Many years ago, when I was single, living downtown in an apartment a few blocks from work, and reading Brautigan, I lived for about three years without a car, using a bike most of the time, and it was wonderful.
Now, with a family, living in the suburbs, and even though I work from home, (and still have my Brautigan books) I cannot imagine living life relying on mass transit or a bike.
As good an idea as mass (or bike) transit might be to many people, the freedom, resiliency, and safety of getting around the region in my car is just a much better one.
Editorial notebook: Transitarian and proud
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, June 21, 2007
Today is Dump the Pump Day, a national invitation to commuters to park their cars and discover the value of using transit. Sacramento Regional Transit is even offering "I Dumped the Pump" buttons to bus riders today. Certainly worth the $2 price of admission. (In the central city, you can hop on for $1.)
Back in February, I parked my Dodge Caravan, which on a good day gets less than 20 mpg in freeway driving, and purchased a monthly RT pass. I haven't driven to work since.
The American Public Transit Association estimates that using public transit saves 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline a year. When I drove to work I would fill the Caravan with gas at least once a week. In today's $3-plus per gallon world, that's $200 a month. Compare that with the $85 monthly RT pass.
But beyond the economics, there's a social responsibility, a responsibility to the planet. Keeping that car parked reduces smog-producing pollutants and lessens my contribution to the causes of global warming.
In my newfound enthusiasm for transit, I've even created a word to describe people like myself who volunteer to leave their cars at home: transitarian. (Not to be confused with the Spanish third-person plural of transitar in the conditional.)
Life as a transitarian has been an entertaining adventure. As Richard Brautigan wrote in his short story, "The Old Bus": "There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing."
