When my Grandmother gave me her old 1998 Buick Century (in the picture) last summer, I was ecstatic. I had gotten my driver's license earlier that spring, so I couldn't wait to have a car of my own. I was convinced that the quality of my life would instantly improve once I had a car to myself. And it has certainly been more convenient to have my own car, as I never have to wait for my parents to pick me up or drop me off anywhere--I'm always on my own schedule and my own time.The other day, I accidentally locked myself out of my car. I called a locksmith, but when he arrived, he told me it would be $200 to unlock the car... the website said $15. Apparently that was just the service fee. Read the fine print.
First and foremost, it hurts the environment. There's nothing more frustrating for me than sitting sitting in rush hour traffic on York Rd or Northern Parkway and thinking about the inefficiency of the whole thing, and thinking about how much we're all polluting the air. I'm always reminded of this a few days after it's snowed, and there gets to be that black, sooty grime on the snow patches on the side of the road.
It's dangerous and life threatening, unsafe at any speed. I never quite believed my driving instructor who always harped, "There are a lot of bad drivers out there,"--but he's right. I've never gotten in a real accident, but I've had plenty of near misses (some my fault, most others' faults) that jar me and remind me of how quickly things can change on the road. "In the blink of an eye," my dad always says.
It's expensive--and will only get more and more expensive as time goes on. Our economy depends primarily on petroleum to fuel it, and as the cost of petroleum rises because it's getting progressively harder and harder to reach because we've already picked the low hanging fruit. Because of this, the cost of everything we buy and consume will only continue to rise. An example: A stamp cost 3 cents in 1950. Today, they cost 44 cents. Sure, inflation has to do with it, but as petroleum gets harder and harder to reach, it becomes more costly to acquire because oil companies have to dig deeper into the earth to reach it, so it must be sold at a higher price in order to make a profit. Accordingly, the van that the mailman drives becomes more expensive to operate, and the stamp that pays for the gas must become more expensive in order to cover the higher cost of fuel.
I have found MVA astoundingly frustrating beyond belief in its incredible inefficiency. (As a side note, I'd highly recommend Fred's Tag and Title on York Rd...It's a little out of the way, but they provide great service and there are never any long lines). But before I discovered Fred's, I made at least seven trips to the MVA trying to sort out the transfer of title, replacing the new tags and registration, getting new stickers, a safety inspection, and then straightening out insurance policy for the car. As I waited in lines and made trips back and forth, talking to the wonderfully dedicated and motivated personnel there, I realized without a doubt that the MVA is government bureaucracy and inefficiency at its best.
Most of all, I hate that there seems no way to get around driving, despite all these negative things that happen as a result of it. Everything is so spread out--schools, shopping centers, and workplaces are all miles apart from each other, and we can no longer walk into town from our homes and to do everything we need to do.
I've driven almost 8,000 miles in my car since this summer, and I've come to regret every single mile. I hope to live someplace in the future where I don't have to have a car, even though I'm not sure what that would entail or what kind of lifestyle that would require me to live. But after not even a year of driving, I'm sick of it. This time last year, I couldn't wait.
