Car-free no more!

After nearly nine years of living car-free (with the help of our Co-operative Auto Network membership), we finally bit the bullet and bought a car! We are now the proud owners of a 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid!

The obligatory cheesy shot as Dean accepts his first ever set of car keys

A brief history of my car ownership:

1995: I bought my first car, a 1991 Toyota Tercel that served me well through university.

2001: I became a member of CAN, Vancouver's car sharing network

2002: We said goodbye to the Tercel in favour of living car-free

2007: Sophie was born and we kept on living car-free

October 26, 2010: Hello Honda Civic!

Our car! (sorry, we picked it up at night, so the photos aren't great)

By daylight (photo credit: Pacific Honda)

I have to admit, as an environmentalist, I've been quite proud to go almost a decade car-free. I've expanded my walking radius, gotten to know the bus system extremely well, commuted by bike, and I've been a loyal CAN member. I even wrote about our car-free lifestyle for Blog Action Day 2009. So, it's a little humbling to have to say, "I'm a car owner." However, I'm proud to say I stood by my 2001 pledge to Honda written during the heady, idealistic days of my early twenties: 

"I have pledged to never buy another solely gas powered car."

Why the need for a car, you ask? Let's see if you can figure it out...

Yes! We're expecting our second child in the spring! We're thrilled that Sophie is going to be a big sister. We have decided that the transition to a family of four necessitates the transition to a car-owning family. We'll still keep our CAN membership for those cases when we could use a van or a truck. Dean will still commute to work on his bike and we'll never give up transit, walking and cycling. But, frankly, this environmentalist stay-at-home-mom is pretty darn excited about the freedom that our new car promises! Any suggestions for our first road trip?

Blog Action Day 2009

Today is Blog Action Day 2009 and the theme is climate change. My little blog is part of a global network of blogs that will touch on this topic today. As an eco-geek, an environmental educator, and the daughter of a man who's known as "The Carbonator" because of his work on carbon neutrality, I have a bit to say on the subject. I'm going to narrow my post to how I try to reduce my carbon footprint through using alternative transportation. Our family of three lives a car-free lifestyle by choice. Here's how we do it:


Walking, walking, walking. I live in a high-density urban neighbourhood with many amenities within walking distance. We walk to the library, the grocery store, the credit union, the bookstore, the video store, gym class, music class, and any number of coffee shops and sushi restaurants. I love getting where I need to go on my own two feet!


As you may have guessed due to the name of my blog, I like to ride my bike. In the past, it has been my main mode of transportation to and from work. The addition of a child to the mix has assuredly lowered the frequency of my bike trips, but we do get out and about with the bike trailer once in awhile.


My main mode of transportation when I'm getting around with my two and a half year old is the bus. The transit-savvy of you may have recognized the bee logo from the 99 B-Line bus that runs east-west along Broadway here in Vancouver. It's a great express bus, crowded at times, but gets me to many transfer points including the new Canada line skytrain.


When walking, biking, or bussing won't work, we book a car through the Co-operative Auto Network (CAN). I've been a member of CAN's car sharing network since 2002 and I love having access to a fleet of 230 cars throughout the city (and beyond!). I typically book the sedan that's a five-minute walk from my house, but I've also used their minivans, VW beetles, trucks and cars with bike racks.

For the really long trips (e.g. visiting my family in New York), we fly. Then we buy carbon credits. It's not a perfect solution, but it's something!

Now that you've heard my two cents, head over to Blog Action Day and read some of the other 8,000 bloggers' posts on climate change!

Objects in mirror may be dumber than they appear

I have an embarrassing story to relate. And then I have to write another post and tell you a second embarrassing story. Sheesh, this isn't how I expected my blog to look! (note to self: stop doing silly things, at least for a couple days!)

On Tuesday night, I booked a car from CAN (the Cooperative Auto Network) so I could drive to a Vancouver Craft Mafia "Make a Christmas Gift for Someone" night. I turned on the car, but the dashboard didn't light up and neither did the lights indicating which gear you're in. This had happened to me once before when I was driving Janet home at night and I'd driven with the interior light on the whole way.

This time, I called the CAN office to report the problem and told them that no amount of fiddling with the dimmer switch would cause the dashboard to light up. I spoke to a CAN employee for five minutes and he promised to email their mechanic about the problem. Just as I was about to hang up, he asked me, "You've got the headlights on, right?" and I replied, "Of course!" while double-checking. And at this moment I realized I did not have the headlights on and this possible fuse problem was actually a problem between the steering wheel and the driver's seat (link to geeky reference).