Grr!

I'm rather angry at the moment.  I'm not saying this is a good thing, although sometimes anger can be productive, but the reason I'm angry has drawn together several things that have come to my attention recently.

I don't have a car.  I often have to attend meetings in the evenings, where I'm usually the only person from my house travelling to the meeting.  Usually I'm quite happy to walk for half an hour or more to get to such a meeting, but when it's going to take me longer than that or the route would take me, in the dark, through areas I'd rather not go (ok, I know this is York and nowhere's that bad, but that's no reason to take risks) or if I don't know where I'm going I'd rather not.  Does that seem unreasonable?

Buses are awkward, especially if you're not sure exactly where you're going, aren't that cheap round here, and often take longer than walking if you're waiting for connections.  Taxis are expensive.  But I find that a lot of people who drive and have been doing so for ten or twenty years or more, forget that it might not be easy for you to get to the outer reaches of the city if you don't drive- and even more difficult to get back.

I think this is a mentality that needs to change if we're going to encourage less car use.  For example, I just asked someone for a lift to a meeting.  To pick me up they would have to come slightly out of their way, a detour of perhaps five minutes in a car, not more than ten.  They've picked me up several times before.  But this time, after I'd initially thought they'd agreed, I got a message back saying could I find someone else to pick me up if possible as it was out of their way.  However, my house is equally if not more out of everyone else's way.  So I'm left with the choice of begging someone else to come for me, or an hour's walk in the dark.

At this point I know someone is going to say 'cycle' but I don't feel that I am a safe or confident cyclist.  The same people would then no doubt give me lots of good advice and tell me to get on with it, but that's not my point.  My point is that people who are used to the convenience of a car too often forget that a) it is possible to not have a car, and to exist quite well for most purposes without it, and b) the difficulties that can sometimes arise from not having a car, for example disposing of rubbish the council won't collect like broken TV's.  It's similar to a point a friend of mine makes here; if you have something, it's hard for you to see what it's like not to have it, and you tend to assume people must be exaggerating or have something to fall back on.

Perhaps the solution lies in a better development of community with our friends and willingness to use what we have to help others.  In contrast to the above, I also have friends who will go out of their way (physically and metaphorically) to help those who need it- giving lifts and helping move things.  And I'm very grateful to them.  It's just a shame that not everyone thinks like that.

And while I was writing that, someone else (for whom it's just as much of a detour) has just offered me a lift.  Yay!