The Case for Leading a More Localized Life

Forget climate, or any high-minded concern, sticking close to home can benefit you personally.

I recently bought a car. It is the first time in 11 years I have owned one of my own (prior to that, we had one car, between me and my husband).

I live in a walkable neighborhood in Cleveland with decent transit access. During the decade-plus I was carless, I mostly telecommuted.

Even before I sold my car all those years ago, I wasn’t doing much driving. I would put a few thousand miles a year maybe on the used Mazda hand-me-down from a family member I owned.

Through the years, I always told myself I’d buy a car if I started to need one for work. And that was the main reason I decided in the last few weeks, finally, to buy another used car to keep around. (I had to rent one three times last month for work.) It will also come in handy for rare occasions when both the kids want to be in separate places, which is happening more now that they’re getting older. It will make it earlier to visit my parents, who both live out of town.

Getting by with one car was pretty doable most of the time, but one of the drawbacks is it made it hard to access retail, which we don’t have a lot of in Cleveland. This week was really the first week I’ve had it and it really blows my mind how much my mobility is expanded. I was on the road last week, and a whole range of places I could go is ticking through my head (to Asiatown for bubble tea! To the bookstore at the suburban mall!).

The truth is though, I would have rather been doing my normal bike commute. It was a beautiful day, but I had to make a childcare related trip that day by car. I disciplined myself not to spend a bunch of money on bubble tea and books, which was probably good.

Obviously, I was very fortunate to be able to get by without a car for so long. Sometimes it required me to be creative. I used to push my two little kids to daycare — a half mile away — every day on a variety of contraptions. Neighbors were always chuckling about it. There were baby carriers and wagons and strollers and eventually micro-mini scooters — the creme de la creme of young children’s mobility tools imo. My son he would insist on pushing a toy lawnmower to school one day, and I would just kinda go with it — anything to get his butt out the door on time. Then I’d end up shlepping it home, with his 30-pound wiggling body in the other arm maybe. You have to be a little bit crazy to opt for that kind of struggle, when everyone else is just jumping in a car and turning the key.

At times, a lot of it seemed kinda ridiculous and kinda embarrassing. I would strap just about any random thing I needed to haul on my bike somehow using bungees — a stack of pizzas, a child’s saxophone. One time I rode home from a night away with my husband on the other side of town, carrying a to-go cup full of breast milk on The Red Line. (I couldn’t bring myself to dump it as I had planned.)

Those kinds of practical concerns — how to get where I needed to go, with what I needed — I was sort of good at that. For me, and I get that this is kinda insane, it seemed like a fun challenge.

Mainly though I managed getting by without a car by staying closer to home. I choose the closest daycare. The closest doctor. I got my hair cut next to my office. One thing not having a car does, is forces you to lead a more localized life. With the proper acknowledgement that this would not work for everyone, I want to say: a highly localized life can be a pretty good one, a pretty good way to live.

First of all, it sorta forced me to stay moderately fit, even during those early years with young kids where the time pressures were overwhelming. Walking my kids to and from daycare meant I walked at least two miles a day, even if I couldn’t squeeze in any time for “real” exercise.

Another thing it did was save me money. The truth is, I wasn’t spending a ton on transportation before I sold my car. My whole life, I was never the kind of person who did a daily highway commute. So I never needed a real fancy car. If you are having to do a daily highway commute, then you might need a new or almost new car — and that’s when it can get pretty expensive. Anyway, I never did that, which always gave me more breathing room. That adds up after 11 years. Or 20 years or whatever. Saving money isn’t everyone’s top priority and I get that. But doing this also, it gives you more control over your career decisions. If you need less money to get by in the first place (cuz you don’t have a crazy car payment), that makes it easier to opt out of work you hate.

So this lifestyle made me fitter and less poor. That was always something I was conscious of. It also saved me time. Since I was biking to work, for example — which I still mostly do — that meant I didn’t need to carve out as much time to “work out.” I still feel like the whole changing your clothes, going somewhere, and then spending the time working out — woof. That is a lot. (But I actually kind of like to do it if I get a chance.)

It’s only more recently that the social benefits have dawned on me a little more.