I let my liscence lapse 25 years ago today and I can honestly say I’ve never regretted it. Sure, there have been some moments when I wished I had a vehicle, but a handful of momentary wishes isn’t the same as regret. Without exception those moments have been trivial – wanting to drive out to IKEA, or to do a super grocery shopping – things like that. Not once have I ever felt like I needed a car.
Somehow I’ve always managed to find walkable neighborhoods and cities to live in and with only a couple of brief exceptions, managed to find jobs almost an hour’s walk or less from home. And there have always been taxis and public transit to make up the difference. Of all the cities I’ve lived in, I’d have to say that Montreal and Ottawa were the hardest to go car-free in, mostly just because of the hellish winters. Vancouver, Dublin, Berlin, Paris and even London are all pedestrian/cyclist friendly cities. L.A. is the only city I’ve ever visited where owning a car felt like it would really be a necessity – although now that we work from home, I could be quite content never to venture far outside the Santa Monica/Venice Beach strip.
25 years on, the idea of owning a car is just completely alien to me. I can’t imagine putting up with the stress, the expense, the wasted time and especially the lack of exercise. I can’t imagine the last 25 years without the tens of thousands of hours I’ve spent walking and biking. I can’t imagine the last 15 years with Ken without our all-day superwalks, the long trudges home every day from work or the gym, the hours of exploration and conversation, and the long walks with our beloved dog Lucky.
So it’s not just just that life has been satisfactory without a car or that not having one has not been incovenient. Not driving has made my life far better than it would have been otherwise.
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