Driving to live versus living to drive
Writing by treason on Tuesday, 25 of April , 2006 at 1:37 pm
A woman stopped me at the post office the other day to ask me how I liked my car. She’d been thinking about buying one, but she wanted to know about mileage. When I went blank she seemed disappointed that I couldn’t tell her how many miles I get per gallon.
I admit that I’ve never kept track. I used to watch my stepfather jot down the mileage on his Texaco charge slip, then add the slip to a thick stack held by a large metal clip. He kept this documentation in the glove compartment. I’ve always meant to do this, but since I’ve been driving since the Carter administration and haven’t yet started, I get the impression that it’s a habit I’ll never develop. He also had a rule about never letting the gas level in the car drop below a quarter tank. Whenever I disobey this law I regret it. It’s good policy. I don’t know if this was something he always did, or just something that grew out of driving during the Carter years. Odd/even days - remember?
I’ve been spending about twenty-five bucks a month on gasoline. I’m not commuting to a job, so I figure I have no business driving around unless I have a very good reason. I may have spent most of my life in California, but I am not a Californian. Driving isn’t natural for me. I do it because I live in the West and if you live in the West you have no choice. Sidewalks haven’t yet been invented in some parts of this region.
I’ve owned only three cars. My brother wanted to unload his ‘74 Mustang II, so I took it to college with me and watched the Pacific air eat through it. After college I needed something more dependable so I bought a 1984 Renault Alliance. The 1983 Renault Alliance was Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, the 1984 model was not. It was, in fact, the final nail in American Motors’ coffin. But I loved that car. So did every mechanic in the Bay Area. It was a smartly designed four-door sedan that drove like a small car, but felt bigger. Loved the interior and visibility.
Fabulous gas mileage. I think I filled up once a month. I had it for sixteen years, then gave it to a coworker whose daughter was just starting to drive. I had about 69,000 miles on it when I bid it a fond adieu. Sure, towing doesn’t rack up a lot of mileage, but it wasn’t just that. I chose to work for a Bay Area company that was one mile from my home. Wherever I live, I find a bank, market, doctor, dentist, veterinarian, and anything else I might need as close to walking distance as I can. In the back of my mind I always think that my car is going to die and I will have to walk to get where I need to be. (I’ve driven a lot of Fords and American Motors cars in my life.)
My coworker had expected to hand over the Alliance to his daughter, but his wife’s car died soon after I gave it to them so she ended up driving it for a few years before they finally had to take it into the woods, tie it to a tree, and shoot it. I bought my current vehicle back in the spring of 1999 - I now have over 40,000 miles on it. That’s a lot for me, but I’ve had longer commutes to work since moving here.
I do not like to commute. I don’t drive unless I really need to, and I arrange all my errands so I don’t waste time or energy driving aimlessly. When housing prices started getting…uh, “laughable” in California, T and I thought long and hard about staying in the Bay Area and buying a house there instead of transferring out here. Friends and coworkers were purchasing homes further and further away from the Bay Area in places like Pleasanton and Livermore where they could actually afford to live. My brother-in-law has been commuting to work in San Jose since the eighties. He and my sister live closer to Modesto than they do San Jose. Uh, check out the map. Me? I couldn’t do it. There’s just no way.
I paid $3.06 per gallon today at Chevron because I’m not willing to sit for an hour or more burning gas, waiting in long lines at Sam’s Club. It reminds me that last Friday was particularly beautiful. Our local afternoon talk radio host got on the air and said that he had to talk himself into coming into the studio because he wanted to stay outside and enjoy the day. Then he asked listeners to call in and tell him their favorite way to spend a day when it’s so amazing outside. As high as gas prices have been and as much as everyone seems to be bitching about them, the majority of callers said that what they like to do most is get in their cars and drive. Each person had a different destination - some near, some pretty far - but not one would give up that favorite drive.
In a couple weeks I’ll be commuting to a campus that’s much further than I want to drive. The instructor has already asked students to consider carpooling because she knows we’ll be spending a small fortune on gas. I don’t look forward to the drive and I don’t look forward to using more gasoline. But I need these classes and this is the campus where they’ll be offered.
I’m not going to complain about the price of gas because I’ve made the choice to consume the product. I need it, I will continue to buy it, and then I’ll look for employment as close to home as possible.
I would hope that my neighbor - who gets into the car and drives halfway down the block to get mail instead of walking to the box - and all those who called in to the radio station last week and described so dreamily how much they love that drive through the mountains, to the lake, or wherever it was that makes their hearts leap with joy, remember their particular driving habits before they start complaining about “Big Oil.”
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