:)

stolen from here

Moonlight Madness

We just had an amazing baltimore bicycling event. It's called the Moonlight Madness Memorial bike ride. I'm not sure who it's in memory of, but I assume it's someone who was killed in a bicycle accident. The idea is perfect - get about 100 bicyclists together and just ride around the city. It shows everyone that there are many of us out here who ride on city streets and basically raises awareness and allows us all to have fun at the same time. Part of the route went through East Baltimore, which some of my friends thought was a really bad idea because of the crime, but it turned out fantastic. I rode some streets I'd never riden before and since there was so many of us there was really no danger. There were a lot of kids outside waving at us and stuff. It was a great ride overall.

Here's the website that had all the information:

http://www.socializr.com/event/465093292

Here's the route we took:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Moonlight-Madness-2010

I took some pictures with my iPhone and posted them on my flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eedanjo/sets/72157624687168445/

Living Better on Less

My dad sent me this article today in an email.

It's a great piece about many different ways to live better for less and he specifically sent me the article because there's a section on reducing the amount you use your car, or even going car free (page 4). It says it increases exercise, reduces stress, eliminates car costs (payments, gas, insurance, parking, maintenance), and helps to reduce smog and global warming. It's good to get a fresh reminder of all those fantastic reasons to bike more and drive less. Anybody else want to join me in my car-free quest?

No More Car

It is done. I have finally given away my car. We drove the old '01 Pontiac Sunfire from Baltimore to Fulton, MO to give to my parents. My dad's going to use it pretty heavily to do his job and even drive to St. Louis to teach a class! They definitely need it more than me. The last two or three weeks I've been riding my bike consistently to work. I even used the JHU shuttle a few times when I had to get to Bayview. I feel very good about this decision and I look forward to my new car-free lifestyle.

I am definitely going to miss the old Sunfire. We had some amazing road trips and times together. I'm going to miss the cool breeze from the sunroof, listening to my iPod on long trips, having friends sleep while I drive them, etc.

My apologies for the hiatus from this blog. During the interim between my last post I've been contemplating if I really should get rid of the car. I got married in June and I felt that I should at least keep the car till then since I'd need it to transport friends and family around. We also used it for the wedding 'Just married' getaway car.

I felt I couldn't rightly post on this blog since I successfully passed my 30 days without driving yet still didn't sell or give the car away. Now that it's done, hopefully you'll see more posts on here in the months to come. Stories of biking/public transit hardships and triumphs as we head into the early fall.

Alas, I still have backups for the car lifestyle. My wife Suzanne still owns a Subaru which I'm sure I'll ride in and likely drive for special cases. Also as a final fail-safe, I still have a membership with Zipcar in case Suzanne and I both desperately need a car. I know it's not exactly a clean break with the automobile since I have these fail-safes, but it's a start.

Wish me luck!

Mission Accomplished!!

Hello again. Apologies, etc. for not writing in a while. So today is the day. Today is exactly 4 weeks into my 'no more car' quest. It's been a tough journey I can tell you, but a very fun one too. I learned a lot about how to do more without a car than I ever thought I could.

Let's catch up a bit: On Monday I finished my third round trip to the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus via their shuttle system. It takes about an hour, but the benefits far outweigh the extra 30 min commute. I also forgot to update you all on my bike pedal situation. The new bike pedal arrived and it's working great. I still have mismatched bike pedals because I wanted to make sure this new one was up to snuff before replacing the other. Also, on Valentine's weekend, Suz and I went to marriage preparation classes in Federal Hill. The first day we took the JHMI shuttle to Penn Station and then walked a mile or two to the church. The second day we were a little rushed so we took a cab. We wanted to take the Charm City Circulator while we were down there but the snow was too much and they canceled the north-south route. Though she was initially hesitant, Suz is very supportive of my no-car initiative and has reduced her use of the car as well.

I also decided to sign up for Zipcar since we last spoke. I feel that there are going to be times when a car is absolutely necessary, such as emergency situations, or hauling large items. Zipcar is so convenient and fairly inexpensive ($8/hr + $35 yearly fee). Even if I don't give up my car, I still want to support an organization dedicated to taking more cars off the road and also promotes car sharing.

So the craziest thing happened in the last few days of my car diet. I got a call from Suzanne saying that she'd really need to be picked up in Westminster MD (long story), so I told her, sure I can pick you up in my car (I checked zipcar, but they were all taken). I go and shovel the snow (what's left of it) out from the front of the car. I got in and the car wouldn't start. The battery had been completely drained from lack of use. My friend even tried to jump-start the car but to no avail. I later found out after talking with my Uncle Mark that jump starting a completely dead battery can be nearly impossible. Also a word of advice for you car owners out there: if you don't use your car for a few weeks, you should disconnect the ground to your battery so it doesn't drain. Anyway I ended up getting a ride from my friend Sam to go and pick up Suzanne in Westminster, thus keeping my no-driving streak alive.

So today, my one-month anniversary of no-more-carness, I had to go and get a new battery for the car. I'm still not sure if I'm going to give up the car completely or not, but either way I don't want to make someone tow it away when all I gotta do is replace the battery. I took out the old battery and used my bike crate to haul it down to Advance Auto Parts. I told the guy I biked the battery down and he thought I was crazy. I got the cheapest battery, gave them the old one, and started heading back. On my way home I had a bit of an incident. I was going through an intersection as the light turned yellow and had to swerve around a car slightly and my basket (held on by bungee cords only) rotates and the battery falls out right in the middle of the street (car batteries are VERY heavy). It was right at the intersection of 25th and Howard. I stumbled off my bike, then picked up the bike and took it to the curb and ran back out into the street to get the battery while a bunch of cars were staring at me. After I got the battery off the street I realized I also dropped my U-lock. A bunch of cars ran over it before I could go back and pick it up, but it's still functional. Anyway I made it back safe and took this picture as I rode up to my battery-less car:

I love this picture because it's like the bike is saying, "Here's your damn battery you A-hole." After installing the battery (you do feel like a man when working on a car by the way), I took the car for a quick spin around my block just to make sure it was working. It was like two old friends getting re-acquainted.

As it is the season of lent, I'm going to continue my car-free lifestyle as much as I can. I don't know if I'll be able to continue the non-driving, but I think I can limit it to driving only when carpooling during this lenten season. I'll also hopefully be giving my car away to charity or family at some point. I'll keep this blog going so I can post to it every once in a while about thoughts and adventures in the world of public transport and car-free living. Thanks to everyone who supported me during this mission, especially my fiancee, the future Mrs. Suzanne Schlattman. As all writers of books say, I couldn't have done this without her loving support.

Kicking the car habit

At the top of Baltimore's City Parking Authority website it says: "Encouraging you to kick the car habit and rethink your transportation choices." I love it. That's a much better title for my blog.

So I'm over three weeks into kicking my car habit. I've gotten a second email from Progressive making sure I'm okay (see earlier blog post). The snow is really crazy, but I decided to ride my bike to work anyway. Also my new bike pedal came in and that has made it much easier to ride.

Also check out this story on NPR about how honeybees can go almost 5 million miles on one gallon of honey. Something to shoot for in our vehicle engineering. You gotta listen to the audio because they play a Muddy Waters song about honeybees in the background.

Another Big Snowfall

So there's another HUGE snowfall going on right now. I felt a little bad saying that the snow creates my ideal society since there's still so many without power and gas. I don't believe that those are elements to the perfect society, but I do think that we as a people need to drive less and spend more time locally. We can socialize with our neighbors and really enrich the areas in which we live. I also realize that a lot of my friends would not be able to live and work in this area if not for transportation. I'm not saying that the no-car thing is going to work for everyone, but it's certainly something that we can strive for.

That said let's show some funny photos from the great SnowPocalypse:

This is how I prepared for the snowfall on Friday night.

This is my car after the 24" of snow. I did eventually clear it off a little because I was worried that the windshield would crack after our second bought of snowfall.

This is a video of Rolley Polley, my dog, running wild on Saturday Morning. With no cars around, he's safe to roam free (also he's very friendly so no danger to others).