To Zip or Not to Zip?

My first podcast is actually not out as a 'cast. Instead I'm doing the first couple of months as youtube slideshows with audio as I build my podcasting skills.

Part1: Folk, Foxes and Francisco

Part2: Folk, Foxes and Francisco

We are all so gosh-darned environmentally conscientious these days. Everybody’s got a view on the best method for saving the planet. And most of us are involved in our own plan for doing our bit. Are you getting tired of hearing about how all your friends are greener than you are?

There was that woman standing next to me at the Menlo Park Farmer’s market, for example. She was complaining about the prices. Fifty cents more, she said angrily, than the price at the Redwood City Saturday market. I remarked that the farmers pay more for the stalls at our downtown market, than they do one city north.

“I wouldn’t think it would be worth the gas to drive to Redwood City, to save fifty cents on a bouquet of sunflowers.” I tried to say it politely.

“I’ll get there in my hybrid,” she replied smugly. Well it’s pretty clear she is doing her duty by the earth!

I had to grit my teeth together, fighting the impulse to attempt to one-up her. Clearly she doesn’t consider the cost to the environment of producing a brand new car. I also forebore to tell her that, I always walk or bike to the weekly market. How much charm could there really be in showing up somebody who is that much of a dope?

It’s not that I never drive. I just manage to limit doing it. Both my husband and I can get away with it, because neither of us has a commute that requires driving. That’s not an option for everybody, and it certainly hasn’t always been an option for me. You do what you can. I can walk or bike to two grocery stores, a photocopy place and a pharmacy. So most days I do the family shopping in bits and pieces, and my husband makes one big Costco run a week for the heavy stuff. There’s days and evenings when I need a car. I take music and technology classes at the local community colleges, and our public transportation system isn’t well integrated with those campuses, if you live where I live. (I know because I’ve tried it, and pumped the local bus drivers for ideas.) So I drive to my classes.

My neighbor Jen and I have both downsized to one car. A bike racer and regular long-distance rider, Jen bikes everywhere. She ferries her children, via Burley, amazing distances. She and her husband both commute by bike. She also walks to the grocery store most days.

This didn’t start out as a plan to be greener-than-thou. Each of us had two cars until recently. But Jen’s lovely old purple sedan got crunched by another driver in a hurry. Stop signs were apparently not made for everyone. The insurance company gave her $900 for a car that had worked just fine and required little maintenance. My daughter was determined to be a good bike commuter at college, but it just didn’t work out for her. Sometimes you need a car. We are left with reliable Old Blue, the elderly mini van.

If pushed to it, we could each acquire a second vehicle. And that second vehicle, like each of our first ones, would spend a lot of time in our respective driveways. A waste of money neither of us is dying to spend. A waste of space in our none-too-sizable drives. An unnecessary drain on the planets resources, - yes mam - even if we got hybrids.

What would be nice, I thought, would be that Zip Car program. I’m sure you’ve seen it. Didn’t it start on college campuses? A fleet of cars I rent a share in. Access to a car only when I need it. Another expense, but less than that of purchasing a new or used car.

So do either Jen or I Zip?

In a way we do. We setup our own Zip. Each of us already has one car we rarely use. So we back each other up. On the rare occasion when both spouses need the car, and it does happen, we check in with our neighbor.

“Going to be using your car Saturday night, Jen? I’ve got a piano recital at school and Dave needs to drive down south.”

“No bike race this weekend. You’re on. And by the way, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment Tuesday afternoon and Mark needs to take the car, so he can drive down to San Jose after work. That’s not an afternoon when you have class, right?”

It’s not. My Old Blue will get her over to the doctor’s.