Simple Suggestion #191... Lose a vehicle (more than 10 good reasons to...)

Here's a suggestion for the more hardcore city-dwelling simplicity seekers among us -- although we've done it, and I don't really consider us to be hardcore...

We North Americans are so reliant on our cars, trucks, SUVs, etc... that it's rare for us to stop and think about how much they complicate our lives. How much of our money and life energy do we spend on gas, insurance, registration, maintenance, repairs, and parking each year? And how often do we find ourselves driving from one event to the next with barely a chance to breathe between trips, simply because we can?

We can, but should we?

Now that I think about it, there have been many benefits to being a single vehicle family:

1. We've had a less hectic life because we can't head off in all directions all the time.
2. We communicate more about our comings and goings, activities, appointments and our lives in general.
3. We've relied more on less carbon-consumptive mass transit (read: saved fossil fuels).
4. Over-scheduling has vanished as we've been forced to choose fewer activities, but ones that mean more to us.
5. Our girls have learned independence when it comes to getting around by bike or bus (my hubby and I catch the bus more now, too).
6. We've connected more often with friends and family regarding carpooling possibilities.
7. We've gotten to know some of our neighbours at the bus stop.
8. On the social justice side of things, by choosing alternative methods of transportation, we live more in solidarity with those in our world who will never afford a vehicle.
9. Perhaps most importantly in this world of climate-change-induced-wacky-weather, we're cutting our vehicular carbon emissions in half.
10. There's more time to think about life as we walk from one place to another, and to read books/study on the bus.

Losing/giving up a vehicle might seem hardcore to the average North American who has a hectic life that requires more than one, but really, it's not. Hardcore is what I would like to be (except for those days when I have an appointment that's difficult to reach by bus -- I'll admit it, I'm a wuss). Hardcore means not having a vehicle at all, and I know quite a few folks who live car-less. Hardcore in their case means they're less rushed and more relaxed about life because they know that they and their families don't have to be everywhere or do everything. They know it's okay to just BE.

After all, life should be more than driving yourself from one thing to the next. Don't you think?

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#47 of 100 Simple Suggestions... Avoid air travel

Honestly, this suggestion is a tough one to discuss, because somehow, in the last 30 years or so, North Americans have accepted the idea of air travel as something essential to a happy life. It's gotten to the point where it's almost abnormal to have a vacation without taking a plane somewhere. To suggest that people give up flying is like choosing to hang out with the least popular kids at school. It's just not a fun thing to do.

Of course, I haven't worried a lot about popularity since I left school, so here goes: Next to taking the Space Shuttle, flying is the least efficient method of travel with the greatest ecological impact. Getting those great iron birds into the air requires more carbon emissions than we should be willing to spend on a planet that's experiencing global climate instabilities all over the place. I'm sure you know to what I'm referring, but allow me one example: half of the town of Slave Lake, Alberta, burned to the ground because of dry conditions two months ago, and as I'm writing this, they're experiencing flooding. Bizarre.

It's because of things like this that frivolous air travel to exotic locations just for experience's sake needs to become as unusual and rare as it was a generation or two ago. Did you know that trains can move more people greater distances with the lowest environmental impact except for bicycles? More sustainable forms of transportation need to be developed, but until they are, simpler forms of mass-transit type travel from years past -- those train and bus systems that move more people with fewer fossil fuels expended -- really ought to be revisited and made more viable than air travel.

Of course, I have to admit to frivolous air travel a few times in my life -- before we started hearing about climate catastrophes and global climate instability, and before I learned about Voluntary Simplicity. Since then, I've given up on the idea of vacationing on a tropical island because I can't contribute any further to the decimation of the environment due to melting glaciers and polar icecaps, warming, dying oceans and wars over oil in the Middle East. Tropical vacations are unsustainable if we think like wise Sioux chieftains and remember that our actions affect the next seven generations. Do I really need to lie on a beach mid-winter? Not if it's contributing to the decline of this beautiful world.

I know a lot of people don't think this way, but I can't help it. And I do believe I can be just as happy with a week at a lake in our tent trailer as I would be at an all-inclusive Mexican resort, where locals have to make my bed every day, and go home to families who don't have the kind of medicare mine does. Part of avoiding air travel may also have to do with living in solidarity with the poor who never travel further than 50 km from their birthplace. There are those who argue that the developing world's travel destinations need tourism for their very existence, but is that really the case? If so, why can't we find ways to share wealth equitably so that everyone can live the way we do in North America? Ah... because if everyone lived like we do, global climate instabilities would wipe us off the planet.

I digress. Two summers ago, we took our family trip of a lifetime across our own beautiful country... by train. It was slow, relaxing and absolutely wonderful to travel from Edmonton all the way to Ottawa for Canada Day, and beyond to see friends and relatives in Nova Scotia. Running out of time at the end of our trip, we flew home. Not a happy experience for three out of five of us, who were pretty queasy in turbulence.

Just to be clear: I'm not moodling that people should never fly. Too many of us have family and friends that are overseas. If that's the case, and you're spending lovemiles to see someone special rather than airmiles to get a winter tan, you have my blessing.

And I'm not saying that everyone has to think the way I do about air travel. But give me a choice, I'll avoid air travel as much as possible because I value our beautiful world and want to leave it in the best shape possible for the next seven generations, which include my own girls.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.