Life without a car.

Every second or third day, I walk to the supermarket, buy a few things and walk home again. It can take as little as 15 minutes, and I love it.



Every work day I catch a train from the station across the road from my house. 37 minutes later and a few chapters of whatever book I'm reading, it drops me at Central Station, the 26-platform major hub of the Sydney train system, ironically a few minutes and two stations west of the actual city centre. From there I have an 8 minute walk to work, most of it underground through a major pedestrian tunnel. Unlike most of my work colleagues who drive to work and have to contend with Sydney's never-ending traffic snarls, I arrive relaxed and untroubled by my commute (although some of the buskers I encounter are frankly terrible).



I've been living like this, sans car since January. Admittedly it's made easy by having the train station and all the shops and services I need within an easy walk or short train ride, but it is an agreeable way to live. I no longer have to remember to take the car for a drive every week or two to stop the poor thing from seizing. And I can borrow a car readily enough when I need to, but thus far I haven't had the need.



The only thing I have really missed is kayaking. Without a car, the kayak sits forlorn and neglected in my garage. However the lack of a car is temporary, and the kayaking will resume eventually, but I will continue to walk to the shops and commute by train to work even after the return of the big blue petroleum monster that is my 15-year old car which is currently on a sabbatical in another part of the country.



The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has made me feel even more smug than usual as my personal reliance on petrol dwindles to virtually nothing. I haven't bought petrol in nearly six months, and can honestly say that not having a car has been an ironically liberating experience. I am definitely looking forward to the return of my car (if only so I can go kayaking again), but life without it has been enlightening, in that I now realise how daily life seemed to revolve around the car rather than the car being a tool to be used occasionally when appropriate.



And my 74 minutes per day on the train reading has meant I have read more books in the last two years since I began commuting by train than in a long, long time. And I love it.


Johnny Walker was right!