peace of mind is also a great contributor to good health. Thank goodness for that, because you won't ever catch me exercising in public. Looking at all those clogged roads gives me lots of laughs nowadays.

    • Well, I'm looking at the time that I'll save once I take the car out (at least until the snow is gone and I can cycle) - a couple of hours every day is significant, to say the least. I could put the extra hours into work, and take a day off every week, which would also reduce my carbon footprint :-)

      • You and your work are too far apart. Sell the car. Sometimes driving might be more expensive than renting a higher priced unit a little closer to the job. 'Course that could be difficult with all the goodies you're accumulating. Schlepping that stuff around is no fun :-)

        • I'd still need the car for picking up 45-pound bags of dog food, special shopping trips (think birthdays and christmas), visits to friends, rainy days in summer (instead of cycling in the rain), etc.

          Driving isn't that expensive ... $228/year for license plates, $122/year for insurance (never had an accident, so I get the lowest rates), $10-$15/week for gas, and whatever it costs for repairs.

          As for "all the goodies", that is certainly true ...

        • Not viable for certain locales in the US. Its far more affordable for me to live 50 miles away from DC metro and commute 100 miles a day than to live in closer with my family of five. Its not just housing that gets more expensive as you get closer to metro areas, but all of the associated things that go with it as well (groceries etc). I could work in my home town, but then I couldn't afford my home :) Pay drops about $30k over 50 miles. I'll take farmland, clear streams, beautiful views over city livi

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