{"id":172,"date":"2015-02-05T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T12:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/annphillips\/?p=172"},"modified":"2015-02-05T12:45:54","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T12:45:54","slug":"carpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/carpool\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpool."},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned back in my very first blog post, I did not own a car until moving to Detroit in August. Growing up on a farm, I learned how to drive at a young age. At 15 I earned my school permit which allowed me to drive, sans parents, to and from school and school activities ONLY. You can imagine my relief when I received\u00a0my full license at 16. I traveled to and from high school, begrudgingly hauling my two younger siblings, in\u00a0my mom’s old 1991 Buick Park Avenue (which had over 200,000 miles on it). Here is a photo of what it looked like. Please note this is not the actual car I\u00a0drove but, instead, a photograph of a much shinier, less rusty version\u00a0of the make\/model from the internet. In addition, this photo is missing the peeling paint on the hood and boasts a different set of hub caps but you can imagine it, right?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This car was often in the “shop” (a.k.a parked for long periods of time while my dad worked on various coil packs\u00a0or replaced entire doors with replacements\u00a0found at the salvage lot). When the ol Buick wasn’t up and running, I got to drive a 1994 teal Chevy Silverado with gray faux fur seat covers. With an extended, four door cab, AND and extended bed, my vehicle was nearly as long as the school buses I rode in to band competitions and track meets. Here, again, is\u00a0an\u00a0internet photo\u00a0of the\u00a0backup car; at least the best I could find.<\/p>\n

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Once I graduated high school, I moved away to college and didn’t take a car with me.\u00a0I walked or rode my bike to class and took the bus to work across town. It was at this time in my life that I began associating driving with stress. Walking, biking, and bus riding were such relaxing and enjoyable ways to get places. I was not in any hurry to buy a car. I then moved to Seattle where I lived, car-less, for two years. I took the bus to work, to the grocery store, to friends’ houses in other neighborhoods, even to Target in the suburbs. Yes, it took much longer to get places but I enjoyed the process. Four years ago, I moved south from Seattle to Eugene, Oregon. It was in Eugene that I really started considering my bike a significant\u00a0part of my life. While I took the bus a few times, I found it most efficient to ride my bike. I rode it everywhere–even to my radiation treatments! So, when the time came this past August to step up to the plate a make my first used-car purchase, I was less than thrilled about it. After many weeks of himming and hawing, I finally settled on a 2004 GMC Envoy. You see, this wasn’t just any car. This vehicle had to transport myself, my 13 lb. cat and all of my worldly possessions from the previous six years. I figured it was a better deal than spending excessive amounts of money on a moving truck. I needed a car once I got to Detroit anyway so I might as well not put it off any longer. Here is an internet-provided photo of my current ride.<\/p>\n

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All of this background just to say\u00a0that it is\u00a0through car ownership that I have found my newest favorite activity–carpooling. Don’t get me wrong, there is a certain freedom to driving on the open road, sun shining, windows rolled down, music turned up; but then there is also the daily 25- mile commute to and from work. This is the part that exhausts me. I was showing up to work tired and stressed and decided things needed to change. Since a bus or a train wasn’t an option, I reached out to fellow co-workers who also live in Detroit and make the same 25-mile commute. The three of us began carpooling the beginning of January and my life changed. Not only do we have meaningful, intellectual conversations about society, Detroit, and the world in general, I also now arrive at work refreshed, awake,\u00a0and ready to start my day. I have found two great mentors. We listen to podcasts, contemplate life-long questions, and make up names for our carpooling crew. We also talk about architecture, don’t worry. \ud83d\ude42 The experience and cost of owning a car in Detroit has opened my eyes to the deeply flawed public transportation system of the metro area. It is currently a very significant topic for the city of Detroit and I am excited to be part of the lively conversation. Detroit\u00a0will always honor the “motor” in Motor City, however, the reassessment of\u00a0the existing transportation model (individual cars) is critical. A thriving city needs multiple modes of transportation.<\/p>\n

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As I mentioned back in my very first blog post, I did not own a car until moving to Detroit in August. Growing up on a farm, I learned how to drive at a young age. At 15 I earned my school permit which allowed me to drive, sans parents, to and from school and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}