Shek's Footprint

I am fairly car light if you read my Car Dependency page. It is a pain to be paying what I do for my car. The car in question is a 2007 Saturn Aura XE bought brand new with minimal down-payment. The sixty month payment schedule is hefty but reasonable if I use it a lot. I dont. Moreover, I have only had car insurance since the beginning of 2006. There are no violations in my record yet but I havent established myself as a safe driver to get a sub-hundred dollar insurance payment. If you do some rough math, I am paying upwards of $500 to park the car under my apartment every month.

The best option would be to sell the car and use the non-existent public transportation of the great city of Jacksonville FL! My other anchor is Laya. She is a fairly large dog, just as female greyhounds are. I need some mode of transportation in case of emergencies. Once these problems are creatively solved, I will be able to live car free. There have been thoughts of selling my car and buying a sub-thousand dollar beater-car for emergencies but that line of thought is a work in progress.

I am reading “How to Live Well without owning a car” by Chris Balish. It is a brand new book borrowed from the library with my brand new library card. Lets see if I can pick up something creative from that book.

This is the only reason that I would never buy a single-family-home in a suburbia type environment. Even though the values of single-family homes appreciate more than that of condos, I’d pay the price in stress, overweight, diabetes or heart disease. Living in a closer packed environment is a lot better for the mind. You get to step out of your door and be a part of the society instead of enclosing yourself in a capsule and driving 2 miles to just get out of the neighborhood.

I wish my work moves Downtown so I can move to San Marco or Downtown and live a more healthy life. Till then, it is me on my bicycle and irritated suburbia-living-drivers wondering how I can be on the road with them!