Meditations On: Former Californian Contemplates Ditching His Car

After I posted my maiden voyage using Portland’s transit system and pondered whether it might be possible to do my Costco runs without it, a LV friend said that doing Costco via transit is definitely possible. She said that she does this by using a large backpack and “de-boxing” everything before putting it in her backpack. I might see if I can use a small collapsable wheel cart… but then I stated wondering how difficult it would be to make the trip using the transit system.

Thus began a series of map searches to figure out how doable this might be. Here’s the mapped possible route (and several other possible destinations):

Even the goddam in-n-out burger in WA is doable via transit. Holy shit. Also, there’s a In-n-Out proposed for near the airport and anther in Hillsboro, which is closer than the Vancouver location. The last time I did a series of searches and map searches, I ended up buying a Condo in Portland two months later…

I know I need to feel comfortable doing what I want to do, when I want to do it and not feel overly constrained or feeling limited to things that I can only get to on foot and that may take some time and more than a few experiments and trial-runs. I know what the freedom of driving means and I’ve loved my experiences driving across the country, several times. On the drive back to Las Vegas from Portland in late October I saw mountains and forests and an endless blue sky and vast empty places that gave me a sense of hope and amazement, despite all of the drama and fear I was hearing online and in the media. I cherish that and don’t want to give that up. But if there are ways for me to still do that and not have the burden of monthly auto insurance, rising fuel costs, not to mention a $210 monthly fee just to park my car in an unassigned parking spot .4 miles away in an open lot, I think that’s something I should seriously consider. I know I just need more time jumping on and off the local transit before I can feel comfortable ditching my car. JBB

Tags: city transit life, daily random shit, JBB’s life issues, life without a car, meditations on