cars/driving :(

si i just got my permit and im 17. i was able to get it at 16 but i chose to wait. i had my first lesson driving through a coorporate lot and my dad told me what to do. i sorta thought right after i got my permit it would be awesome and ok. but today, i realized i dont like it. its like every time i get in a car, im scared and worried about the enviroment. i usually ask my friends for rides since i dont have my licence, but im really sad about how much pollution it causes. i dont want to drive. i just dont. but i should becuase then i wont have to relie on my friends for rides and so i can help out around the house by taking my borther and sister to their basketball games. i dont really know what other alternative options are out there? have any of you guys ever felt this way before?

 

Using a car and trying to do so with low impact can become easy especially when your a new driver and have yet to develope thos bad habits.


Plan your trips to do more than 1 fuctions, like taking your brother and maybe a few of his team members to and from the game and slide in a gowing to the store at the same time and maybe pick up some stuff for his team mates family too at the same time. Saves fuel from other families running around with thier cars.

Multitask as much as possible, make sure the car is in good running order and hopefully as light on fuel as you can get. Like buying a small wagon model, 4 doors some storage and still can get over 30MPG.

DOnt feel guilty feel the need to conserve and pass it on. Walk when you can, ride a bike when you can use the bus when you can and save the car for needs.

 

30 mpg or 100 mpg, the use of combustion to propell transportation is still slow death to the web of life the oxygen in the air we breathe, among other things, comes from, and we are still very much an inescapably inseperable part of.

many DO have no option to avoid driving and owning cars, but DO have an option when it comes time to vote, on whether to support the perpetuation of policies that have made and kept the private passenger automobile the primary means of transportation in the 'developed world'!

=^^=
.../\...

 

I'm 20 and don't have my licence. never bothered to get it seeing as i can get around by bike.
I don't drive just because of the pollution factor, but because of the cost of owning a vehicle. Hundreds of dollars a month is better spent else where for me!

 

but how do you get to work with no car? i used to work at a grocery store and walked because it was so close to my house but now my dad and me and my siblings moved into this apartment complex. if i did ride a bike, i would be crossing major roads and what about when i go to college?

 

I bus everywhere. My university has a lowered-cost bus pass for four months (1 term) that I use. I bike in the summer, or else use bus tickets. Mind you, our public trans just got an overhaul and is pretty decent nowadays.

But if you live in a city with a university or college, assumably public transit will run past it because, well, students are broke as all heck. Hell, parking at our campus is ridiculous and it's actually cheaper to have a bus pass if you want to park within three blocks of campus (let alone on the actual campus itself)

 

I guess it all depends on how far you have to go and are willing to go. I live in a University and College town, so it's fairly bike friendly. I cross and go on many busy roads each day. You get use to it after a while. However, the city I live in is fairly small (pop: 135,000) and I can get from one end of the city to the other within 20minutes. By car it would take about 15minutes.

If you wanna read other opinions on living "car-free", check out this message forum: Bike Forums: Living Car Free

 

I got my licence nearly 30 years ago (ouch!!) and two years ago I gave up my car. I only travel on public transport and rarely get on a plane if I can go by ferry or overland. Being able to drive is useful but you don't have to do it!!

 

my friends mom got me driving lessons and im going to take them and then get my licence just in case. i guess ill just only drive when i absolutly need to. i wish i could just bike everywhere... dam highways..they scarey

 

Ufortunately, man-made problems require man-made solutions. All needs that humans have cencerning traveling far, or to travel quickly or caused by modern lifestyle requirements. Sadly, the automobile is often the man-made solution to the man made travelling problem.

RyJa is very wise in noting that automobiles consume a noticable portion of most peoples inome. Certainly, the bicycle is very environmentally friendly when compared to automobiles. Still, it doesn't suit everyone. Some are not physically able to use a bicycle, and for others it is a safety risk because criminals may harm vulnerable bicylce riders. Still, the bicylce could replace the automobile in many peoples lives. If those who are able to handle the physical demands, and the personal safety risks, would begin to use bikes instead of automobiles, it would be a positive thing.

One last thing, cyclist who travel in the midst of many automobiles breath in many more toxins than a cyclist who rides away from automobiles. An article in a 2006 Men's Health magazine issue covered the topic of runners running amidst air pollution.

check out www.car-free.org ,and http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php

 

what if i bike to the things around me (a random church, friends in the developement and this placxe where its a pizza place, dry cleaners, a resturant and some other things) and drive to futher places. i think that would make me feel better.

 

I understand and sympathise with your dilemma! Learning to drive a car is really useful. I know what cycling is like even here in a remote community. Until recently I also cycled (not in the winter though with 40mph winds coming off the Atlantic!!) but I had my youngest son on the back in a seat. He is now too big for that and the road is too dangerous for him to follow me on his bike (apart from down to the beach). Unfortunately motorists don't give cyclists room and they tend to treat them like moving targets. I was once literally driven into a ditch with Ree sitting in his seat at the back! I also know from experience that walking n someparts of the US is a no-no. I was staying outside Houston once and decided to walk to the nearest stores about 1/2 mile away and was stopped by a patrol car and asked why I was walking!!!

 

I try to ride my bike as much as possible in the summer, but during the winter I have to break down and drive. Especially with all the storms we've been getting in colorado this year I get to be the carpool driver because I have one of the only 4 wheel drives in my group of friends and coworkers.

 

Just as I was writing that last message I heard a crash outside my window. I looked out and it looks like a little honda lost traction on the severely rutted road and slid into a phone pole.

 

Yeah i don't like messing the enviroment up, Theres so many cars anyways though, and our planets already fucked, so might as well enjoy what you can while you can. Going fast is like the best thing ever too.

 

I've Owned a truck that got 3 gallons to the mile, I bloody loved that truck and will buy another.

I owned a Jeep wrangler, with an Inline 6 cylinder engine. when that thing ran right I could get into the 20's in the MPG. I loved that car to.

I now drive 100 miles a day for work... most of it freeway, so I sold the jeep, got a scion xB, and while cruising at speed on the freeway, it gets around 45 MPG, in town about 22 MPG. when I make it go fast(floor it)... that number can drop to about 6. but all and all, on average... I get about 33 MPG. in a car that looks great, seats 4 BIG people and has a fantastic stereo.

I'm really quite aware of the environment. but I see a bit of stupidity and a lot of instablity in the "everything ever is killing the planet" attitude. if you really want to help the environment. but live like an adult and drive.

its easy... you already know most of it... but I guess you need to Share the Care?

the basics,
drive the minimum amount you need to, and its already been said how you do that.

buy the minimum amount of car you need, just not the Smart Car... that things a Pile, seats two HORRIBLY and just... SUCKS. the Honda Fit gets equal or better mileage in real driving(ignore both posted numbers, the Honda Fit will get better MPG in the real world.) and the fit seats 4 in comfort...

as far as efficient cars go... the Scion xD,xA... the Nissan Cube,the Chevy Aveo and the honda Fit are all super sippers that dont cost a lot to begin with... then of course you have the hybrids...

and hybrids are great... because instead of smog... you drive around a battery that is basically 700 pounds of Radioactive Neurotoxin(lithium ions). (hello rock! this is hard place!)

then, from those cars that sip, you step up to the bigger little cars... cars like mine, that while still being 4 cylinders and efficient, they pack a bit of punch...

the NEW Scion xB,the Scion Tc, the Chevy HHR, the ford Focus, honda civics and accords, Mazda3's, and the list goes on.

and lastly, Fuel. doesn't have to be black and white. Ethanol is becoming more and more available. and has less of an impact on the environment. and most of the cars i mentioned come equipped to handle it...

also, Diesel engines... at least the modern ones. are Models of efficiency. newer offerings from Volkswagen and Mercedes take advantage of the fact a Diesel only needs to burn fuel when its under throttle. whereas a gas engine always has to suck it in....

and with Diesel, comes Bio-diesel. if you live in a hot climate, you can run the stuff at a high mixture, like 80-20. and have a profoundly smaller impact still. in the winter Bio-diesel tends to gel, and isn't the best choice...

DAMN, that is a giant post.

 

"With great power comes great responsibility"
-Peter Parker

Sure it's a quote from spiderman, but it applies to this topic too.

Driving once a week to buy groceries for a week isn't nearly the same as driving one state over to get ur favorite candy bar. Don't feel guilty unless you do the act. What you're responding to is a world where 80% of drivers don't drive efficiently, so now you feel like you need to make up the slack. "Car driving" becomes the anti-environmental enemy while really it's "Unconscious folks who don't realize their daily habits or don't care". There's a big difference but it's kind of hard to tell unless u really ponder it. You're not part of the slack, ur a solution.

Use your powers responsibly.

 

jetpacks. go!