Just in time for Earth Day
The Time magazine with the cover story "The New Frugality" showed up the same day that my car died. How appropriate. I read it on the bus downtown, trying to calculate whether our household will save any money now that we're down to one operating car.
Probably not much, I figured. It was old and creaky, a 1997 Escort wagon that had lasted 168,000 rough miles. It carried only no-fault insurance, and as long as gas was around $2 a gallon it cost about the same as bus fare to get to work and back, maintenance notwithstanding. Now that it's sitting idle in the driveway, (in "hospice," I joke with the husband) I'm having to figure out how to get by in Detroit as (gasp) a pedestrian.
I welcome the challenge, and at the same time I'm hoping to find out whether the "green life" is really feasible. This ain't New York City, after all.
My situation is not that unusual. Plenty of people in the city don't have cars; others can't afford the insurance; and others have gotten into legal jams where the state is effectively extorting them, hanging that precious driver's license over their heads while they pay, pay and pay for past tickets or a DUI. If those folks can get by, surely I can too.
So here goes. I have a stack of DDOT bus passes and a bike, and some of my eastside-dwelling coworkers have let me bum rides. I've taken a cab home once, late at night, and at $20 one way from downtown, that's not gonna become a habit.
I'm definitely grateful for spring weather and a good pair of sneakers.
