Do We Really Need To Own A Car?

A few days ago, I made the mistake of crossing the street.

I had our pooch, Lucca, on his leash, and we had waited for the crossing signal at Willow and Orange, as I counseled, ​“Stay!,” one of the commands he occasionally obeys.

When the sign for pedestrians appeared, we had every right to expect that we could complete the journey of about 26 feet without misfortune. Thus, we were unaware we would soon join the campaign for vehicular reform by many local citizens (including high school students in our city) outraged by the rash of driving lunacy.

As Lucca and I stepped off the curb, the driver of a white SUV, apparently impatient to get to an event of vital importance, ignored the red light and cut into our path, his front right tire just skirting the arthritic big toe on my right foot and Lucca’s innocent left paw.

We both jumped back out of fright, and I was so unnerved that, unfortunately, I was tardy in the effort to exhibit a middle finger to the driver.

When I got home, I sat down to digest what had happened while Lucca, who had apparently shaken off the scare, sat down on the TV remote, thereby changing the channel.

As a devotee of urban life and its conveniences and rich culture, I have increasingly relied on my aching feet to get around. And have even considered, given the unruliness of daily traffic, of giving up our car, much as I am fond of our 14-year-old Saab wagon.

This consideration is not the result of old-age curmudgeonism.

Statistics indicate that in the Elm City and all over the country that for both drivers and pedestrians our roads have become more and more perilous. Many of us have learned to take this issue personally.

Indeed, a close friend of ours, a man on his daily stroll who by then had reached his 80th birthday, hoped to cross Orange Street from Bishop Street without regret. On his way, he was smacked by a car whose driver had not noticed that a human being was in his way. Hence, our friend quickly became a resident at Yale New Haven Hospital. (Fortunately, he recovered from his injuries.)

What is the legacy of all this? As drivers, aren’t we all capable of causing such misfortune? And, can I really give up owning a car and imagine a future in which I will never again have to take a number at the DOT?

Can one do this in a country that depends on highway traffic? A country where it is ingrained, from our teenage years, that the Declaration of Independence promises life, liberty, and the pursuit of land speed records?

I asked my friend Nina Lentini, a fellow journalist and longtime city resident, about her relatively recent decision to live without owning a car.

At the age of 69, she made this choice because of economics and ​“doing my little bit not to pollute the atmosphere,” and because, as a person who works from home, she is not facing daily commutes into an industrial wilderness.

In nice weather, she rides her Trek, an ebike, to the grocery store, or up to the monument at the top of East Rock Park, or on long trips (usually 20 or 30 miles) with her regular Sunday riding group (with the classic name, Outspokin), and to classes at Southern Connecticut State University in the Italian language.

In rough weather, she relies on the city’s bus service (still free), Ubers, and Zip cars. She has groceries delivered, and for other purchases, makes full use of Amazon Prime and similar services.

She had done some research on the cost of car ownership. Her figures, while eye-opening, appear to be old.

The newest study is from the American Automobile Association. The average new car purchased in 2022 costs owners $894 per month (insurance, loan payments, fuel, maintenance, and taxes), or the total of $10,728 per year. Used cars have also become more expensive, some exceeding their original prices.

Against this math, here’s what Nina has spent in the last year:

$447 on Uber.

$770 on Zip cars.

$0 on city buses.

$300 (estimated) extra on grocery delivery fees and tips.

This total, a little over $1,500, represents a rough savings per year over a new car by about $9,200.

A cost not accounted for here is that of the ebike. Nina bought hers for $2,500 in 2020. (She recalls, ​“That year the federal government sent us each checks for $1,400, so in my head I was only spending $1,100.”)

Of course, money is only a part of the equation. ​“I do miss the freedom sometimes of having a car. To go wherever I’d like to go, whenever I want. But it forces you to rethink things.”

And that’s not a bad thing.

As I write this, our old Saab is in the body shop, getting its rust spots addressed, and so in the meantime we are where Nina is every day of the year.

In a few days, I have to take Lucca to the spa (his groomer) in West Haven. So I’m hoping I’ll have the car back before then, and whether Uber allows frisky Italian water dogs in backseats.

The worrisome thing is that either way we will have to traverse I‑91 and I‑95, a journey that may end up with me witnessing what I have seen so often on our highways – numbskulls behind the wheels (in cars or on motorcycles), showing off, whooshing in and out of lanes, their stereo systems cranked up to a billion and a half decibels, unaware of or indifferent to danger and that one of these days they may discover, suddenly, they won’t live forever.

Note: Lary Bloom will read from his new book, I’ll Take New Haven: Tales of Discovery and Rejuvenation, at a free program (Books & Brews), at mActivity, 285 Nicoll Street, Sunday, December 11, at 3 p.m. Reservations are not required.