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Buying some freedom
Dec. 15th, 2008 10:30 amWe're a single-car family. Always have been. In the past, we lived close enough to Jason's work that it would have actually taken longer for him to get the car out of the garage and park it at the other end than it took to walk. This means that although we only had one car, we were never inconvenienced at all. Or very rarely.
Unfortunately, the housing around Jason's office here in Austin was either tiny, or nasty, or completely blew our budget. You could either get tiny condos right behind his office with no yard for doggies. Or behind them, single family homes in the half-mil range. On the other side of the freeway it was all 1960s ranches that were small and rather run down. Decent yards, but pretty crappy houses, and still rather spendy. So we ended up way out in the burbs, requiring a vehicular commute.
As a result, I've been feeling a little cooped up lately. Either I have to get up in the morning, drive Jason to work and commit to being available to pick him up after (often hanging around his office for an hour waiting for him to be ready to go), or I have to let him have the car all day. Most days I have just let him take the car.
On foot you've got a pretty short range. And in suburbia it almost never takes you as far as you need to go. On skates I could get further, but there's the inconvenience of having to carry some shoes and change on the way into each shop. And then there's the drivers that can't seem to figure out how fast you're going or that you don't really have brakes, and try to kill you by cutting you off. There's also the problem of uneven pavement and having to pick routes based on the smoothness of the road, rather than on what is more direct. So that's really a no-go too. The second car isn't really an option right now. We have some money, but not enough that I want to throw it away on a depreciating money-pit just so I can have the ability to pick up milk. Ditto for the motor-bike or scooter. It's cheaper, but it's still lost money and requires regular inputs of insurance and gas. That leaves the old, traditional bicycle.
Saturday morning I dropped Jason off at work and headed to the local bike shop. The salesman pointed me to the bike that he thought would work for me, given what I had told him I wanted it for. I tested several bikes on the floor and did in fact end up coming back to his first recommendation. After that came the accessory buying binge. I had to add fenders, a rear rack, lights front and back, a water bottle rack and bottle and a lock. I sprung for a fancy new pump that reads pressure for the tires. I also ordered some fancy saddle-bags to hang on the back rack, but it will take a week or two for those to arrive, so for now I'm limited to buying what fits in my backpack. After that I decided to invest a little money in Jason and brought his bike into their shop to be fixed. It's been sitting in our basement untouched for at least 4.5 years now. The last 3 or 4 of which it was sitting up on one wheel in a crawl space. Prior to that I'm not sure if he rode it the two years he lived with his parents after university, so it's probably been even longer since it's seen a road. And of course before that it was subjected to all kinds of abuse, being ridden in the rain and whatnot. The chain and gear box were all rusty, the tires are suffering from dry rot, one of the wheels is slightly warped and the whole thing was just pretty sad.
When everything's all said and done I think I probably just spent $1,000 on bicycles. It's funny spending that much money to be car-free, and yet, it's still just a fraction of what would have been spent if I'd given in and bought the second car that everyone here seems to think is a necessity. It's a lot of money, but Jason said it's okay as long as I actually use it. On the first day I rode it around the block a few times, getting used to the feeling of being on a bike again. On the second day I learned that I can in fact fit a 4L jug of milk in my backpack by taking it to the grocery store. I think today will be another grocery trip.
The last time I had access to a bike I was in Australia. It was a borrowed bike and I rode it every single day. I completely buggered my knees doing it, so I'm going to have to pay a lot of attention to my body this time around. The last time I actually owned a bike was a hand-me-down I had from the time I was 8 until I was about 14, when my mother got her new bike and I started borrowing that. I've never actually been shopping for, or purchased a bike for myself. It was a really nice experience. And so far riding it has given me that same feeling of freedom I had when I was a kid and used to ride it to the convenience store for candy runs, or when I was living in Australia. It's a feeling of self-reliance and empowerment that only comes from riding a bike as an actual method of transportation rather than purely for exercise or leisure. It's knowing that you have the means to get where you want and do what you want, and knowing that you're doing it under your own power, so you're getting that extra endorphin kick form your errands. The car is "mine" too, but it's just not "mine" in the same way that a bike is.
Unfortunately, the housing around Jason's office here in Austin was either tiny, or nasty, or completely blew our budget. You could either get tiny condos right behind his office with no yard for doggies. Or behind them, single family homes in the half-mil range. On the other side of the freeway it was all 1960s ranches that were small and rather run down. Decent yards, but pretty crappy houses, and still rather spendy. So we ended up way out in the burbs, requiring a vehicular commute.
As a result, I've been feeling a little cooped up lately. Either I have to get up in the morning, drive Jason to work and commit to being available to pick him up after (often hanging around his office for an hour waiting for him to be ready to go), or I have to let him have the car all day. Most days I have just let him take the car.
On foot you've got a pretty short range. And in suburbia it almost never takes you as far as you need to go. On skates I could get further, but there's the inconvenience of having to carry some shoes and change on the way into each shop. And then there's the drivers that can't seem to figure out how fast you're going or that you don't really have brakes, and try to kill you by cutting you off. There's also the problem of uneven pavement and having to pick routes based on the smoothness of the road, rather than on what is more direct. So that's really a no-go too. The second car isn't really an option right now. We have some money, but not enough that I want to throw it away on a depreciating money-pit just so I can have the ability to pick up milk. Ditto for the motor-bike or scooter. It's cheaper, but it's still lost money and requires regular inputs of insurance and gas. That leaves the old, traditional bicycle.
Saturday morning I dropped Jason off at work and headed to the local bike shop. The salesman pointed me to the bike that he thought would work for me, given what I had told him I wanted it for. I tested several bikes on the floor and did in fact end up coming back to his first recommendation. After that came the accessory buying binge. I had to add fenders, a rear rack, lights front and back, a water bottle rack and bottle and a lock. I sprung for a fancy new pump that reads pressure for the tires. I also ordered some fancy saddle-bags to hang on the back rack, but it will take a week or two for those to arrive, so for now I'm limited to buying what fits in my backpack. After that I decided to invest a little money in Jason and brought his bike into their shop to be fixed. It's been sitting in our basement untouched for at least 4.5 years now. The last 3 or 4 of which it was sitting up on one wheel in a crawl space. Prior to that I'm not sure if he rode it the two years he lived with his parents after university, so it's probably been even longer since it's seen a road. And of course before that it was subjected to all kinds of abuse, being ridden in the rain and whatnot. The chain and gear box were all rusty, the tires are suffering from dry rot, one of the wheels is slightly warped and the whole thing was just pretty sad.
When everything's all said and done I think I probably just spent $1,000 on bicycles. It's funny spending that much money to be car-free, and yet, it's still just a fraction of what would have been spent if I'd given in and bought the second car that everyone here seems to think is a necessity. It's a lot of money, but Jason said it's okay as long as I actually use it. On the first day I rode it around the block a few times, getting used to the feeling of being on a bike again. On the second day I learned that I can in fact fit a 4L jug of milk in my backpack by taking it to the grocery store. I think today will be another grocery trip.
The last time I had access to a bike I was in Australia. It was a borrowed bike and I rode it every single day. I completely buggered my knees doing it, so I'm going to have to pay a lot of attention to my body this time around. The last time I actually owned a bike was a hand-me-down I had from the time I was 8 until I was about 14, when my mother got her new bike and I started borrowing that. I've never actually been shopping for, or purchased a bike for myself. It was a really nice experience. And so far riding it has given me that same feeling of freedom I had when I was a kid and used to ride it to the convenience store for candy runs, or when I was living in Australia. It's a feeling of self-reliance and empowerment that only comes from riding a bike as an actual method of transportation rather than purely for exercise or leisure. It's knowing that you have the means to get where you want and do what you want, and knowing that you're doing it under your own power, so you're getting that extra endorphin kick form your errands. The car is "mine" too, but it's just not "mine" in the same way that a bike is.
