Bellevue Library

Bellevue, Washington

Originally uploaded by brewbooks

From an airplane one can see the “mega blocks” of Bellevue. A far cry from the very walkable blocks of Portland, Oregon.

 

Car Commercials

Is it just me or are there more car commercials than anything else on television?  I think of them today because as I was walking outside on my way home from the library today there were many people standing around the street, cars were circling.   Police had even cordoned off the street.  Red flashing lights, waving arms, a white motorcycle parked in the middle of the street.  So I stopped to ask what they were doing.  I’m not shy.  One said, “We’re filming a Chevrolet commercial.”  I was impressed.  My next question was whether it was a national commercial.  Yes.  Wow.  Now I was really impressed.

It is super obvious, especially since the “Cash for Clunkers” program, how dependant the USA economy is on the auto industry and every thing connected with it.  I wish the economy could run on a different ”gasoline” besides the automobile.

 

Deprivation

The year my first child was an infant we went to the beach in Oaxaca, Mexico close to Puerto Escondido.  My son and I were swinging peacefully in the shade in a hammock in 75 degree weather.  It was sunny and their was a slight breeze coming off of the ocean.  In the background we could hear the lapping of the ocean as the waves broke on the beach.  We were on the verge of sleep.  A few feet away a single local man was quietly digging a shallow trench for something.  I don’t know what.  He was trying to respectfully mind his business when my son smiled at him.  In return we were rewarded with a big, toothless smile.  The mans face was dark and wrinkled from years of working under the sun.  He obviously had very little, if any, European blood in him.  When I started to speak to him in Spanish he asked us where we were from.  Seattle I told him.  I could tell that he considered anything to the north as paved with gold.  He talked of how someday he wanted to go there and work.  Our simple five minute conversation was an epiphany to me.  Here he was digging a ditch.  I bet that he was happier than 90% of most North Americans.  He had his family, his goat, his dirt-floored house, and sufficient tortillas. 

Last year’s carless experiment certainly did feel like a lot of deprivation.  But it would not have been so if we hadn’t felt like such “odd balls.”  If everyone is doing it, then there is momentum and pride.  I think of the fact that each time I go to Mexico, where my husband is from, and see the joy of the people despite the living conditions, we in the USA are constantly unhappy.  Why?  It seems like “getting ahead” is on every ones mind.  The uncomfortable state of not having or doing what the Jones’ have or do messes with our Psyche more then even I like to admit.  Of course the media and advertising are the major players here.   Happiness, it seems, is about perception.

 

Time to Change Blog’s Name

I haven’t been blogging here because, well, we are no longer carless.  Therefore, the tagline “Carless in Bellevue — Is it possible?” doesn’t mean much.

Today I decided to make this space one where I just collect interesting information on the topics concerning sustainability and throw in my thoughts.

 

ZipCar

FlexCar, which provided the flexibility we needed during our 14 months without owning a car, started getting taxed as a rental car last fall.  This act increased the cost of going car-less, but more importantly it was a big vote of no confidence for those trying to do “something” about the environment.    Wow.  It washard enough, now they want to make it even more difficult/expensive.  What I discovered over the time we went without a car of our own was that it wasn’t necessarily less expensive.  Then Flexcar merged with Zipcar a few months later.  There were several small changes that made it less desirable to renew our membership and join with Zipcar.  Ultimately we decided that it was an up hill battle and got a car (one) for our family of five.  No one I knew of was pleased with the changes made with the merger.

 

Not Out for a Sunday Drive

This last week I found myself at home ill along with my entire family.  After five days we were bouncing off the walls and so ready to get out of the house.  In my boredom and sick exhausting I thought, “let’s get in the car and go somewhere.”  I really do enjoy driving so one could say that it is cheap entertainment.  One gets to see things and feel like she is actually going somewhere or doing something in stead of just remaining idle at home in bed.  My next thought was, “Okay, so where should we go?  We still aren’t completely well and it would really be selfish of us to expose others to this nasty bug.” 

It occurred to me for the first time that we probably utilize our cars much more for entertainment than we would like to admit to ourselves.  This is contradictory to my policy to 1) walk when my trip was very close by,  2) still try to take the bus when I am alone and have no reason not to and 3) not drive unless I really have to.  In other words, I don’t look in the fridge, discover that we are almost out of milk and make that my excuse for driving to the grocery store a mile away.

In the end I resisted the temptation.  In stead the children and I put on warm coats (since we were still ill), they got out their bikes and we went to the near-by park.  We got what we needed:  fresh air, a change of scenery and interaction with the outside world without burning a bit of fossil fuel.  I am so glad that I resisted the temptation.

 

Aren’t We Taking the Car?

My daughter is not a morning person.  She stays up as late as she possibly can get away with.   That is, until I really loose my patience and start threatening to take away play dates.  This morning was no exception.  I had to prod her out from under the warm covers.  Unfortunately, she immediately started to argue with her brother.  The bickering went on too long and it got later and later.  In an effort to shorten the story she ended up missing the school bus.  This wasn’t a huge problem because I go to her school each week on this day anyway.  Since it is just I, then I make a concerted effort to take the bus.  It is probably about the same price dollar wise if one does not factor in the cost of maintenance of our vehicle.  Finally it was time to go.  As I was heading out the door I told my daughter that we needed to hurry up or she would miss the bus again.  She turned to me in an instant with her face in puzzlement.  Aren’t we taking the car?  Oh child, you have you gotten soft so quickly?

 

100 Mile per Week

Even though we own a vehicle now, my husband and I have a goal:  We try to drive it only 100 miles/week on average.  So far we have managed.  I don’t even feel deprived.  I continue to walk if my errand is within a mile and I don’t have to lug heavy items.  I also continue to take the bus.  It feels very comfortable to me.  I like the balance.  Unfortunately, I do feel my jeans getting a bit tighter from not walking as much. :0

 

I feel so spoiled

Going from driving a car on a daily basis to not driving a car is a shock.  Going from mainly walking and riding the bus to driving is soooooo easy.  I have to admit that since the weather has been below freezing for several nights in a row I am extremely grateful to travel in the warmth of a car.  When I step outside to get the mail or take out the trash I don’t miss walking at all.  I feel like it is a constant battle to not give in to the little voice inside my head that says, “Oh, work a few more minutes, then you can just take the car quickly.” Little decisions every day are what add up.

 

Another Great Resource

I recently found out about a new resource,Choose Your Way Bellevue.  It’s a new site sponsored by the Downtown Bellevue Association that is intended to help people get around Bellevue.

 

Going Carless IS Possible, but Really, Really Difficult

I announce with mixed feelings that our family has officially ended its carlessness experiment.  Yes, we purchased a vehicle.  The children were so excited that they couldn’t sleep.  Do I feel like we are “giving up”?  No.  I feel proud of what we were able to not do.  We met our goal of one year.  In fact, we exceeded it by three months.  I feel like any positive effort to be more ecologically responsible is a good thing even if it might seem outrageous.  I believe that small changes by everyone is what it is going to take.  We learned so much over the last year.  We certainly can participate in brainstorming for solutions. 

I do have other things to say about this last year and I will continue to do my best to write them down.

 

Sierra Club

Test your Polar Bear I.Q.

 

An Unexpected Benefit

I recently made a visit to the optomologist for a check up.  It never occured to me that one of the side effects of driving so little and spending more time out doors walking would be an improvement in my vision.  Yes, for the first time since I first started wearing glasses when I was 14 I can see more clearly at a distance than at my last eye exam.  I suspect that this improvement is a result of me focusing on far away objects like the majestic Douglas Firs trees or the distant Cascade or Olympic Mountains.  When I drive a car every day and subsequently spend much less time outdoors I tend to use my vision to do close-up tasks such as reading or just looking across the room.  When driving I don’t shift my focus as much as if I were riding the bus.  For example, on the bus I’ll knit or read.  Then I’ll look up at the mountains out the window, back at my book, then notice as fellow passengers exit the bus.

 

Not Enough Time

The very most frequent excuse I hear is that  ”I don’t have enough time to not drive my car.”  Indeed, time management is a huge issue for all of us.  Sometimes we are so busy running around trying to accomplish everything we need to get done that we don’t stop long enough to think about what we are trying to accomplish in the first place.  All of us, regardless of whether we drive our own car or not, have to make value judgements every day.  We all only have 24 hours/day.   I heard it once said that one minute of planning saves 10 minutes in execution.  I don’t know by whom or how this was determined, but I believe that it is true.

When you can’t just go jump in the car to run an errand then planning ahead and sticking with the plan becomes even more essential.  The times that have been most frustrating are those when I made a plan but it got disrupted.  Therefore, having a plan “B” and “C” become even more important.

 Here is a story I recently heard on NPR regarding minimal exercise.

And here below is a copy of a post from the Sightline Institute.  I cannot state better the points that Alan makes.  I have to say “ditto” on this one:

Dead Man Walking #3

Posted by <!– –>Alan Durning on 04/19/2006 at 03:30 PM

Transit and walking are time consuming. Most people are just too busy. That’s obvious, right?

Well, as my family begins the ninth week of its experiment in car-less living, I’m finding a few flaws in that logic. Here are two.

1. Time spent on transit is different from time spent driving. People vary, of course, but for me, transit time is a pure gain over driving. I don’t enjoy driving. I’d rather read than listen to music or talk radio. And I can read without queasiness on all forms of transit. For me, then, car time is a waste of life, but transit time is living, and I’ll happily choose a 30 minute transit trip over a 15 minute car trip. For me, driving is time consuming.

2. Just so, walking doesn’t consume time, for different reasons. In fact, walking creates time. For one thing, if you walk for transportation, you don’t have to go to the gym as often.

More profoundly, walking gives you time you wouldn’t otherwise have at all. Walking makes you live longer. The largest ever study of the subject found that walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week, adds 1.3-1.5 years to your life, on average. (More vigorous exercise adds even more.) On reasonable assumptions (detailed below the fold), this relationship means that for every minute you spend walking, you get three back.

Time spent walking, then, is utterly free. It’s time you would have spent dead.

Nowadays, when I’m walking, I get a little pleasure in the thought that I’m cheating death, that every minute I spend afoot is an extra moment of life.

Boring, wonky, calculation notes:

My assumptions—which I’d appreciate some astute blog reader checking against the original journal article that reports the study on which Clark posted—are that you have to walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for thirty years to get the 1.3-1.5 year lifespan bonus. I made up the 30 year figure (too busy to read the journal (wink)).

Then I calculate 30 minutes x 5 (days) x 52 (weeks) = 7,800 minutes of exercise per year x (guess of) 30 years = 234,000 minutes of walking, repaid with 1.4 years or 736,000 minutes of added life. That’s about three minutes extra for every minute you walk.

Note that even if have to walk five days a week from birth to age 90, you’re still getting every single walking minute back, though you wouldn’t get three.

 

Stifling

Two winters ago my husband and I played the wife-turns-up-the temperature-then-husband-turns-down-the temperature game.  It seemed like I was always cold and he was always too warm.  In his home town on at high altitude in central Mexico he grew up with no heat in his home.  None of the homes around Mexico City have heat, because the weather is so mild.  The nights are crisp, but as soon as the sun comes up it burns off the mist and becomes a very pleasant 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit.  The first two trips down I felt so cold.  Not only were the floors all marble or ceramic tile the entire house was constructed of concrete, rebar and bricks.  I so missed the wood house with the natural gas burning furnace that I grew up in.

Last winter and this winter too we don’t have the same conflict.  We finally agree on the temperature.  Currently, we keep our house at a comfortable 62 degrees F.  Anything warmer feels stifling.  I am positive that this change in my perception is because I spend so much time outside all year around now.  As the weather changes slowly with the seasons those who spend time outside on a regular basis acclimate.  So many times I hear, “I could never walk like you do because I can’t stand the cold.”  Ironically once I step in to a public place, I feel like I can’t breath because it is so stuffy.

Have you ever wondered why animals that live outdoors year around like birds can survive?  Obviously their bodies adapt.

 

Side Walk Rage?

When one walks everyday the same paths there is the opportunity to see things in a different way.  One becomes aware of the season because one walks through it.  One smells the lofting smell of the flowers, shrubs and trees in bloom.  At a certain point one becomes addicted to walking.  Riding in a fast car, on the other hand, deprives one of the opportunity to experience life up close.  Walking calms the soul (assuming one is not late getting where she is going).  I like the fact that passive exercise is built in to my day. 

But can you imagine one pedestrian screaming at another to walk faster or get off the sidewalk?  There is something so civilized about walking.  It really is okay to slow down.  Stop to consider why we, as a society, do what we do in the first place.  (Be like a child and keep asking “why” each time one answer is given.  The trail on to which the answers lead you can be enlightening.)

It seems to me that we aren’t capitalizing on our social capital in the USA because we are so busy trying to get out of each other’s way.

 

Schlepping Very Young Ones

My husband and I have three young children.  Would I ever try going carless with really young children?  Absolutely not unless I lived in Manhattan.  Even then I would not venture more than thirty minutes walking distance away without their father for assistance.  The reason are many:  1)  Children under kindergarten age cannot be trusted to keep themselves on a sidewalk.  The are oblivious to the dangers around them.  Trying to walk with one is therefore too stressful.  2) Little legs can’t walk as far.  3)  Whereas you might start out with the child in a stroller, many times the parent ends up carrying the child AND trying to push the stroller at the same time.  The result is that the stroller which also holds the diaper bag gets out of balance and tips over.  You get the idea.  Parents simply don’t have enough hands.  Traveling with very small children requires so much “stuff” that it isn’t practical.  4) Riding public transportation requires the rider to be the flexible one.  Ask any parent how many times he or she was finally ready to go out when baby decided to produce an explosion in his diaper.  The parent has to clean up the mess, bathe the child and re-dress the child.  Meanwhile, the bus is long gone.  It is difficult enough to be on time for anything even if one drives a car.

These are just a few of the reasons.  I am compiling a list, parents please add to it with your comments.

 

Logic Matrix

 

Think outside of the Boxes

What’s behind box #1?

Do you sing in the shower?  Do you sing in your car?  Do you pick your nose in traffic because you feel like you are alone and nobody is watching anyway?  Just kidding.

There is something sacred about driving.  I like to drive (yes, I DO know how and actually have over two decades of experience).  I love to drive out on the open road/interstate.  I do my best thinking when I am alone either walking or driving a car by myself.  (I don’t sing in the shower, however, nor do I pick my  nose.)  To me it seems like I get some of my best thinking done when I am driving.  I make great lists of things I need to do and people I need to call.

It seems as though we use the time in our boxes of metal to transition from work to home.  Driving in a car literally helps us to “shift gears” from one of our three places (work, home, community).  I wonder if we are partially afraid to give up our single occupancy vehicles because we don’t want to give up our “thinking tanks”?  If we gave up our tanks then where would be get a chance to be alone and to think in our fast-paced world with no one to interrupt us?

At the same time being alone in a car is unbearable to some.  Thus, the talk radio, music, news and motivational DVDs we subscribe to.  I think that it would drive some crazy (the ones who can’t stand hearing their own thoughts) if they had nothing to listen to but the sound of wheels contacting concrete.

What’s behind box #2?

Today while I was waiting for the bus a man with dirty/greasy clothes and large back pack asked me how to get from where we were to downtown and addressed me as “Miss” in the process (More polite than many fellows with suit and tie).  I started to tell him how to get to the downtown of the nearest town then realized that he really wanted to go to downtown Seattle.  I got out of him that he was actually going to the train station.  I see.  I immediately realized that he was a hobo . (see the link for some very interesting subculture vocabulary words) Wow!  Yes, they doexist.  Was I afraid of him?  Not at all.  He was not threatening in any way.  Besides it was light, there were a handful of people around and we were on a busy street.  Now there is nothing glamorous about homelessness, but the freedom which some homeless have is exactly why some mightchoose that lifestyle.  In fact, I suspect that that was the reason why this particular fellow, who was probably about my same age, rode in the boxes of freight cars.  After all, he seemed more sane than myself and he did not reek of alcohol.  My next question to him was:  “So where are you from?”  His answer:  Kansas.  Ha ha ha.  In fact, it turns out that he was from the same small town where I was born.  My grandfather was a hobo during the great depression who traveled around looking for work like thousands.  He ended up in a little town in western Kansas where the rail line ended.  There he met my grandmother and my father was born and raised.  There my grandmother died of an illegal abortion so I never got to meet her.  There the family’s house burned down when my father was a motherless young boy.  So one could say that I was only two generations away from being a hobo myself.    I gave the drifter all the cash I had (which wasn’t much) though he never asked.  Then I gave him instructions on how to get where he was going.  If I didn’t ride the big box of a bus, then I would have never had the opportunity to meet this person who, even though we started out in the same place, were by no means ending up in the same place.  ”Be safe” was my blessing as I put him on the proper bus and said good bye.

What’s behind box #3?

The Big box store — that is an entire story on its own.

 

The Weather

One of the first justifications I hear when people learn of my family’s experiment is that they would “never be able to do the same” because of the weather.  I find it interesting that people feel so compelled to confess to me why not.   Certainly going to the extreme by having no car is only for the brave (i.e. crazy and/or excentric) but I am convienced that everyone can begin to do a little, no matter how insignificant it might seem.  It has become a cliche that we could all park a block away from our destination and walk the remaining distance, but this is mainly in the context of our out-of-shape physical conditions as Americans.  (Why is it that we so aggressively jockey for the closest parking spot to the door at Costco?)

It is too cold.  It is too wet.  It is too hot.  blah, blah, blah.  Of all the places in the USA for going car-less, Seattle and Portland with their temperate climate are actually two very good places to spend much time outdoors.  There is a reason why REI and Columbia Sportswear are both Northwest companies. 

A fellow environmentalist looks at being outside in the weather in a very refreshing way.  He says being out in the weather “gives you time to reflect on where that air has been, where that rain will go next.”  Visit his blog, GAIT:  Getting Around Issaquah Together, for more insite. 

Buy better shoes, warmer clothes and try to give up a bit of vanity is my advice.