“sigh”
Had to give the hired car back yesterday. It was a short relationship but no less meaningul for its brevity. We worked well as a team, but in the long term, it just wasn’t meant to be. We’ve parted on good terms and if we ever meet again there will be no bad feeling, we will just smile at each other sadly and think of what could have been.
And as part of the grieving process I’ll make a list. Lists are always helpful at times like this…
Pros of car ownership:
- freedom!
- can visit friends in the country
- can offer people lifts
- can randomly drive to Loch Lomond for coffee (well, not completely randomly, you still need to follow the rules of the road, most of the time..)
- you can carry lots of stuff around with you
Cons:
- expensive to run
- parking round here is a nightmare
- huge responsibility (a lapse in concentration and someone could die, that is really scary if you think about it too much.. and as a general rule, I do think about it too much)
- not good for the environment
And the benefits of travelling under your own steam:
- more sociable (if you see someone you know when you’re walking to the underground, you can stop and say hello)
- healthier (when you have a car, somehow its easy to get into the habit of driving 3 miles to the supermarket instead of walking 500 metres to the grocer’s)
- cheaper
- flexible (if you ‘re walking in the street and decide that its just way too busy you can stop and turn around. In a car, once you’re in a jam you’re in a jam and there’s no way back)
- you spend less at the supermarket because you can’t buy more than you can carry!
- you can hire a car anytime you want and have the best of both worlds
- you can feel slightly smug about your carbon footprint
