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Come again -- Carmaggedon?
Kristina Wong
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Kai Ryssdal: You've heard about the rough weekend we're gonna have here in L.A., perhaps? The 405 freeway -- one of the busiest stretches of pavement in the country -- is shutting down for 53 hours.
The end of the world is clearly upon us. There's a Twitter ad campaign and public service announcements everywhere. Tourists have been warned to stay away. Locals have been told to stay put.
But commentator Kristina Wong can't figure out what the big deal is.
Kristina Wong: Five years ago, I purchased a pink 1981 Mercedes Benz that ran on vegetable oil. Sure, $5,900 was a lot to spend on a then-25-year-old car with 170,000 miles. Sure, it was death defying finding used vegetable oil fuel. Sure, it cost thousands to repair an aging German car. But I was standing up against Big Oil!
That money pit car died a fiery death on the 405 freeway after two agonizing years of ownership. Two years of carefully curbing my carbon footprint went into reverse in 10 minutes and 20-foot flames. Luckily, I survived. I was just too heartbroken by the failure of my eco-idealism to go back to owning one of those nice "normal" cars.
I've been carless in Los Angeles for three years now and it's definitely a lifestyle change. A car-free diet would be an easy, even necessary feat if I lived in a compact city like San Francisco or New York, but Los Angeles is 500 square miles of urban sprawl without a comprehensive rail car system.
A 30-minute car ride in L.A. becomes a biblical two-hour journey by bus. Buying kitty litter means pushing a shopping cart half a mile home. And being single without a car in this city means there is no quick getaway from the most awkward of dates. I have to be nice enough to get picked up and get that ride back home.
But I no longer deal with gridlock, parking tickets and the agony of the pump. Even better, I now have a retirement account, a vacation fund and pay my mortgage ahead of schedule. I read more books that I ever could when I was a driver and found ways to make the bus my noisy mobile office. I've discovered pupuserias, food carts and local businesses within walking distance of my home that I would have never found from the speed of a car.
So when Angelenos whine that the 405 Freeway shutdown will be: "The Carmageddon of 2011! A nightmare! Stay off the roads!" -- I can't help but think: get over it.
Ryssdal: Kristina Wong is a comedianne and performance artist living in Los Angeles. Something you wish we'd get over? Send us your comments.
I wish I had your will. I donated my junker to the local (Los Angeles) public radio station and vowed to never step into a dealer showroom. I went three months before I bought a Civic. Your story makes me hopeful, though. Now that I'm in a new city, I'll make another attempt and with your story as inspiration.
Oh how original, not! The non-driver whining about the driving whiners.
And we all know how much greater their life is now, because they discovered X, Y, or z right on their doorstep. The eateries, the markets, etc. But none of that makes the non-driver anymore moral, ethical or anything else than the ones who wish to get the hell out of Dodge for those things. Sure it might be hard to do in LA get out of it - but if they stayed, Ms. Wong and her whining ilk would be whining about the crowds at her papusaria. (sp?)
Whats next vegans preaching about all the great things they've discovered in the vegetable world? Non-smokers regaling us about how marvelous food is now. Oh right, that's already been done - ad nauseam.
Kristina, I made the same decision earlier this year, choosing to get around my Southeastern suburban-sprawl laden country town by bike 100%. It has been easily the best decision I have ever made.
I feel incredibly liberated from gas prices, insurance costs, and maintenance on my car. I have found that my time management skills have greatly increased, and that my free time is spent in the most relaxing, interesting ways compared to my car owning days.
My coworkers cracked jokes, my friends thought I was crazy, and my family was... skeptical, but now I have gained a whole lot more respect after sticking with it.
Thanks for your story! Too many people seem to think that the car-choked cities we live in now have always been this way, and cannot see an option to reject owning a car. Stories like yours motivate me even further, and for that, I thank you.
