Going car-free for month of November.

I mentioned this in my last post, but didn't realize that I haven't actually put this up on my blog yet: I am going car-free for the month of November!  In my Introduction to Sustainability course, we are required to do a Personal Social Responsibility Plan.  Something that became abundantly obvious to me in completing this assignment is that I drive too much.  Although I drive a lot less now that I have in previous years (for a couple years Tim and I were living in different cities, so there was a lot of driving between where I lived and where he lived, then, when we moved to the Lower Mainland, I first was working in Downtown Vancouver and later in Pitt Meadows, both of which are a bit of a drive from where we live in North Vancouver), it is still too much.

I also notice that for all of my eco-sensitivity, I just take driving for granted.  I jump in my car and drive to wherever I need to be and let it be someone else's problem.  Well, now it's my problem.  I'm going to get used to biking wherever I can, and using public transit as well.  For the rest of this month I'm just going to dabble in both, but next month, it's really on!

So my first order of business was obtaining a lock for my bike.  I've been looking for a lock on Craigslist for a month or so, but have so far been unable to find one that doesn't require me driving a long distance to pick it up.  I guess now I could bike to pick it up and make an adventure out of it!  So I sent out an email at my office and asked if anyone had an extra lock, and immediately three or four people offered to check and see if they had one at home, and one of the partners brought one in after lunch that same day! As I already had my trusty repurposed seatbelt courier bag, I didn't have to worry about that either, although I am thinking after this weekend that I might need paniers.  I am either going to get some second hand or get them from U.S.E.D., the same company I got my courier bag from.  I probably won't absolutely need to get paniers, though, because I'm going to try to plan out the food and clothing that I need to bring to work so that they will already be there for the days that I bike in - I'll just bring them the day before.

So the real question that must be asked is whether all of this effort is "worth it" in the economical sense.  Biking is great exercise and both biking and using public transit are a better choice than driving for the environment, but is it cheaper and if so, does the inconvenience outweigh any savings?

First of all, I will have to buy a bus pass for the month of November.  Since I have to go downtown frequently for school in November (but only about three times per week during peak hours), it makes sense to buy a one zone pass, which costs about $81, but then purchase an Add Fare ($1.25 each time) when necessary, which should be about 12 times during November.  So using public transit will cost me about $96 for the month.  I will also have to purchase parking insurance for my car, which I have not priced yet, but I will assume it will be $20.  I will come back and correct this post if it is wildly more expensive.

However, the insurance for my car costs about $170/month.  I also end up buying two tanks of premium gasoline, which costs about $70/tank, so another $140.  I can't accurately factor in or account for the maintenance costs of my car for the month, but generally during the year I pay about $800 for maintenance, oil changes, etc., plus the extended warranty, which ended up costing about $1,000 per year for the three and a half years that it covered my car.  When you think about it, cars are just unreasonably expensive.  For the purposes of calculating the savings that will accrue from not driving for the month, I'm only going to use the absolute bottom line costs of insurance and gas.

So to use public transit for the month of November, I will end up paying a total of $116.  This would have been even less if I had just sold my car, but I'm not ready for that yet.  The costs I would have paid to operate my car for the month of November, assuming no mechanical or maintenance work was required, would have been $310.  So by using public transit for a month, I will end up saving $196.  Money well saved!

Public transit.

Today was the first day of my program in Sustainability Management offered through UBC's faculty of Continuing Studies.  I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I generally do not take public transit, although I would love to start.  As I live on the North Shore and my program takes place at UBC's Robson Square Campus, I thought that this would be a wonderful opportunity to start using public transit.  And it doesn't hurt that getting from Lonsdale Quay to Downtown Vancouver is probably one of the most scenic trips you can take in the Lower Mainland, as you must take the Seabus.

The Seabus is a relatively small commuter ferry departing from Lonsdale Quay and arriving at Waterfront Station.  The trip takes 12 minutes and requires a two zone fare ($3.75 absent other fare saving discounts).  During the day the Seabus leaves every 15 minutes and in the evenings it leaves every half hour.  The trip is worth making even if you don't have something to cross the Burrard Inlet for, but if you do, it is a thousand times better (and quicker - well, maybe not a thousand) than driving across either of the bridges that are available.

Once I arrive at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, I can then walk to UBC Robson Square, which is about a seven block walk.  With my trusty seatbelt back in tow and the sun shining, it was a great walk today.  I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy the walk when it's raining out (or at night), but so far I'm definitely enjoying using public transit and the old standby - my feet!

Be a tourist in your own town.

Sadly, I realized that it was time to take my car in for servicing.  Something was going wonky with the temperature gauge and I really didn't want to be that person stranded on the side of the highway calling the tow truck on their cell phone looking confused and bewildered.  Maybe with a bit of smoke coming from under the hood.

There is only one place in the Lower Mainland where I can get my car serviced, and it is actually in the City of Vancouver.  I live in North Vancouver and work in Pitt Meadows, so there is just no way to fit something like that into my normal work day and naturally the service centre isn't open on weekends.  So I thought I might take a full day off, because I didn't know how long the car would take, and I thought I would get a couple other things done as well, like stopping by my family doctor to get some prescriptions renewed.

I am now dismayed to realize just how much anxiety the fact that I would be without a car for a few hours caused.  My first solution: ask Tim if he could drive me over to the doctor's office after I dropped off my car.  He was busy and couldn't.  Second solution: take public transit.  So I looked on TransLink's Trip Planner, and was shocked to find out that somehow the amount of time that it was expected that the bus would take to get from Science World to where my doctor's office is (Broadway and Heather), was two minutes.  Granted, I would have a ten minute walk just to get to Science World, but was I really this clueless about how to get around Vancouver that I hadn't realized I was that close?  Apparently I was.

A colleague of mine, Carla, recently spent a weekend in Vancouver, being "a tourist in her own town". So I came up with a third solution to my transportation predicament: I would walk.  Some of you will be amazed that this wasn't a more obvious solution, but I think some of you might be more surprised that I would walk a fairly considerable distance, for fun, no less! MapQuest had informed me that the walking distance in total was 2.3 miles, so I figured, why not?  I had nothing else to do, and quite literally might have had an entire day to waste while my car was looked over.  So I thought that I would take my time, walk all the way to the doctor's office, and make some stops along the way.

If you've never been to Vancouver, there is no prettier city when the sun is shining and it's warm.  Today was not sunny or warm, but it wasn't raining, so I was at least lucky in that respect, particularly since I had left my umbrella in my car when I dropped it off.  I walked up Terminal to Science World and really took in the sights and sounds.