3 Ways to Give Up Your Car (Without Giving Up Your Life)

Did you know that over 25 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from vehicles used for transportation?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation is also the fastest-growing source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990, and is the largest end-use source of C02, which is the most prevalent greenhouse gas.

You might think it would be impossible to attend to all your personal and professional responsibilities if you didn’t own a vehicle, but consider this: The Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey found that 25 percent of all trips are made within a mile of the home and 50 percent of the working population commutes five miles or less to work. Yet more than 82 percent of trips five miles or less are made by personal motor vehicle.

It’s easy to see that eliminating some of these short car trips would drastically reduce your personal carbon footprint, save you money and probably time (the average urban commuter spends around 50 hours in traffic every year).

Here are three ways that you can give up your car without restricting your life to a two mile radius from your home.

Bike Commuting: Bike commuting is an ideal solution to the need for moderate physical activity, which can be practiced five times a week. A 130-pound cyclist burns 402 calories while pedaling 14 miles in an hour. Biking is the only form of personal transportation for which no fuel is required and absolutely no emissions are produced. Bikes are infinitely easier to park and cheaper to repair. If it’s been a while since you’ve cycled more than a few blocks, you can find great tips for biking safely and efficiently at www.bikeleague.org/resources/better.

Public Transportation: After bike commuting, public transit options are the second most popular form of alternative transportation. Let’s face it; snow and rain aren’t the best conditions for riding a bike. When you need a roof over your head but still don’t want to worry about fueling or parking a car, local buses, paratransit, shuttles, trolleys, light rail, and subways are a great way to get where you’re going. If you need help finding public transportation options in your area, visit www.apta.com and look for the “Find Public Transportation Near You” search bar on the right-hand side.

Car Sharing: There are some times when biking or using public transit options just won’t meet your transportation needs, like if you want to take a loved one out for a fancy dinner in the city, shopping for groceries, or out of town business trips. In these situations, utilizing a car sharing service can be a great way to maintain a small carbon footprint while still traveling in style. Zipcar is one of the only national car sharing services in the U.S., but there are dozens of regional and local car sharing services in urban areas across the country. If you have a car, but don’t use it every day, joining a peer to peer car sharing service provides a safe and legal way to share your car with your neighbors.

Do you currently have a car? What do you think would be the hardest part of giving it up? Share your thoughts in a comment!

Beth Buczynski is a freelance writer from Colorado. She enjoys exploring new energy technologies and home solar financing options over at GreenMarketingTV, the green entrepreneur’s source for interviews with the industry’s top thinkers.

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