Disadvantages to Going Car-Less.

I’ve been thinking a lot about eventually going car-less for a few years once the 2020 decade gets underway. But here are some disadvantages to going car-less  ….

1. While I do use transit a lot to get around town, sometimes I like to hop in my truck and go quickly to a destination.
2. Some trips — like to the Albany Pine Bush or even the shopping malls to buy work clothing– while serviced by transit, are much less convient then to drive up there.
3. Visiting my parents up in the hilltowns would require more planning on my part. I would have to either ride my bike, get a ride-share (which might be quite expensive) or find a ride.
4. Grocery shopping would be less convient, I would probably have to do fewer “big weekly shops” at Walmart and might have to stop more frequently at Hannaford on my way to and from work.
5. I would have to probably haul my laundry down to the laundromat, catching a bus and planning appropiately. I wouldn’t be able to just drop it off and do other things.
6. I would have to subscribe to paid trash removal, rather then bringing my bottles and cans to the recycling center and burning the unrecycable paper trash up at a camp.
7. While I would rent a car for big trips — maybe two weeks a year — that would cut into my savings, I still wouldn’t be able to do as many trips motoring that I do now.
8. I would have to do alternative things to going up to the Adirondacks and Schoharie County during hot summer weekends. I could use the town pool, or ride my bike with a hammock, but my range would be limited compared to having a car.
9. Opporunties to hunt and fish are limited without an easy motorized way to get up to the wilderness.
10. I probably couldn’t do much kayaking, as it would be difficult to bring the kayak around without a truck.
11. I would have to tent or hammock camp rather then truck cap camp in the summer, as I wouldn’t have a truck cap.

It’s always good to look at pros and cons before proceeding down any particular path, and I will look at the pros of going car-less in a future blog post, and how much money I could save and invest towards a better tomorrow.