Why I really don’t need a car…

Here’s a map of the last 7 days of my Google Latitude history, wherein my current location is grabbed by my mobile phone every 30 minutes and squirreled away by Google:

Google Latitude Map

In an entire week I have not veered off the route of the University Avenue public transit line except for once.  And that once was to get my car repaired. Which I wouldn’t need to do if I didn’t have a car.

Things get more complicated if we back up to a 30-day view of my location:

Google Latitude Map

But even there the further-afield trips aren’t really a challenge: I car-pooled to Summerside so didn’t need a car at all; the trip to Cavendish was to The Pearl for an opening I could have skipped if it came to that (although it was a nice opening); I’ve been needing to convince my Cornwall-based dentist to move to town anyway; and for the trip out to Dundas I could have rented a car.

Comments

alexander's picture
alexander on June 29, 2012 - 21:10 Permalink

We’re giving up our car very shortly, once the lease is up. Besides trips to the usual places like Monterey Bay Aquarium when parents visit we’ve barely used it at all. Luckily we picked a place to live that was near a train station so we can do this easily.

Robert Paterson's picture
Robert Paterson on June 29, 2012 - 21:10 Permalink

I need the Cornwall based Dentist to move to Montreal!

Andrew M's picture
Andrew M on July 4, 2012 - 14:24 Permalink

Before you get too excited, getting to a given place is fine but what about timing? Does transit get you everywhere you need to go in the time you need to get there? My weekly/monthly travels are also confined 99% to a 1-2k area with multiple transit opportunities but there are times when the car really acts like a time machine. Could I get by with doing less? Perhaps, but its worth the trade-off right now.