Update: Life without four wheels.
Update: Life without four wheels.
Car shares are dope.
The car. Synonymous with freedom of movement, independence and individualism.
Personally, I would argue that true liberty is expressed through how car owners keep their interiors. From makeshift storage facilities to a jungle of plastic figurines, crumbs from unknown food sources and random tufts of hair, cars really embody what it means to be free.
Beyond how we keep our cars, there is so much pleasure in driving around in these metal machines. For those lucky enough to have access to a car, who hasn’t enthusiastically jumped into the driver's seat on a perfect weather day, shifted into drive, rolled down the windows, turned up some good tunes, and let the wind rip through your hair? What a glorious experience.
Just writing about the freedom and experience of driving a car makes me want to buy one again. Until I think of traffic…driving anywhere near the GTA. No thank you.
But I’m not here to discuss the merits and drawbacks of car ownership, we’ve covered that. Today’s post is an update of what my car free life has been like the last four plus months. Specifically, I want to talk about the resource that has expanded my world - the car share.
Life Without A Car
Now that I’ve had a few more months under my belt as a car-free human, I’ve definitely learned a few more things about myself and what life is like without a car. Overall, I have to say the experience and change has been mostly positive.
On a whole, my world has certainly become more condensed. Life now operates mostly in a 5 to 10 kilometer radius around where I live. It’s strange because my understanding of distance and time has really shifted. I understand the physical and sweat related implications of walking 5km versus biking 5km, or say driving 5km with a friend. Each of these options presents different outcomes in terms of time and effort.
What’s wild is I basically see no point in a car if a location is 5 km or less, which seems like a “well, duh!” statement, but so many people drive to places in a 5 kilometer radius of their home or work.
Life outside has also become extremely important. My life before was mostly spent in pod-like environments. Home, office, car, restaurant, movie theater, or a friend’s home - I would typically go from one self-contained space to another, rarely spending much time outdoors unless I prioritized it.
Now, I have to be outside to get places. This has become such a wonderful way to start the day, shake off work blahs, or refresh my headspace before meeting up with friends.
Though I haven’t owned a car for a few months, I’ve certainly ridden around in them a bunch. I have wonderful friends and family, and they have been incredibly generous with their own vehicles. I haven’t relied on anyone to cart me around like some sort of supreme leader (...yet!), but people in my life are happy to drive when plans mean further distance needs to be traveled (with compensation, of course - cars are f*ing expensive).
Ultimately, life is different, but not in a bad way. Do I miss the convenience of a car? Yup. Does the convenience of a car make me want to buy one? Nope. At least, not right now. We’ll see where the future takes me, but a car-less life makes sense for me at this point in my life. Especially now that I’ve discovered a secret weapon in the form of car share.
Yo, Car Shares Are Dope
While a car-free life has been a pretty cool experience so far, I recognize that I actually need a car to do certain things from time to time. Sure, I could spend 3 hours on transit to get to my doctor’s appointment or add a bike trailer to my two-wheeled stallion to bring home huge hauls from a store. But some things are just impractical to use a bike or transit for. Enter stage left: the car share.
For those of us sans car, car shares offer a convenient and accessible alternative to car ownership. In Kitchener-Waterloo, Communauto is the car share of choice with car share rentals available for booking along the central corridor of both city centers. You can book cars up to a month in advance from anywhere between an hour to weeks at a time. All you need is a license and credit card to set up an account (which takes about a week to verify and complete). Once your account is set up, you select a membership and then you get to booking!
Communauto memberships range from the free OPEN memberships for occasional bookers to the VALUE EXTRA membership for those who need to book a car often. All bookings include insurance and damage protection. It’s helpful to cost out how often you anticipate booking because once you choose your membership, you’re locked in for a year (which I didn’t fully understand initially, whoopsies!). Essentially, the higher the membership the greater the discount per use.
Once you book your car share ride, everything is set up through your account on the Communauto app. I was initially skeptical that the car would open through the app on my phone (boomer moment for me), but it opened no problem and I was on my way.
The other great thing about Communauto is that gas is included in your trip. Unlike other vehicle rental options, every trip factors in gas costs into pricing and all fleet vehicles have a gas card in the car to fill up when needed.
Also, the interior is immaculate and clearly detailed on a regular basis. No smelly bits from past travelers, which makes the sharing component all the more pleasant.
I would say the biggest complaint about the Communatuo experience so far is that the customer experience is a little lacking, but their website has all the information you need. I also dislike that there aren’t any car share access locations in the suburbs. I’m lucky that I live close to the downtown car share locations. I only have to walk a max of 5 km to access a wide variety of vehicle options. This is not the case for those land-locked in suburbia.
Also, a word on driving in general after living car-free for a little while. Boy is it a pain to drive distances. Traffic sucks. So does being trapped in a car-pod for hours. The experience is nice and novel for local errands, but boy does the shine wear off when you need to spend hours in traffic (especially around the GTA - barf). But I digress.
Car Share Savings
Though I’m a newb to the car share experience, the savings can be profound. If we look at the basic annual costs of a car, assuming you own the car outright, a family can easily spend $3,000 or more (likely more) to keep a vehicle on the road and gassed up.
My Communauto membership costs $225 for the year, and a recent car share booking for a five day trip with roughly 700 kilometers cost me $315.75. This means I would be able to make this same trip nine times a year, including my membership, for $3,066.75. Basically the same price as the operating costs of a car for a year without the depreciation or major maintenance costs. Not bad.
Now, considering I won’t be going on major excursions nine times a year, my car share costs will be much lower to run errands or small local jaunts around the Kitchener-Waterloo region and surrounding area. Meaning, the savings will be sa-weeeeet.
All in all, car shares are pretty dope, accessible and above all a major cost savings. For those car share-curious or if your car has seen better days and you’re anxious to take it out of town, sign-up for a Communauto free plan and try it out. The experience may surprise you.
In the end, remember, you’ve totally got this!
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For those with a dollar to spare, I’ve set up a Buy Me A Coffee account for folks to contribute to here and there. For those frugally focused, I would be incredibly grateful if you were to share my work with your networks and folks you think would enjoy my journey (via email, social media, or homing pigeon).
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