After coming back to America, I realize that living abroad in Hong Kong has changed me in even more ways than I thought. I essentially lived the entire time out of a small 33 liter backpack for the entirety of 4 months. Hong Kong is considered to have the best public transportation system in the world. I was also lucky enough to see Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, which probably have the next best public transit sytems in the world.
I noticed how many people used the transit system there, and what a lifestyle it was. Students and businessmen in suits. The elderly in wheelchairs and the babies in strollers. A couple of friends going on a hike up a mountain and entire families going about their day. In Hong Kong, there were double-decker buses that could hold upwards of 150 people. They went up streets much narrower than those in America and came with a 5-10 minute frequency. And yeah, during rush hour they completely filled up. The subway trains were huge and came every 3 minutes, everywhere in the city. They also filled up, shoulder to shoulder with people.
At first, I had trouble getting adjusted to this public transit system. It was difficult for me to walk around, look for buses, and have to be around people all the time in a crowded place. But after a month or two I started to love it. I realized this system cleared up the streets for people to walk. The city had more space for useful buildings instead of just wide roads for cars. It was beautiful, useful, and brought people closer together.
Coming back to America, I was sad again at what a car culture it had. Along with all my Asian friends, I had this “wishful thinking” that America would change. Maybe eventually “they” will build a high speed rail connecting the country. Maybe “they” will eventually fix the layout of the cities and build subway systems in all major cities in America.
For a couple of years, I had this type of thinking. I hoped that things would get better and that “they” (the government, businessmen, people in power?) would fix these problems and make things better. But for a couple of years, I agreed with everyone else that it was impossible to survive without a car in America. But hey, there’s nothing I could do about that, right?
Coming back from Asia I really didn’t want to come back to a car. So I didn’t. I decided to not own a car for the summer, and after 1 month of working, living, thriving in Ausitn, its been freaking great. Now I can’t even imagine going back to life with a car.
Here’s why it’s been so great. I wake up in the mornings and instead of dreading sitting in traffic with all these other cars on the road, I look forward to riding my bike in the fresh morning air, having a fresh breeze wake me up, get some exercise in, and not have to wait on anyone or anything. It’s really great. I find it strange how people will wake up, sit in a car for an hour to get to work, and then go inside and run on a treadmill in the morning. Hmm… You’re doing double the work! Why not just bike to work? Or if you want, even walk or run to work. You get the transportation and the workout in one go. The way it is now is a huge waste of resources and seems backwards to me.
When I need a ride for an intern event (if everyone’s going for drinks after work, or going volunteering across town in 20 minutes time), I am forced to talk to the other interns and ask for a ride, instead of just quietly retreating to my own car and riding alone. I’ll also coordinate to see if they can drop me off close to home when they are heading back. When carpooling, we chat a little, share ideas, and just get to know the other interns better. I think at this point I’ll have 3 different friends ask me if I want a ride to an event before I even bring it up. Instead of sitting silently in car and wasting twice the gas. The whole thing opens up more opportunities for me, and is just more fun.
When I have to get groceries, I get my 33L backpack and ride 8 miles round trip to buy 20 or so pounds of fruit. It’s exhausting but so worth it. I enjoy the fruit so much more afterward, and I get a hell of a good workout. I don’t think the treadmill guys get such a good workout as I do riding out for groceries.
I don’t have the worry of owning a car. What if something breaks? What if it gets broken into? What if I get in a fender bender and have to sort all the insurance stuff? The worst part of driving is actually the driving. Americans think cars open up all these opportunities of going to places and having great experiences, a great American road trip. When a few people think this way it’s true. But when everyone thinks this way it no longer holds. What results is that everyone ends up owning a car, sitting in traffic and being miserable, and the whole system being a complete waste of energy.
When I take the bus or public transportation, it feels exciting. I need to be at a certain place by a certain time before the bus leaves, and that gets me going.
BUT, there’s a bigger reason why I would rather bike, take the bus, or even walk rather than just easily drive everywhere I go. It comes down to Awareness and Demand. As I said earlier, we all wish that America would have a better system of transportation, but feel powerless to do anything and ride our cars instead. But what if someone sees me on the road, riding a bike to the grocery store? Or going to work? Maybe (and just maybe), others will think, “mmhm, maybe it is possible to do things without a car.” I don’t expect them to radically change their minds when they see me. But by doing day-to-day things with my bike, I can show people that the opportunity is there, and it exists. Voluntarily not owning a car is an opportunity to show others that it’s possible. The roommates I’m with also don’t own a car and now are at least a little bit more aware of biking and other ways of transport. There’s a couple of interns that involuntarily don’t own a car. Most of them take a $10 Uber each way to work every day. When they learn I ride to work, they usually don’t join me the next day, but at least the possibility is there in their minds, in that it’s something that’s possible.
The bigger reason for not owning a car is demand. We hope that they will solve this problem of transportation in America, but don’t think we can do anything. We hope they will create subways, more bus routes, high-speed trains, networks, etc. But if nobody (except homeless people and students) are using these networks now, there is no demand to grow any of it. In the extreme case, what would happen if everyone in America decided tomorrow to not drive to work, and instead take the bus, and the limited public transportation? The system would be overwhelmed at first, but after a couple of weeks the buses would be faster (less traffic on the road from cars), and more frequent. There would be more routes. Soon construction would be underway for subway tracks and possibly long-distance rail. Still think you don’t make a difference? If nobody uses these systems now, how can we expect them to grow?
I don’t expect everyone to give up their car tomorrow. I myself will most likely end up owning a car at some point. The real point here is to be mindful of what type of impact you’re having yourself when you start that engine and go sit in traffic.