Banishing The Car, A Personal Case History: Kyoto Action Committee

Banishing The Car, A Personal Case History: Kyoto Action Committee

Viewpoint by Katherine Massam, WCW Guest Columnist, Kyoto Action Committee

I am bereft since we banished our car. How will I manage? My husband feels worse. He secretly blames our empty garage and driveway on me, but feels condemned to smile bravely. When we tell our friends what we’ve done, they think we are mad because we have jobs and two small boys. They look at us with pity.

How could I do it?

Here is my story of how we became a car-free family.

In The Beginning

We became the proud leasers of a new Hyundai Accent in 2004. I am ashamed to admit that when I drove around in this shiny new car, I felt special and privileged compared to people I passed at the bus stops. But later after a couple of expensive and scary accidents the shine quickly wore off. At the same time the high insurance premium, the cost of the monthly leasing fee, the upkeep, and the steadily rising cost of gas drummed down on us like a punishing hail storm, gouging large holes in our family budget.

The car also took up lots of our time and energy. Taking it to the dealership for repairs, tire changing and servicing was always a logistical problem. And getting up an hour early in the winter to dig it out of the snow was no fun.

It took time for us to reach this point. But still, the concept of a car-free existence never crossed our minds. Like our friends, we believed we couldn’t live without a car.

The Environmental Wake-Up Call

Then came a series of environmental wake-up calls. First was Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. This powerful film left me with serious concerns about the future of my children. I started researching the problem of climate change and learned that:

1) 2,500 scientists from all over the world have confirmed the science of man-made climate change, and are calling on world leaders to treat the problem with the same urgency as they would if they were at war (IPCC)

2) Canada is one of the worst greenhouse gas offenders in the world. Each Canadian produces on average 10 times the amount of greenhouse gas than residents of India, and 3 times the amount of residents of China

3) We humans need to reduce our emission of greenhouse gases by 90 percent by 2030 if we want to save our climate from collapse (George Monbiot, British environmental writer)

4) The effects of climate change in terms of drought and extreme weather events are already affecting the poorest people in the world, causing starvation, loss of habitat and war

5) Cars are one of the biggest problems: manufacturing a new car creates as much pollution as driving that car for 100,000 km (62,000 mi); so even with a small and little-used car like ours, just buying or leasing one causes a lot of damage.

6) In Montreal, 1,500 deaths and 500 visits to ER per year are directly related to air pollution, caused in part by car exhaust (Montreal Dept. of Health)

I asked myself the obvious question: what difference can I make?

However, Al Gore had answered this question for me. Dealing with climate change is not only a question of survival: it is a moral question. It became clear to me that continuing along the same path was not fair to the other citizens on this planet, including my own children.

Breaking Old Habits

I took other steps to reduce my carbon footprint before making the decision to get rid of the car, including insulating the house better, changing light bulbs to CFLs, and getting some Energy Star appliances. These measures were easy and had no impact on my life.

The car was trickier. I thought I was physically dependent on it. Here are some of the questions I pondered:

How would I transport the children, especially in the winter?
How would I get to work?
How would we get to the museum, dentist, friends’ houses, and hardware store?
What would I do in an emergency?

In time I answered all these questions.

I stopped using the car for work and getting the children to school and daycare. I started doing groceries on foot. We joined Communauto, a car co-op scheme operating in Montreal, and my husband started biking to work. I found that these solutions were easy, and improved my quality of life. I was spending more time with the children, and everyone was getting a bit fitter. I realized that my dependence on the car was not physical but psychological.

Step by step, I freed myself from seeing the car as a status symbol, a necessity, a comfort and a support. Meanwhile, the end of the car lease approached. It was crunch time.

The Stick & The Carrot

The stick was the environment, especially when I saw idling SUVs all around me. I am lazy and selfish. Was my feeling of moral duty towards the planet and my fellow citizens enough to push me to break with the comfort of car ownership? I think so, but fortunately a large carrot dangling in front of my nose saved me from having to wrestle too much with my conscience.

That carrot was the money. The car was a financial anchor around our necks. We were paying for it 24 hours a day. Most of the time it was sitting in front of the house or in a car park. A good part of my part-time salary paid for this machine. We were throwing money down the drain.

The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) estimates that the smallest car costs $9,000 a year to own and operate. When I quoted this figure to our friends, they scoffed and said their car costs were nowhere near that much. I sat down and calculated what we spent on the car including: Initial deposit, Monthly leasing fee, Insurance, Gas, Tires, windscreen wipers and other hardware, Servicing, Wiper fluid, License plates, Cleaning, CAA membership, and repairs.

The total per year came to $8,000. We had one of the smallest and most economical cars on the market, and did low mileage. What could other people be paying, I wondered?

I worked out that if I bought a monthly bus pass, joined and used Communauto, paid for some grocery deliveries and taxis, I would save $250 per month. As a part-time worker, this meant I could work less, see my kids more, and get more exercise. Suddenly there was no more hesitation. The car was going.

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