On the Road Again
Written on 03/30 at 10:51 AM by Andy Posner
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A little less than five years ago I stopped driving. I was 17 at the time, living in Los Angeles (that bastion of malls and sprawl), and actively protesting the build-up to the war in Iraq. One day (or so my story goes, the reality is less literary...) I was driving back from a war protest with the chant of "No War For Oil" still fresh in my mind. Suddenly, the realization that by driving I was, in my own infinitesimal way, contributing to the need for oil, struck me very clearly and very powerfully. I resolved to stop driving as soon as possible. Two weeks later the new bike I had ordered finally arrived, and my cycling adventure began. It has been an adventure fraught with difficulty, including three bad crashes, one of which nearly killed me. But it has also been an adventure that has taken me across the United States, has shown me a different way of travel, has taught me patience and discipline and has forced me to experience public transportation and the "car-free" world that many of America's poor have to navigate.In the five years since I resolved to stop driving I have only driven on a few occasions. None of them have been very auspicious. For instance, the day after I received my new bicycle was the day I had my crash that resulted in two broken bones and a severe concussion. Once I recovered from my injuries, I was forced to return to driving until I felt ready to hop back on the bike.
Another instance of driving occurred when my dad, best friend and I loaded our bikes into my dad’s station wagon and drove up to Santa Cruz to hang out and cycle with my cousin Micah, who is a well-known bicycle advocate. When my dad, who had been driving the entire way (and speeding, the entire way...) got tired, I offered to drive the final hour and a half to our destination. 10 minutes after I started driving I will pulled over for speeding. . .
In any case, I have driven perhaps 4 times in the last four years, and not at all in the last three years. And then, yesterday, I drove. Just like that, I drove car. At first it was kind of exciting: cars feel so powerful compared to riding quiet, 15 mile-per-hour bicycle. But once I got on the freeway I recalled how easy-and monotonous-driving really is.
What compelled me to get back behind the wheel? First of all, before those of you that know me start thinking that the sky is falling down just because I drove a car, I am still uninsured, and have no intention of owning a vehicle in the near future (unless, perhaps, it’s an electric or plug-in hybrid electric powered by solar panels!). I drove because one of my closest friends, Inna Volynskaya, is getting married in August, and she and her fiance, Jared Leavitt, had an engagement party last night in Florence, Massachusetts. Michele and I drove because it was made the most sense: taking the train would have been twice as expensive, and would have entailed arriving far too early, leaving far too late, and depending on other people to shuttle us from the train station to the party and back again.
Luckily, at the start of the school year I paid $35 to become a member of Zip Car, an innovative car-sharing company based in Boston. The way Zip Car works is that once you pay your $35 membership fee (and fill out an application) you receive a special zip card that gives you access to the cars. After that, you don’t pay anything unless you reserve a car. So yesterday morning I logged onto their web site and simply reserved a car for as long as I thought I would need it. Instead of having to go to a rental agency and stand in line to pick up the car, the vehicle is parked at a lot on Brown’s campus, and all I have to do is swipe my zip card over a card reader on the windshield and the door opens! It’s convenient, and encourages people to drive only when they need to, rather than all the time. That’s probably because the high cost of owning a car pretty much guarantees that the owner will use the car even when walking, cycling or public transit are obvious alternatives. After all, if you’ve spent all that money, why use something else?
At first I was pretty nervous about driving. All these years of experiencing roads and traffic from the ride-side-of-the-road perspective of a cyclist, and now I was going to drive 2000 pounds of steel at 65 miles per hour. . .But, as I said, it wasn’t a big deal, and It feels good to know that, if need be, I can rent a zip car and drive it wherever I need to go.
Interestingly, I don’t feel the need to address my ideals and whether or not this is indicative of a move away from those ideals. I am far too secure in myself to feel like I’m straying. And anyway, when I stopped driving I wasn’t aware of how oil-satured our entire economy is. Just because one does not drive does not mean that one leads an ‘oil-free’ life. Trains, buses, planes and even bicycles (because of the energy it takes to grow the food a cyclist eats in order to ride) all emit greenhouse gases in varying quantities. Still, the ultimate reason why I won’t be getting a car is because it does not make sense to have one in Providence, it’s expensive to own and operate, and I love nothing more than to use my bicycle for transportation purposes.
Inna’s engagement party was a lot of fun. It was held at a place called Look Park. There were at least 150 people there, mostly Jared’s relatives and friends since he is originally from nearby Longmeadow, Mass. I met a few interesting people, such as a friend of Jared’s who recently hiked the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles), does triathlons and is now considering a cross-country bike trip in the summer. I also got to spend time with my dear friend Inna and her wonderful fiance Jared. Inna looked beautiful and very happy, and I’m happy for the two of them that they are getting married!
Inna and I met when I was in 11th grade and attending Taft High School, which means that we’ve known each other for around 7 years. It’s hard to come by friends that you know will always be your friends (my recent experience with Eva, my best friend who stopped talking to me for 5 months, makes me appreciate all the more the friends I have...) So here’s to Inna and Jared!
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