Car Free in the Queen City: Packing It In

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Packing It In

The idea of driving a car for a limited time brings on glee and worry.

Glee because I will be able to get to my hair appointment in a timely manner. Glee because I can take my dry cleaning to the bargain cleaner for a one-day turn around and not worry about how I'll pick it up.

Glee because I can actually plan a trip to Ikea without being a dependent and without worrying if the friend who takes me has enough space for a coffee table/rug/insert item here.

But look at that list.

Look at all I want to do (and in some cases, need to do) between Friday evening and Monday evening. My holiday weekend is going to be very over-programmed.

In my discussions with other car-free folks, I've discovered they occasionally rent a car for a weekend when they want to accomplish a lot of stuff with minimal inconvenience. I'll tell you, bus riding requires a bit of research and planning, and a lot of waiting. It's up to you to make it to the bus on time - if you don't, you could be waiting for up to an hour for the next ride.

Some of you might be asking, "But didn't you want to go car-free? So why are you renting a car?"

Well, yes. I wanted to save a lot of money. I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint. I wanted to walk more and lead a healthier lifestyle.

I am doing all of those things.

I'm just renting a car to have a convenient weekend. If we had Zipcars in Cincinnati, I'd rent one of those. But we don't.

Instead, Enterprise has a great deal - $9.99 a day during the weekend. Even with the car insurance I need to buy, it's only going to be $60 for Friday night through Monday night.

If we had trains or a more comprehensive bus system, I might be able to get away without renting a car once in a while. But it looks like something I'm going to have to include to my car-free repertoire occasionally.

So if anyone needs to make a trip to Ikea Sunday, hit me up.

I'm packing it in. Meatballs included.