Carpooling - The Secret Weapon of the One-Car-Family.

Today I didn't feel like riding my bike to work. I was tired, running late, and simply didn't feel like riding in. So what do you do if you are part of a one-car family, and you "just don't feel like" riding your bike to work?

When my wife and I made the decision to sell our second car over 18 months ago, we really thought through all of the "what ifs". "What if the weather is too bad to bike to work"? "What if you get hurt and can't ride your bike"? "What if you just don't feel like riding your bike"? "What if one of us needs to travel out of the area with the car - leaving the other person stranded at home"? Clearly, the modern American lifestyle is built around a car for every adult, so you need to be able to answer these questions and more to change that formula.

During these discussions, we came up with several backup plans so that I was not 100% obligated to ride my bike to work every day. The easiest backup plan has turned out to be carpooling with co-workers. I work in an office of thirty people, and I am very fortunate that six of them live within 2 miles of my house. Three of them live less than a mile away. In my 18+ months of riding to work since we sold our second car, I have NEVER been "stuck" home because I couldn't get a ride with a co-worker. Today's victim was Shane. I called him up at the last minute, and he immediately agreed to pick me up on his way to work. It's a mild inconvenience for him, but for me, access to occasional rides is the difference between my family needing one car or two.

We checked into other backup options too. Some have worked out, others have not:

Bus: Unfortunately, the bus is really not an answer for my commute. Although we have a decent bus system in the Burlington area, it is intended to get people in and out of Burlington rather than between Burlington suburbs. Although I only work 6 miles from home, I would have to take a series of three buses, one heading into Burlington - and two heading back out to Williston where I work. This would add up to a 45-minute to 1 hour commute each way.

Taxi: In a pinch, I could call a cab, but it would cost approximately $15-$20 each way. So, this is not a solution I would want to use very often! However, it is certainly good to have this as an emergency backup plan.

Rental Cars: This has turned out to be our second car solution on the rare occasions that one of us travels out of town without the other. We just happen to live within walking distance of three rental car companies. The closest one, Enterprise, has weekend rates under $20/day with unlimited mileage. So, for about $50 for a 3-day weekend (Friday noon - Sunday noon), we can have the second car we need, when we need it. It also keeps the miles off our one car - so the person leaving town usually ends up traveling with the rental car, leaving our own car at home.

Walk: We've found that a natural result of having one car is that we walk rather than drive when it is reasonable to do so. We walk to the local bagel/coffee shop (about a mile), we walk to local restaurants, and in good weather, I will even walk into Burlington with my girls (3 miles each way). Even though we have just one vehicle now, I think we put fewer miles on it now than either of our cars when we had two!

My advice to those families considering dumping car #2: Work out a detailed back-up plan before committing to one-car solution. It worked for us.