Doug McKinlay - The Vancouver Skytrain
In January, our 1995 Toyota Camry ended up in a scrap-it program. The salvage company that took the car is located in a wasteland of trashed automobiles, trucks and buses on the banks of the Fraser River in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. On the way home, our taxi driver said that many of the crushed vehicles will be shipped off for recycling in less developed countries such as India with cheaper labour, fueling the global economy. We left the car wondering if we would have any regrets as we began our new venture. Would we be carless or carfree? With the courtesy taxi ride to Metro Vancouver’s skytrain, we were on our way.
We joined Modo, a car sharing co-op in Vancouver, and are able to use a $750 credit from the scrap-it program, which will likely last well beyond the year and maybe two or three years. So far, we’ve used a co-op car only a few times and have not yet rented a car, which by joining the car sharing program, is cheaper at specific rental companies.
Do we miss the car? Hardly. Being carless is not all roses, but how can one regret leaving behind the expenses, hassles about repairs, traffic congestion, parking problems, and stresses of driving?
Being without a car has been a money saver. At minimum, maintaining and running our car cost us $4000 a year, or about $10 a day. In the last two months, savings are close to $600. Occasional trips to see family and friends on Vancouver Island that set us back $100 roundtrip to take the car on the ferry (plus gas) now cost $10 roundtrip riding on public transit to and from the ferry.
Most of the time, we get around by walking and sometimes taking public transit, which we used a fair amount when we owned a car. Vancouver’s public transit system could be better – a lot better. The fares are too high and the service is often slow and inconvenient. But the transit system has the potential to provide services that would greatly benefit most people.
Luckily, the buses are quite good where we live and the rides are often entertaining. It’s fun to people-watch, like sitting in an outdoor café yet getting where you want to go. In contrast to the car, the bus is a good place for talking to fellow passengers, reading, text messaging, listening to music, and using cell phones. It’s a cool, connected and diverse public space.
If public transit is well organized, the ride is not only entertaining but also freeing. You don’t have to use seat belts, deal with congested traffic or find parking spots. You can get more easily on and off than in a car. Ramps for buggies, scooters and wheelchairs and racks for bikes have made buses more accessible.
Walking has come to have a different feeling about it than it had before; you just do it since the car is not an option. The more one walks, the easier it becomes; even the steep hill that is sometimes necessary to climb to our home has become more surmountable over time.
Exercise is now integrated into daily routines of not just walking our dog, but going to nearby local shops for groceries and other items. Our habits are changing. A light knapsack is a constant companion. The food is fresher. It might even be possible one of these days to ‘ditch the fridge’.
The experience and subjectivity of distance is changing. I’m not sure why, but ironically, journeys that used to feel long when traveling by car can seem shorter if walking, bicycling, riding a scooter or taking public transit.
The collapsing of distance may have to do with no longer having the stress of driving. It is also possible that distances feel shorter as a result of short cuts. Driving a car usually means following arterial roads, but non-motorized transport often includes exploring quieter streets that provide more direct routes, making the feel of time and distance diminish.
Public transit might also reduce the sense of distance because of the way it stitches communities together.
Only recently, for example, did I discover (and why isn’t this kind of knowledge more widely circulated?) how well public transit coordinates travel from Vancouver to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. What once seemed far away requiring a car now feels closer because of the good connections between the skytrain and express buses that pull together several communities (Vancouver, Richmond, Delta and Tsawwassen).
In addition, using this transit system frees up worrying about traffic and whether or not the ferry will have enough room for the car. It’s a good feeling to know that once you’ve left the bus, you simply reach the ferry as a pedestrian.
Popular culture and commercial advertisements portray the car as a means of escape, freedom, adventure, convenience, safety and fun – providing all the good things in life. The truth is that as the most injurious and deadly of daily activities, with almost 3000 people dying each year in Canada (which has a population of 34 million) from crashes, motor vehicles abysmally fail the test of representing wellbeing. That tragic figure is only the tip of the iceberg of injuries and near misses that are far more numerous and impossible to count.
Driving is supposed to fulfill the modern dream of individualism but how can it? It has become one of the most constrained and frustrating activities of daily life, with its seat belts, car seats, road rage, rules and regulations.
Its promise of individualism is highly over-rated. In contrast to the isolated cocoon of the car, non-motorized travel and public transit provide people with opportunities that many crave: to connect with local neighbourhoods, the general public and social media.
I have a dream…. a more democratic future in which cities such as Vancouver will have a railway/streetcar/rapidtransit/bus/ferry/mini-bus/customtransit/bike(scooter)path/walking complex connectivity that is a lifeline in support of everyone’s travel – that is safe, accessible, sustainable and pleasurable for people of all ages, incomes, genders, races, abilities and walks of life, that allows everyone to participate more fully in society.
The road and transportation system in most Western cities is built around the world of drivers of a certain age, activity, ability and income. It excludes most of society particularly those who are young, old, have physical or mental disabilities, or inadequate incomes.
When Vancouver was a fledgling city with a much smaller population, it had a well- developed streetcar and inter-urban system that tied neighbourhoods and communities together. That was progress! Back to the future! Without a car, one can feel more carefree. But getting around sure could be a lot more liberating if we had a publicly supported transportation system that benefited everyone and that was subsidized as highly as is the private motor vehicle (see VTPI, Contrasting Visions of Urban Transport (http://www.vtpi.org/cont_vis.pdf), that provides justifications for greater public transit subsidies).
Here’s a clip – the earliest film of Vancouver – and of its streetcar routes in 1907:
— Arlene Tigar McLaren is the co-editor (with Jim Conley) of Car Troubles: Critical
Studies of Automobility and Auto-Mobility. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. This article first appeared as a blog on Living Without a Fridge and Beyond: http://ditchyourfridge.blogspot.com/
3 Comments
Actually, being car-less is not a big deal. It’s one way of preventing acquiring accidents. This post is informative.
Hi I have sold my last car for the past 4 years. I move around mainly by bicycles, buses, walking and at times I use a car. At 55yrs old it has been great. I overtake the traffic in Nassau in the Bahamas. Nassau is a car crazy island. Traffic jams are frequent and it is great to get through the traffic using a bike. Easy to park, no $5.60 per gallon gasoline required. Health benefits have come to me as well (blood pressure 118/71 mmHg and a cholesterol level of 164) Well there is more that I can say I’ll take it easy for now… Bro.Doug.
i have never owned a car in 64 years. use a bike, bike trailer & bus system where i piggyback my bike on the bus