The air out there

As of this hour Logan, Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake City Utah make up 4 of the top 5 highest AQI (Air quality Index which includes particulate matter 2.5 and ozone), in the nation. In other words our air is nasty as hell. This is not a new thing, last week we spend many a days on the top of this list as well... Not necessarily a list you want to be ranking the highest on.

On a normal day we can easily see the Wasatch mountains from our apartment but today you can barely make out the peaks of this normally clear range. It really does scare me, this air that we are breathing. And tomorrow will be worse. Tuesday should get still worse until we get a predicted snow storm to 'clear' out the air in the valley.

 It is amazing to me that people believe that this 'dirty' air is only here during the time of an inversion, that all other times of the year the pollution just disappears and gets taken care of. This inversion, this pollution we are seeing and breathing is that of our waste. Our driving. Our burning fossil fuels. Our wasting of finite resources to make our lives as comfortable as technologically possible (note that I don't say 'humanly possible because we are beyond that point). And yet we find ourselves in this ironic position of being advised not to drive on 'red days', but who really wants to be walking or biking to work when we are being recommended not to breath in this nasty air?

So still we are car-less, and heartily attempt to drive less (including getting less rides, renting less car hours and driving less distances). We are on the brink of ringing in 2010 and we still find ourselves being thought of as strange, weird, immature, idealistic, and many more adjectives because of our lack of car ownership. But we still breathe the same dirty, harmful air that our hummer driving neighbors do....but more likely we are breathing more of it since we have to walk much further distances than to our garage and back.

Maybe we should move out of Salt Lake City.

The glory of winter without a car

There are many, many reasons why it would be nice to own a car in the winter...most of them so obvious that I won't even list them...but, there are also many reasons why it is nice to not own a car in the winter:

• No scraping frozen windows or brushing the snow off your car
• You don't have to worry about getting stuck in the snow
• Although the bus or trax may run a bit late, I don't have to worry about 'snow day' traffic with horrendous commute times
• You don't have to sit in a freezing car and wait for the heater to kick in
• It's fun to walk in slush and snow, it's like ice skating for free! ;)

So anyways, we are coming upon our fourth month without owning a car. Ucarshare has been very nice for running errands that require more "stuff" than we can carry with our hands but UTA has really been our godsend.

We are trying to decide where we will be when spring comes and our lease is up...Jake is pretty determined to remain car-free but we'll see where we end up.

Daylight

There is very little daylight left by the time Jake and I make it home from work, often times it is dark by the time we come home. I've noticed that we have made the dog walks shorter (plus it has been REALLY cold for the past week or so) and we aren't doing anything outside after work like we used to. Not having a car makes this a bit harder, last year at this time we were going to the gym (driving to the gym that is) pretty faithfully but now we can't get motivated to walk or bike both ways in the dark...so we sit at home and get more outta shape. It was our plan to go to the gym tonight- but it is now 8:10 PM, totally dark outside, and I'm not feeling remotely like I want to bike or walk those 7 blocks there (let alone having to walk back after a work-out).

I can't wait till the days get longer.

I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from work today and ended up with 2 fairly heavy paper bags full of groceries. By the time I got home it felt like my arms and hands were gonna fall off! The store is only about 4-5 blocks from our place but when you are carrying some heavy things it feels a whole lot further...

Well, that's about all that I have to add for now, things are going on pretty uneventfully in the car-free area. We ride our bikes (well, just Jake is riding his bike nowdays), walk, take the bus or train, and bum rides off family and friends as needed...otherwise life is pretty much as usual.

The Adventure of using Public Transportation

Yesterday was a somewhat adventurous day when it came to visiting my parents in Kaysville. We decided to take the FrontRunner (Salt Lake City's version of commuter rail) to get from SLC to Kaysville (which is about 25 miles north of the city). In order to get to the FrontRunner station we had to either walk, take the bus, or take TRAX (our light rail system). Well, it ended up that we were running late leaving our house so we decided to walk until we saw a bus that was headed to the frontrunner station...but each time we saw a bus that was going where we needed to go we weren't at a bus stop...so we walked faster, then we ran, then we finally caught the TRAX just one stop away from the station. We got to the station with one minute (literally 1 minute) to spare. Jake had to buy his pass so I kept pushing the 'door open' button on the train so he could run and catch it before it took off. Just as we sat down in our seats, we were off!
Then on our way home there was a fire at one of the oil refineries near the train tracks, so we were able to take the train as far as the Woods Cross station, then had to be bussed from there to the Salt Lake station. From the Salt Lake station we got on TRAX which we took to City Center and from there we walked home. 
Whew, I'm tired just typing about it...this was defiantly not the easiest or fastest way to travel...but it worked, and we kept one more car off the street.

Imagine

So, this week has been a bit easier without a car. Despite the rain.

I saw this shirt a couple of days ago and had to get it for Jake. We have discussed many times about how great it would be if there were more bikes on the road than cars.

Today both of us were off work and walked around the city; to the Gateway, Vosens, grocery shopping, and walking the dogs. It was a really nice day to be outside and not dealing with parking. Tomorrow we'll take the frontrunner to go and visit my mom.

Gotta love public transit, especially when you have a free pass :)

lil' over a month

Well, we have been 'car-free' for over a month now and rather than getting easier I think it is getting more difficult to not have one. There are a couple of big reasons why I am finding it hard: firstly is our dogs, and second is our love of the outdoors...it is especially hard to get both our dogs and the outdoors together anymore. Not that we are die hard hikers but it is nice to be able to throw the dogs in a vehicle when we want, for however long we want and go hike a freakin' mountain. Jake is standing strong, wanting to remain car-free which is good, since I'm ready to cave and just go buy a damn truck.

Now to just teach our dogs to be work dogs

Would we look silly biking up millcreek canyon with two bike trailers carrying our two dogs? Maybe, but I don't see any other option to taking them hiking with us without going out and renting a car for the day. Renting a car everytime you want to go somewhere in the mountains isn't very cheap. Hauling two dogs that way between 60 - 90 lbs. would definatley get us in shape! Although, we would then also be hiking after that... I don't know if I'd trust locking up my bike and trailer to a tree somewhere; I guess I could just 'park' it out in the woods so it would be less noticable. Oh, or we could mountain bike up the trail with our dogs running along side. That's totally doable, right?

I'm not sure we would have any where to store bike trailers if we ever got some. Our little apartment is pretty small as is. We thought about just renting a small storage unit, but then that's not all that convient to having to ride down there each time and pick it up.

In the long run investing in a bike trailer would save us from renting a car each time we need to go do a costco run. One of the larger items that we buy there is Eli's dog food.

I knew this wasn't going to be easy.

This weekend reminded me of why I liked having our Jeep.

We went up to the cabin in the Uinta's and really enjoyed it up there. It rained, the sun shined, the wind blew, we saw the most amazing display of stars and the milky way that I have ever seen, but then Sunday morning came and I felt rushed that we had to hurry and get things cooked, and cleaned, and packed so that we could get the car back in time. Plus we had to give ourselves extra time to clean it since it was the first trip that SUV had probably ever made off pavement. Then I started thinking, hmmm...we really used to do more hiking, take the dogs places, and just go more places in general before we got rid of the jeep. What will happen when it starts snowing and we want to take the dogs snowshoeing or skiing, or whatever? It is gonna get pretty damn expensive to 'rent' a car each time we want to do something.

Not saying that I want to go out and buy another SUV or truck right away, but it makes me wonder where the middle ground is. If we were just 'city people' who didn't really enjoy hiking and camping and playing outdoors then being totally car-free would be soooo much easier. But we have 2 big dogs (kids can go on public transit, dogs can't) which makes doing any outdoor stuff a big ol' pain in the ass for the most part.

Hopefully happier thoughts for the next post...

It's not always gonna be sunny in SLC

Yesterday it rained, and today it rained again...nothing crazy but enough to think...'hmmm, a car would sure be nice right about now'. We ended up biking to the gym yesterday, but luckily we waited long enough that it had stopped raining although the roads were still pretty wet and a bit slick. We learned that my breaks work fine in the rain, but Jakes'...not so good.
We went the entire weekend without a vehicle. Friday night was a company picnic at Sugarhouse Park, which I helped to set up, so I rode the bus home after setting up then rode it there and back with Jake later on that night. Saturday we rode the bus to 'Dancing Crane' so I could get  a new purse. Then we rode the bus back downtown and went out to eat/drink at Red Rock, then on to the Greek Festival. Sunday we went down to Taylorsville via bike --> trax --> bike...then back via bike --> trax --> bike. This next weekend we are planning to go up to the cabin, so we'll be getting the SUV from Ucarshare... ahhhh...

What being car-free means...

Carfree = free from your car, free to walk around fearlessly, free to breathe easily, free to spend your money elsewhere, free from your small slice of the oil supply chain, free to be healthy, free to feel the wind in your hair (Taken without permission from carfree Portland...but I'm pretty sure they are the sharing type, especially if it's advocating...ummm...car-freedom)

1 week car-free

So we have made it through our first week without our beloved Beep. Here is what our postage size stamp apartment looks like now: (actually it has looked like this for awhile, but now that we are using our bikes more we had to make them a bit more accessible, my mtn. bike isn't even in this shot)...

 

Winter should be interesting, although I don't really want to think about that just yet...I'll wait to worry about it when it gets here.

As for now things are going good, haven't changed too much from before but a few things do take a bit more planning (laundry, groceries, etc). I think we put at least 25-30 miles in this weekend on foot (including Monday) hiking, biking, and just walking all over the place so hopefully it'll start so show on my belly ;) 

S'all for now...

First car-free weekend

Well, for our first car-free weekend, we got a car. No...we didn't buy one, but we 'rented' one from ucarshare.com for Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning. In hindsight we really only needed it for Saturday and could have returned it Saturday night, but oh well.

 

We picked up the car we reserved online, the ford escape hybrid, at the Salt Lake Frontrunner station. This is actually really convenient for us since we can just jump on the trax by our house (city center) and ride it down to the frontrunner station (all of which is in the 'free fare zone').  You use your 'ucareshare' card to unlock the vehicle you have reserved, then get the keys out from the glove box, then you are ready to go. There is a gas card in the glove box so you can get gas if you go below 1/4 tank...but we didn't even get close since it's a hybrid and used only a tiny fraction of what our jeep would have used for the same distance. It drove so quiet and smooth, yet another big difference from the jeep...it took a bit of getting used to but both started liking it after awhile. 

After picking it up we headed home, got the dogs, and went up to Millcreek canyon. Happy was kinda bummed that she couldn't hang her head out of the back window like she could in the wrangler, but she got over it pretty quickly.  After our hike to dog lake we headed down to Jake's sister's place, dropped the tired puppies off, then went with his sister, Ian, and their baby to their bro and sis-in-laws house to BBQ and visit. Then we just drove home and parked on the street...so it just sat at our apt. overnight and into the morning...while still paying by the hour. Doh...

Overall it was really pretty cool, almost like getting a new car for a day (...yep, it still had it's 'new car smell'). Next time we'll plan a bit better so we aren't paying for it to just sit on the road while we sleep, but it was a good 1st outing. We are even thinking about renting it for the max (6 days) and taking a trip with it...it's cheaper than flying, taking the train, or probably even the greyhound (ugh...).

Location, location, location

Okay, so today would be our first full day of not owning a car. It isn't actually all that different from most other weekdays, since we have'nt really been driving much. One thing that's different is that we walked to the laundromat instead of just driving. It's only a block away, but in the past it was just easier to load up beep with the laundry. Oh, and then I wouldn't really need to help Carla with it. (we do have a laundry room in our apartment, but it's usually full.)
We also walked over to the grocery store while the clothes were in the wash. This is a good thing to learn how to do; planning ahead.
Yeah, we live close to a few grocery stores, coffee shops, laundromat, restaurants, library, etc.. We already walk to most of them, and bike to any that are farther. It's not like we woke up one day and said "let's sell our car". We've been planning to do this for awhile and to prepare ourselves we have limited our use of the car, and moved to somewhere that is close to both of our jobs.
Not saying it's impossible to go carless in the suburbs or anything, just a little farther to walk to places. Walking isn't all that bad.

I am all for going car free or at least reducing the use of your car. 

A year and a half ago I sold my '67 VW bug and "swore off of cars", unless a dang good reason came up to have one again....Well, a year ago while on my "pitstop" in SLC visiting family and such, I find out I am pregnant. I decided on staying in SLC for the support of family for a while. The first 5 or 6 months of pregnancy we were car free.. relying on the SLC public transit system when you feel you might puke at any moment keeps things interesting. I rode the UTA to work and my doctor's appointments. I didn't like the idea of riding a bus with my newborn baby and we bought our Volvo. We ended up  using it to go shopping and visit friends, to take me to work and to go to the mountains. Xims (my baby) liked riding in the car half of the time, and the other half of the time she would be screaming... trying to drive with a crying baby = not fun. About a month ago the Volvo was stolen from our driveway. The first few days after, I was angry and depressed about our situation. We started walking a lot, the grocery store, the ice cream shop, to Gramma's house... I was getting in shape. We took the bus if it was a long trip. Through all this I would just put Xims in a sling and she LOVED it! We got used to having no car with a baby in this city. The only times it bothered me was when I wanted to go to the mountains, a friends house or buy more than a bag full of groceries... oh and walking so much with an 18 pound baby in flip flops (my shoes were in the car). Overall we had more time for each other, we smelled the flowers on the way, and I could comfort Xims at any point of our travels easily. Car less life was alright!

The police found our car  a few days ago  still intact! After experiencing the pros and cons of having a car/not having a car I want to  keep our driving to a minimum. It will be nice to go camping.

-Jen 

Car Freedom

Beep backing out of the garage for the last time...










Beep at carmax, waiting to be adopted...

 

Walking from carmax to trax...and waiting for the next train.

Well, we did it. We sold Beep. No more quick runs to the store or spontaneous drives to the mountains. We are going to have to plan better or just hoof it.

It's amazing how attached you can get to an inanimate object, and how you can identify yourself by it. We bought Beep (Black Jeep) back in 2006, which is the longest either of us have had a vehicle, with only like 26 miles on it. We left him today with 26,116... I think. We have been to Moab, Escalante, Zions, the Uinta's and many other places over the past few years. We have gained two members of our family (2 dogs, which for us are like our kids) since getting Beep and they have learned to love riding in the back, especially with the seat out, the dog bed in, and the top down!  They have both learned to recognize jeeps and go a little crazy when they see one on the road, excited that they are going somewhere. Happy even added her little 'special touch' by poking her head out the back window and creating a huge rip in the plastic...but it became her 'spot' whenever we got in the jeep.

We have been through a lot with Beep, and are happy that we always got wherever we were going safely. I'll miss driving him, but am ready to move on to our new adventure of being car independent. We'll still drive from time to time, by either using ucarshare or renting, but we will be free of the monthly car payments, free of the insurance and gas and maintenance. We won't have to worry about it being broken into (as it has twice in the past year) or pay for parking, or even find parking (for the most part). But there will defiantly be challenges of not having a car...some of which I'm sure I don't even know about yet, but that's all part of the fun, right??

Next step

We cleaned Beep today. Really cleaned him...like took over an hour vacuuming and washing and waxing and...well, you get the picture. Beep is probably the cleanest he has been since we got him (3 years ago), does that make us bad car owners??
We also threw away the dog bed that has been in the back of the jeep for quite awhile. Jake made the bed before we even adopted Eli, our greyhound, just for him. It became an 'outside' dog bed this spring and has slowly been falling apart because of being loved sooooo much by our doggies so it was time to retire it into the dumpster today. :(
Our plans are to take it in either tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday to carmax to see if they really live up to their advertisements. I've never known a car dealer to be honest so if this works out (without feeling like I got screwed) I will be extremely happy and surprised! Otherwise... we'll have to put some work into selling, ummm...I mean 'adopting' him out to a good family. Gilly, our car turtle, will have to learn to live indoors now, or on our bike ;)

'Jimmy'   

See, we aren't total hermits that never drove anywhere...

We have a lot of fond memories that wouldn't have
happened without 'Jimmy' or 'Beep'.

Our beloved Gilly, who has journeyed with us since the beginning.

'Beep'

Owning a vehicle

Cars cost lots of money. Simple as that, really. It doesn't matter if you drive them or let them sit in your garage forever. There are still a lot of things you will need to pay for. Insurance, maintenance, gas, registration, emissions and inspections, time wasted while driving.
If money isn't an issue for not owning a car; what about all the time lost while driving one? This is why I don't particurly like driving. I could be doing a whole lot of other more useful things. In fact when I lived farther away from work I got a good nap in while on the bus. The trick is to set an alarm or something so you don't miss your stop!
Currently, we still own a car. We are at a point that we finally owe less than what we can probably sell it for. I think we would have sold it a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that we bought our jeep new with a nice 8 year payment plan... Thankfully we started to pay extra on him ( Beep is the name of our jeep ) a while back.
I always thought when we bought Beep, we wouldn't ever buy another vehicle again. Of course this is usually the plan when you buy something, no? I also wanted a new car. Something that I could say how each dent and scratch came to be on it.
We later realized that our choice of a vehicle was perhaps not the wisest. It did fit our outdoor activities lifestyle; plenty of room for two big dogs in the back. A bike rack so we can take trips down to Moab and do some biking. Four wheel drive so we can get where we want to be. It came in useful one time after parking in a snowed in parking lot in millcreek canyon.
So, in short, owning a vehicle has it's upside as well as it's downside. I think we are ready to experience getting around using our bikes, public transit, ucareshare, and our own two feet.