Things You'll Need:
- Some time and thought
- Relocation (optional)
-
Step 1
What Have You Missed in Your Community?Identify and use services near your home. As an exercise, you might measure and test how close the places you go regularly are from your home: your place of employment, the grocery store, drug store, cleaners, hardware store, post office, restaurants, coffee shop, beauty parlor, gym, dentist and doctor. Are some of those things available closer to where you live? Are any within walking distance? Combine trips if you can. If you have to take the car, attempt to do as many errands as you can during the same trip.
-
Step 2
Smell the FlowersWhen purchasing a home, consider its proximity to the community you want to live in. Don’t buy a home that requires that you get in the car to do anything or go anywhere! America’s love affair with the car has cost us dearly! How many times have you made friends with someone while commuting to work on the freeway? We frequently don’t know our neighbors or our community. Live in a place where you want to be so you don't have to drive there! If you move from a suburban to an area downtown, you'll probably find that your car will suddenly became less important. With two or three coffee houses within a block of home and as many restaurants, plus clothing and other stores, the car became less a part of every day living. You'll discover that even the grocery store, post office and drug store are only a walk away!
This is the best place to be. -
Step 3
Another Use For the CarBecome familiar with local public transportation. Most agencies have their stops and schedules available on the internet. Local buses connect to other public transit. From the writer’s home, a bus goes to the ferry or to BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which goes all over the San Francisco Bay Area and to the airports. It’s possible to get anywhere in the world without using the car!
-
Step 4
Walking on a French StreetGet there under your own power. What did you think those legs were for? Walking or bicycling allows you to become more familiar with your neighborhood, with the people who live there and what else is in it. You may become aware of other services because you are on the ground, noticing the real world, not sealed into a bubble that insulates you and isolates you from your world.
-
Step 5
Test how many days you can go without using your car. By a combination of living in an area with easy access to goods and services, by using public transportation, or walking or bicycling, you can seriously reduce the number of times you get in your car. In the process, you’ll know your community much better. You might even be happier!
