Park It Pledge - Week 22

On May 19th I decided to park my car and take alternative (now normal) modes of transportation for 6 straight months.  Here we are, 22 weeks later, and I wanted to assess the situation... mathematically.

I whipped up this chart on a Google spreadsheet, but here's a breakdown of some of the figures that went into the calculations

Before CarShare, my average monthly car expenditures were as follows

Car Payments $189.5
Car Insurance $75.12
Monthly Gas $50
Maintenance $50
Total Cost $364.62

Now compare that to ALL the travel expenses I've incurred as a Car Share Member
In June I went over my driving allotment so I paid $3.55
In July I took a greyhound bus to NH which cost $18.09
In August I took a greyhound bus to White River $20.34
In September, after months of car pooling, I paid for gas for my brother, costing $48.55
That came to a total average monthly SAVINGS of $350! or over $2000 total so far.

To be fair, I wanted to consider what I WOULD have paid on my CarShare membership and mileage if not for the ParkItPledge discount so I could compare the two options side by side.
The monthly Share-A-Lot membership is $15 /month
Combined with (currently free) driving credits $50/month
So I added a regular car share membership cost to the expenses I've been generating while using car share, to get the final, yellow, CarShare (no PIP) amount
It still would save me $289!!!

All in All,
I would highly recommend it.

PIP - Week 14

Reflecting on the

Halfway point of park it pledge 

It's been pretty great

Rode my bike a lot

For no dollars and no gas

Saving that mula

I tried to bring soup

It spilled on my bicycle

Got a bike basket

No more motor car

I prefer people power

Really gets me there

PIP - Week 12

I didn’t use my car share this week at all.  Which is a good thing!  In fact, I didn’t get into any car with any person at any time.  What I DID do, is bike to work every day, walk to the Laundromat down the street with a big sack full of dirty laundry, and then back home with a big sack full of clean clothes, go grocery shopping downtown at City Market several times with small trips that I could easily carry back home after work, and go on a couple runs.  I, for one, am happy to be evaluated on what I have done rather than what I haven’t (especially when what I haven’t done is had to sit in traffic).  Another great couple weeks that have really seen me weaned off cars in general, in favor or local, or easily biked to alternatives. 

PIP Week 10

Once again, CarShare to the rescue, specifically Tammy, the blue pickup truck, which for some reason is always playing loud country music when I turn her on.  I was at Good Will with my little brother and we saw a perfectly working Foosball Table with really solid construction for only $59.99 (which is only 30 bucks each).  But we had no way of transporting it anywhere, killing our dreams of joining the Foosball-table-owning-club-of-America before they even began.  But 'WAIT', I declared, CarShare has a truck! Tammy is easily the most beneficial feature available / underrated asset in the CarShare fleet.  Most people have ready access to some form of motorized transportation, either through their own, a friend, or a bus in order to move THEMSELVES.  But much more rarely can people move THINGS.  We slapped a Paid sticker on the table and I came by later that afternoon in that blue buet to pickup our new recreational game table.  Without CarShare and/or the PIP to get me involved with Car Share VT, we probably would have passed on the great deal or it would have made itself significantly less great of a deal by having to rent a full truck from U-Haul just to move it across town for an hour.

P.S. Any fellow PIP'ers are welcome to PM me if they'd like to come over and play Foosball some time.

Week 7

Ok, new milestones every single week.  I've, maybe for the first time in my life, turned down a offer from my roommate who has a car to take me on an errand > 2 miles away in lieu of riding my bike there.  Last sunday was a gorgeous day and I knew I wanted to go for a bike ride and get some copies made at Staples, but wasn't really sure if I wanted to do them simultaneously.  As I was leaving, strapped up with my back pack, wallet, and helmet, my roommate, who was headed that direction anyway, asked me if I wanted a ride. I proudly said, NO.  One constant crutch and loophole has been to borrow other people's car's.  And while carpooling is great, it doesn't directly result in the independence i'd like and the carbon footprint reductions I'm shooting for.  It was great to finally do things on my own, even if it meant a little more time doing it; it was time well spent.

Well after almost two months without an personal automated form of transportation, I honestly feel better than ever.  I've been walking, biking, and running a lot more often: things I always wanted to do anyway, but needed a little kick to get into.

Off for a walk right now to the grocery store during my lunch break!

Week 5

I'm really getting used to this whole biking and/or walking everywhere routine.  Since I have most of my transportational needs in downtown Burlington, my favorite part of the day is whizzing past cars at traffic lights on my bike.  For most of the things I do, it doesn't even make a whole lot of sense for me to have a car, but I hit two milestones this weeks on errands that do typically involve some form of automobile.

Since I don't have a washer and dryer in my apartment unit, I usually grab a ride from a friend and we'll both do laundry together at a laundromat, but instead I huffed and I puffed and I walked my enormous bag of 2-week old laundry to the closest laundromat without any sort of motor.  I can now totally see why people steal shopping carts.

The second thing I did which I have been putting off is biking a bulk purchase home with a backpack instead of driving it.  Granted, this wasn't the largest of shopping trips, but  I definitely loaded up my 4,000 cubic inch backpack full of 20 lb of catfood, 5 lb of carrots, spaghetti sauce, milk, cheese, eggs, and took a couple extra shopping bags in my hands with bread and other crushables.  It was, by far, the largest (and heaviest) grocery run without the aid of a car.

Still no pictures of my cruising around on my bike, because I usually fly solo around town, but I'll have to go on a group trip or stage a couple photos sometime coming up soon to really bring in some other forms of media besides boring old letters and numbers.  To make up for it, here's a picture of a cat:

Week 3

So I have officially moved into my new apartment.  With that, I now live only 3 blocks away from my job and downtown.  Walking, biking, and skipping to work has never been easier.  A big motivator of choosing a new apartment location was to be closer to work, not necessarily for the easily traverse-able summer months, but for the rainy and winter seasons.  It's a huge relief / benefit to reduce my reliance on traffic schedules.

I saw this poster on the internet and thought it was funny (and well put)

The best part, is zero commute not only means no fuel bill, but I also get an extra 30-45 minutes in my day.  I take two steps out my office door, and I'm home, doing activities, playing guitar, and even doing some extra biking I never would have thought of doing otherwise.

Finally, a shout out to CarShareVT for running a great program to get people off the road (even if that means  reducing the need for CarShares in the first place).