You know how most cars these days look like this:

With smooth lines and sleek styling and lots of aerodynamics?  Yeah, my car doesn’t look like that.  My car looks like this:

It’s old.  It’s clunky.  It gets 12 miles to the gallon in the city, and 17 on the highway.  It’s in great shape, which is why I’m driving it, and why I’ll probably continue driving it until it dies.

Unfortunately, the low gas mileage means it’s a beast to drive in and out of town.  Which is exactly what I’ve been doing, even though I live a half mile off Main Street.  I’ve been hauling this car around town, doing minor errands, wasting gas, polluting the environment.  Walking isn’t always feasible; for example, the store would close before I can get there, I’m buying something too big to walk home with, or I don’t have enough time to make the round trip by foot.

The problem, too, is that city driving is harder on a car than highway driving.  City driving means more starts and stops to wear on the brakes, more gunk getting into the engine oil, more likely something’s going to wear out or break.  And I’d like to keep the car running as nice as possible, as long as possible — that’s green too.

That’s why I bought one of these:

I rode it home from the bike shop, and it took approximately 1/8 of the time it takes to walk, and probably the same amount of time it takes to laboriously back my giant honkin’ car out of the driveway.  Hurray!  I’ve been outfitting myself with the gear that I need to ride it to the thrift store and up and down Main Street — namely a helmet and bike lock.  I already have a patch kit and multi-tool.  I’m waiting on a bike rack or basket until I figure out how much I’ll use it for bigger things.  Would you like to see it?

Here it is in all its glory.  It’s so light that I can carry it up and down the seventeen stairs it takes to get to my front door.  I figured spending some extra money on a bike right now would save me on the car’s upkeep expenses.

I know, I know: who buys a bike right before winter in New England?  Me, of course.  I’ll ride it as much as possible, especially now that I’ve read the excellent Girls and Bicycles blog.  She rides her bike through winter in Canada — in skirts and high heels!  How’s that for inspiration?

__________________________________________________________

©2009 at Simple Savvy, the simple living blog where the bike shop guys now know me by name — though I’m not quite savvy in the bike store.