Myriah

Week One:

Okay, so my car is officially parked at my parent’s house in Bucks County. It’s a little nerve racking to commit to not driving my car but it’s also quite exciting and even liberating! Just think, no searching for parking, no costly parking tickets, no dings and bumps to get upset over (are you jealous yet?) I work at Temple’s main campus which is less than two miles from my house. I’ve determined that driving, finding parking, and then walking the hike from my car to my office takes about 25 minutes. The Girard trolley to the Broad Street subway takes about 20 minutes and biking takes even a few minutes less (although I have to change my clothes when I get to work)… not bad!

Today after work I plan to go downtown to get a book to read while taking public trans. I also plan to stop for my new walking shoes so kindly offered by PhillyCarShare (this is great timing since my current walking shoes have holes in the soles and my feet get wet when it rains!)

So far everything is going well, however I’m a bit nervous for later this month when I’m throwing my husband a 30th birthday party… I’m sure I’ll need to use PhillyCarShare to run errands for the party. We’ll see what happens, wish me luck!

Week Two:

So this week I was half in Philly and half in New Orleans doing volunteer work for Hurricane Katrina relief with an organization called Philly to New Orleans. I did my best to do all my pre-trip preparation via foot and public trans but last minute my husband (Andrew) called me to pick up a prescription at a drug store not easily accessible via public trans or walking. At first I cursed under my breath… but then realized this would be a perfect reason to reserve a PhillyCarShare car! So I took a Prius parked 2 blocks from my house. It was great! The next morning Andrew and I took the Girard trolley to the Market/Frankford train, to the R1 and got to the airport. I was happy to save around 40 bucks over taking a cab, but I will say our public trans is not friendly to suitcases! There were quite a few sets of stairs we had to climb up and down. Once we got to New Orleans we did our best to use their public trans system rather than cabs. We saved a lot of money taking the bus from our hotel to our worksite!

Today I promised my cousin that I would help her get acclimated to the city since she just moved here this weekend! We’ll need to run a bunch of errands and it’s raining quite a lot here in Philly so I reserved the same Prius down the street. (It is quite fun to drive!)

Week Three:

So, this week I decided to have a little fun with PhillyCarShare. On Saturday Andrew and I had date night, we went out on a double date to dinner and a movie in Manayunk. I thought it would be fun to take a convertible mini... well, it was great! Cruising through town with the top down was so fun! I highly recommend it!

I've been trying to ride my bike more to work, but I only motivated myself once this past week. It's really not bad; I guess bike riding first thing in the morning just isn't that appealing to me. Public trans has been fine getting to work. The only downfall is when it's precipitating… and the fact that it's not always on time, I really need to catch the train before the one that's scheduled to get me to work on time, otherwise I might be late. But at least I can read a book… which I’ve been doing a lot of lately thanks to taking public trans!

Week Four:

This week I continued to take public transportation to work. It went relatively smoothly except for the day my trolley came early (or late, sometimes I can’t tell which is which). I used PhillyCarShare a bunch because I was throwing my husband a birthday party so I had lots of errands to run with a car. On Monday I realized my grill was broken (not good for Memorial Day) so I reserved a Honda Element and picked up a new grill!

Week Five:

Well, I did it!! Let me tell you how wonderful it all felt as I watched gas prices go over $4 a gallon this month! I’ve decided to continue to leave my car at my parent’s house. I would love to actually sell it, but something inside of me is very nervous to do that. Perhaps I’ll be ready some time in the future.

After this experience all I really want to say is, “you can do it too!” It’s not as hard as you think, and you’ll feel good about yourself, and you’ll save money… lots of money! I remember being 16 and wanting a car more than anything, after all wheels were the key to freedom. Once I finally got a car I practically lived in it (it also used to cost me only 10 bucks to fill it up!) Now, I’m experiencing that same sense of freedom, but by giving up my car. I actually just finished paying off my car, and now that I’m not driving it, I have it off of insurance too. I’m saving around $400 a month… not to mention the cost of gas. It feels truly liberating! Try it!