Kev Kennedy's Blog

Car dependent

I’m thinking of de-carring. Actually I’ve been thinking it for a while, but with spiralling fuel costs and road tax going up again (don’t get me started on all the stealth taxes we pay) I’m wondering if it’s time to bite the bullet.

I could easily get the train to work. And the money I would save on car maintenance and upkeep would fund occasional taxi use – trips to the supermarket for example. But where I would lose out on is the long trips to see family. While I would probably prefer to go by train, if Kath and me were travelling together it would cost us over £100 in train tickets.

Now if we were going to go on a luxury spa-train, with a virtual reality room, Starbucks franchise, net café, cinema, attentive staff and wonderful food, than I’d consider it. But £100 to sit – or stand! – in an airless cattle truck, which smells of hot sweaty bodies, diesel oil and decades-old cigarette smoke, with the only refreshments on offer being over-priced Kit-Kats which have sat on the trolley for God knows how long, simply isn’t attractive.

And, on a more existential note, without a car you are at the mercy of trains which are delayed, buses that don’t turn up, and taxi drivers who don’t know street names. Unless you cycle, which takes forever to get anywhere and ensures you feel sweatily grimy when you arrive.

Giving up your car is, to a certain extent, relinquishing your freedom to go places on your own terms, in your own time.

I’m not sure I’m ready to do that.
 

Created on Mon 4th August 2008 11:46