It doesn't seem like much of a change. I mean, after all, I hardly drive my car anymore. Since I moved to Sacramento, I mostly drive it from one side of the street to the other, avoiding the street sweeper.
It's nominally for sale, but I cannot find the title so that's kind of on hold. The new title application is floating around the DMV somewhere. The registration is up and it needed a smog test before I could pay that bill, so off to the smot test shop I went last week.
Is it good news or bad news that it did NOT pass smog? I guess I'm upset to learn that my car has been an NO emitter for I don't know how long. It has been two years since my last smog test. It is true that I haven't driven much since July, but before that I was driving 500+ miles per week back and forth to Humboldt. That could have been a lot of pollution.
I guess it's good news that now I know. Even better, since it is a smog car and the repair--new catalytic converter--probably costs almost as much as the car is worth, I may be able to sell it to a State of California program designed to remove such cars from the road. If that goes through, my car will be crushed and hopefully recycled. Maybe someday the aluminum in my car will go into the tubing for a mid-range road bike. One can only hope.
Part of me is sad to see it go. We've been a lot of places together. This car and my last one, an 88 Honda Accord, have been all over the West. These little cars got good fuel economy and were decent at getting into remote places. I once drove the Accord up Courthouse Wash, in Moab. The Ford Escort once carried me up the Shaffer Trail, also in Moab. Both of these cars carried me to dozens of off-the-beaten-path trailheads all over the Sierra Nevada. Though not what you might think of as 4x4's or rock-crawlers... these cars did all I needed them to do. After all, hiking and biking were always at the destination!
At this point, I have no plans to replace my car. That feels great and somehow revolutionary. I know lots of people don't have cars. All my life, though, I have been so surrounded by car culture. It's exciting to move away from that.
My bikes, Amtrak, RT, and BART carry me most everywhere I go on a regular basis. For what I'll be saving in insurance and fees, I can certainly afford to rent a car a couple of times a year to do a backpacking trip somewhere remote. It's like $40 a day to rent a compact! So that's my plan. If you aren't there yet, join me! If you're thinking about it and want to start a conversation, post a comment!
OH! The best part of all of this. I think I'll get enough from sale of the car to buy a Bikes-At-Work trailer--the 96A. With that trailer, I will have probably more cargo capacity than I did with the car. What justice! Trading my car for a bike trailer!
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