Carfree in Portland

One of the highlights of our adventurous move to Portland has been that we left our car behind. Literally. We sold our car to a guy in Phoenix for $1,000 and wished him well in that ticking time bomb while we set out to navigate the public transit system of Portland. At first it was a matter of not being able to afford another car since we still had to pay the mortgage on our home in Phoenix. However, now that our house has sold, living without a car is a matter of choice (and we love it, by the way).

We get a lot of questions about how we make it work to live in the suburbs with two kids without a car. I thought I would elaborate a little here and document some of our adventures.

First of all, Ben takes the bus/train combo into work every day. On nice days he rides his bike to the train and commutes that way. It takes him about 45 minutes each way. That may sound like a lot, but given the traffic during rush hour it's only about 5 minutes longer to take public transit than to drive. Plus he doesn't have to pay for gas or worry about finding a parking spot downtown, so it really works out well.

The kids and I are out and about every day. It's a very rare day that we elect to just stay home. It takes about 10 minutes for us to walk to the bus stop. A quick 10 minute bus ride lands us in downtown Beaverton where we go to the gym and the library. If we want to go to the zoo, the children's museum, or downtown, we hop on the train. We also spend a lot of time at parks either within walking distance of our house or along the bus route. I have a bike with a trailer that the kids ride in that we use often. We go to parks, to the forest, and to the homes of friends. We have kind friends who pick us up sometimes and take us places we otherwise wouldn't be able to go. It's very, very rare that we really want to go somewhere or attend an event, but can't do it because we don't have a car.

I actually really love being forced to slow down. We are never stressed about driving or traffic or parking. Sure, we have to allot more time to get places on the bus than we would with a car, but it really forces us to do less, which is good. In my previous life I was so busy running from one place to another, making stops on the way home from other places. Now we are outside all the time. We walk at least half a mile everyday, usually much more than that. It's good for all of us to be outside walking. I notice that me and the kids chat a lot more when we are walking than when I am driving.

When we owned a car we spent an average of $250-$300 per month to maintain it. That included gas, repairs, maintenance, cleaning, and insurance. Now we spend less than $100 per month on transportation. (This doesn't include Ben's commute since he didn't commute when we lived in Phoenix.) Sometimes we need to rent a car. Over Memorial Day we did just that and drove up to Seattle to visit my brother. It cost us about $45 to rent a car for 3 days, so we are still saving big time. We figure that every month we can go without a car is a couple hundred more dollars saved so that when we do buy a car again, we can actually buy something that will be reliable without going into debt for it.

Now here is the golden question: What about grocery shopping? People always ask us that, and it's a good question since it is the one thing we have to do often that actually requires a car. We do a variety of things. Sometimes we do small shopping trips just to pick up eggs and milk, nothing more that we can carry or stash away in a stroller. We have discovered that Safeway home delivery is actually a pretty great option. And sometimes we borrow a car from a kind friend to make a big shopping run that we plan out meticulously so that we have everything we need for at least two weeks. We haven't run into a problem yet.

We love our new lifestyle. We walk and bike all over the place. Our favorite weekend activity is a family bike ride. A couple weeks ago we biked over to the Beaverton Farmer's Market (about 3 miles away) and felt 100% granola for doing so. It was so fun. I have discovered that I love biking as much as I love running. I also love that we don't have a car to worry about. We don't have to worry if it's leaking oil or if it's making a funny noise. We don't have to save $2,000 for the day that a big repair needs to be done (notice I said when, not if). We don't have to worry about whether it gets dented or scratched or whether Lily's milk is going to stain the seats. It's a load off and we love it.

We have no idea how long we will live without a car. Hopefully for a long time, but we are realistic about our circumstances. Our situation right now makes it easy to be without a car. We live within a 10-minute walk (5 minutes without kids) of a bus stop that gets us basically everywhere we need to go. The public transit system in this city is pretty amazing with buses, trains, and street cars going pretty much everywhere. However, if we move or if we add another child to our family things may change. We are just enjoying our situation right now and making the most of it. Portland is really a beautiful place and we are so happy that we get to live here.