I had mentioned in a previous post about wanting to go a week without my car this summer. I planned to do it this past week. While it wasn’t a complete success, over the course of 11 days I only used my car 3 of those days. The other days I only used walking and biking as my mode of transportation. I found that the days I did use the car I planned it well and did many errands in one day versus spreading them out all week. This was helpful because the days I didn’t use my car, I wasn’t stressed out with a long to do list.
We are lucky to live close to many activities in Denver. We live within walking or biking distance of parks, a library, the zoo and science museum. This is crucial since I stay at home with my 2 year old son and hanging around the house all day isn’t good for either of us. It is essential we leave the house just about every morning, even if it is just a walk around the neighborhood or a friend’s house.
During this week I have found that not using your car is mostly mental. Just pushing yourself past the barrier of only using a car (if you have one) is a big step. It is too easy to hop in the car and go where you want, but it is just as easy to use your bike or legs. You just have to plan for more time to get to your location. It is very freeing not using a car and not being tied down to an unsustainable mode of transportation. It is also nice getting fresh air and exercise without doing a typical workout, which just takes up more time in one’s day.
I guess what I learned is that planning my week better results using my car less. Yes, I still will use it because some errands are too far to bike and I am still wary of bus rides with my motion sickness. But I can plan to do multiple errands in a day, freeing up the rest of week for being car free. I also want to say that it is easy to not use a car, you just have to change your way of thinking.