no longer carless

a week ago i bought a car to replace my nearly defunct '91 mazda miata with 180K miles.

the new car is a white honda civic, 2003, and it's a hybrid.

after driving a miata, it feels like a boat. just doesn't have the "road feel" of a 2-seater. it is like driving in a bubble--quiet, air conditioned, good CD player.

i got to experience being mostly carless this spring, and i enjoyed all the bike-riding. and it's nice to have a choice, particularly when it's really hot, really humid, raining, i have to get cat litter or take my cat to the vet, or haul home more groceries than i can fit in a backpack.

plus, i can get to places like kathleen's in wimberley, the NLP meetup off rundberg, and eNLP in dallas that would just not work with a bicycle.

i can take my granddaughter places too far for her to walk when we're spending time together, and she can't ride a bike yet (nor would i want her riding on the street with me).

it's nice to have a car in emergencies as well as for spontaneous trips to visit a friend or go to a store. Austin CarShare, which has been helpful on several occasions, requires reservations in advance, and it's not feasible to take one of their cars out of town or overnight, plus no pets allowed.

so i guess i am a bit spoiled. it's been an adventure, and i'm glad i did it.

the best part of driving this car is watching the current gas mileage displayed on the dash. you can learn how to maximize it from watching the gauge. it also shows average mpg per trip. right now it's getting an average of about 42 mpg on this tank of gas after about 300 miles of both city and highway driving. the tank is still over half full.

another gauge shows whether the battery is being charged (going down hills, decelerating, braking) and when it is assisting the gasoline engine (climbing hills, accelerating).

it has a feature called auto stop. instead of idling, the gas engine just stops running when the car comes to a full stop. the car gets very quiet. you might think the engine died, but it hasn't. it's just conserving gas.

i'm looking forward to my next trip to dallas and seeing what kind of mileage i get on that.

this will be my last post with the label "the carless life". i'm still planning to ride my bike often and feel much heartened about what the city is doing to make austin friendlier to bicycles. click the title link to read more.