I was quite taken with this new idea for an ecologically sound vehicle - admittedly, it's not really a new idea, but has a number of features that actually make it desirable to own. Not least because it looks really cool, especially when cornering. I was in Calcutta recently, and for the first time in my life rode a motorbike - admittedly pillion. Driving for the first time on a motorbike in a city with such relaxed driving standards as Calcutta would be a death wish that I don't currently enjoy. However, it did give me a taste for two wheels that I'd never previously held - maybe the three-wheeled "Clever" (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) is the interim solution.
I've decided to get rid of my car - it's almost 4 years old and is due for replacement under the terms of the lease. But instead I've chosen to take the money and run - a) because I'm living and working in London and there's a bus past my back door every 30 seconds; b) a lot of the supermarket delivery trucks are now using biodiesel, and it's allegedly more eco-friendly to order online and have it delivered than drive to the supermarket yourself - particularly when Waitrose allow you to choose a delivery time when the van is already in your area. And c) Streetcar have 2 VW Golfs parked on the next street to me, which makes picking one up at short notice very easy indeed.
I guess the ultimate carrot to make getting rid of your car an easy option is the financial one combined with your location - my tax, servicing and petrol cost savings significantly outweigh the value of having my own car, and where I live makes it easy to do. I couldn't, I don't think, if I was still living in Surrey.
N.B. I do note the irony, or rather hypocrisy, of using a mainstream supermarket given what I was talking about in my last entry. But this is the constructed society we live in - the only way to change it, in my opinion, is to change the demands of society as a whole. I also think there's a much clearer "audit trail" of what comes from where with a large supermarket - the battle is to change the "where" from over there to nearer here.
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