I've been without a car since 1997. This isn't the first time I've been without a car but it's the first time since my mid-twenties that I haven't had children at home to haul around and get to places. There's a big difference right there. I'm enjoying it so far but then I'm a solitary person anyway and don't have to keep up with a busy social life.

I enjoy not having to worry about whether my tires will go flat or something will have to be replaced or insurance is due or if I really need to wash it or fix the nicks and dents or … and so forth. I never liked taking care of my cars. They were always just a thing to get me around. Don't get me wrong. I love driving. I just don't enjoy owning a car. I always had this niggling worry in the back of my mind that something was going to go wrong and it would cost a lot of money or leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Both of which have happened.

I like riding my bike and I know that I ride it more when I don't have a car as a backup. It's so easy to get lazy when you have a car and just figure that really you could drive so it's'ok tosleep a little longer. I enjoy the early, cold mornings with the sunrise just barely staining the edge of the sky and I enjoy the warm summer mornings when the sky is already a glorious clear blue at 6:00 AM. I enjoy the challenge of knowing that I have to get on the bike and ride somewhere even though I'm not looking forward to it. I find that I do enjoy it once I get going. If I'm going somewhere in the evening, I know that I have to ride my bike because the buses will have stopped running by the time I'm ready to come home. When I get home at 10:00 or 10:30 in the evening on my bike, by myself, I feel like I have faced a challenge and won. The challenge of facing the world instead of hiding behind my apartment door or even a car door.

I also enjoy riding the bus. Many of the people who regularly ride the bus in the morning are on a friendly greeting basis and chat during the ride. Since I ride my bike several days a week and when I do ride the bus, I sometimes take the early bus and sometimes the next one, I don't know them except by their faces, but I enjoy watching them form a little sociable group bound together by their early departure for work. There is sometimes someone from my work on the bus and it's enjoyable chatting with them, otherwise I just relax and enjoy the ride.

On the ride home there is a more mixed group of people heading back home or to the mall to do a little shopping. People are more awake but the tiredness has started to set in. You can tell that many will just go home and sit, if they can. Too many probably have work to do at home, also, and this is their only breather before starting their second and unpaid job. Things seem a little more dingy and little more grimy but there is also the relief of having made it through another workday.

It's always amazing to me that so many people get up in the morning (or evening) and go to work, day after day after day. Even the best job can become tiresome and boring just from sheer repetition unless you put out quite a bit of effort to look at what you are doing in a new way each day. The not so best jobs can easily become a form of chinese torture and the bad jobs will deaden your soul and steal your spirit. Despite this the vast majority of people get up everyday, day after day, and go to work. This is awe inspiring.

On weekends people are more relaxed and chat with the bus driver about what's happening in their lives. Of course, at anytime there are the talkers. They usually talk with the driver. Some will talk with anyone around them. The driver often just goes Uh huh. Uh huh. Once I heard a driver uh huhhing to a guy talking about the space travellers he had met. I expect the drivers hear everything. Other times you can tell this is an ongoing conversation with a regular passenger.

I also walk more without a car. When I'm running errands by bus, it's often faster to walk to the next store than wait for the bus. I know that I can walk somewhere easily, so I do. I often even make opportunities to walk instead of riding or biking. My idea of an easy walk has always been a bit more than most people. I never had a problem with a mile and now find two miles is not too strenuous. Of course, it depends on how much I'm carrying. I use a backpack but tend to get carried away when I pack it. Do I really need my binoculars to run up to the grocery store? You never know!

I walk and bike more without a car because they are a necessary and integral part of my life now. I never was very good at health clubs, and, from what I've heard from other people, most people don't keep going after the first flush of resolution runs up against a desire to just go home or not get up so early. I hate jogging and various other forms of regimented exercise and the only time I do calisthenics is when my back goes out and I need to limber it up. I don't think that most people will exercise unless it is part of their transportation, not just a leisure activity.

Do I miss having a car? You bet. Every time I think about going camping or I have a lot of things to do or need to get somewhere at a really ungodly hour. I just remember what a car payment can be and remind myself that cars can be rented, do I really need to do all that, and I can always take a taxi and still be ahead of the game.

I often get on forums that are about living without a car but the people in these groups tend to be rather legalistic and joyless. I like walking. I like riding my bike. I like riding the bus. Most of the people on the forums seem to do it because they SHOULD. They are also rather hateful towards people who don't agree with them. I don't care if people want a car because that's their choice. I think they are missing some things but I'm missing some things by not having a car.

The walking forums are better and people show more enjoyment but too many of them only talk about how good it is for them and how they can walk farther or faster or whatever. Why do we have to judge everything by how fast or how far. I enjoy knowing how far I've walked but it's peripheral to the enjoyment of the walk. I like pushing myself sometimes and that's a different kind of enjoyment but I would never want to give up walking for the joy of it. I would like to find a group that just talks about the joy of the walking or biking or, even, bus riding.