breaking up with gmac

today marks two weeks without using my car. it's been liberating, relaxing & not as difficult as i thought it would be.

for the last couple months, i had noticed that the only real purpose my car served was driving to work & the occasional trip to target or the mountains. don't get me wrong, i drive my car a lot, often to places that make more sense to get to via bus or walking. i will also openly state that i drop about $500/month on my car (car payment, insurance, gas). in my opinion, $500/month is way too much to spend on getting to work & going places within walking distance.

i blog for the firm i work for. we have always had a green focus in design, and in the last year taken our involvement to the next level. our firm became carbon neutral, bought a hybrid for the office (to encourage public transportation to work) & encouraged staff leed accreditation. carbon neutral is a huge buzzword right now & there are many large green movements in the design industry (fashion, architecture, retail, automobile, etc). i was on the sightline institute's blog, researching for work when i noticed that one of the authors (family of five) decided to go carless for a year. it really inspired me, so i put away my car keys, got a bus pass from work & have been riding the bus ever since.

there are so many benefits of being carless (something my parents & gmac rep are completely miffed by). no traffic, no gas money, no carbon emissions, as well as more time to think, read, listen to music & people watch (in my personal opinion, the best part of public transportation). now it's time to finagle my way out of the lease that haunts me until august!

another carless resource; carla saulter writes for the seattle p.i. "bus chick, transit authority."