Cutting Your Car Use - Randall Ghent - Part 1

Cutting Your Car Use -
Randall Ghent & Ana Semlyen

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 41

 February 10, 2017 

Book 12 - Cutting Your Car Uses
by Randall Ghent with Anna Semlyen (2009)
 Part 1 - Pages 1-128
Reading Time - 1 hour

I saw this book on the New Non-Fiction shelf at the library and couldn't resist. It's a tiny little book and a quick read.

Did you know 25% of all car trips in America (I presume North America) are less than 1 mile? I know we are culprits ourselves... the corner store is just down the hill, 6 houses away and... well... we often jump in the truck and drive! Mea culpa!!

We all know this... walking and biking are healthier for us... and better for the environment. Better for our pocket books too. When I read this book last week, I was all psyched to get my bike out of the shed, pump up the tires and take it for a spin but... we got smacked with a winter storm and 25 cm of snow. So much for snow biking.

Part of the problem, I realize... is that we do not live in a very walkable neighbourhood. Houses in our neighbourhood have a Walk Score of 11, which means, "Almost all errands require a car". Oh pooh. (Mind you... the house I grew up in back home, has a Walk Score of 3, so I guess things could be worse!)

You can check your Walk Score for your house on www.walkscore.com. Just enter your address and see what pops up. After that, you can use the Travel Time Map to map out how far you can get with 20 minutes of walking, 20 minutes of biking, etc.

The city in which we live has an average walk score of 45, which is not great... Just out of curiosity, I entered my sister's address. She and her family live in Kitsilano, Vancouver... Yeah... her place has a Walk Score of 97!!! (A Walker's Paradise). Ugh.

Down by the waterfront, here at home, you can get a condo with a Walk Score of 86. Not bad...

The thing is... I know that if I jump on my bike, I can be in most places I need to get to in 10-15 minutes. That doesn't include Superstore, Costco, Home Depot or any of those Big Box Stores that we frequent in the name of affordability. Would we save money if we shopped at Country Grocer and Home Hardware? Possibly... I'd sure get a work out if I rode my bike home with a backpack full of groceries. Maybe it's not all or nothing... but a compromise.

And... I know... I haven't mentioned transit at all... cause I've never tried it. Although I do use it all the time in Vancouver. Anyhow, this book got me thinking... about how we use the car. And about our alternatives... given our Walk Score of 10.