I’m gunna say something here that will sound totally off the wall given the L.A.-style city that I live in. Hang onto your hat!
I could probably do completely without a car of my own.
None.
No car.
No wheels.
No insurance bills.
No maintenance bills.
No gas bills.
None. Zero. Zilch.
CAN you imagine?
A week or three ago, I sure couldn’t have.
My son, who grows more paternalistic as the days pass, decided I shouldn’t be driving from pillar to post. Or even from the front yard to the garage door… 😀
So he has pilfered my car, leaving me with…oh yeah: an empty garage.
After I got over the urge to grab him around the neck and throttle him (that took awhile…), it began to dawn on me:
Y’know what?
If you live in Phoenix, you don’t really need a car.
That assumes you have half a brain and can figure out how to use Uber and how to use the public transit system.
Here’s why:
* The ever-annoying City of Phoenix did one UN-annoying thing: it created a usable public transit system.
* Buses now show up on time and are no longer haunted by bums and lunatics.
* And the city installed, of all things, a light-rail system that passes within a block of my house and will take you to Tempe (where Arizona State University resides) to the downtown commercial district through the mid-town Yuppie precincts through uptown ritzy-titzyville and then onward to the middle-class suburbs to the north and west.
How’s about that, eh?
The present fad for running do-it-yourself taxi services complements that handsomely. A guy who lives right across the street from me(!!!) is doing exactly that. And I think a few others here in the ‘Hood are doing the same. Once I have a list of these worthies’ names and phone numbers, I may never have to ride another bus again. Or drive another car of my own!
Hmmmmm…
Just imagine never having to drop another $20 bill into a gas tank! Never having to haul the contraption to the local repair garage for its regular maintenance. Never having to fart with getting a driver’s license from the state.
LOL! I probably will keep on with the driver’s license nuisance, because a plastic card bearing your photo is a key, standard piece of identification. Can’t cash a check without one, eh?
But otherwise….about 87 gerjillion nuisances and expenses are about to go away.
How about you? If you could get rid of your car, would you?