We recycled our car – and survived! – Bobbie Jacobson

As I mentally counted down the days to when our road tax would run out, my outward, environmentally correct persona concealed a long, inward scream of anxiety.  Yes, I had agreed to recycle our car, to not buying another one and to joining a car pool   But with two children of tender teenish ages, what would we do if they got stuck in the middle of the night, if we had to rush them to hospital.  “We would get a taxi”, my husband calmly repeated.  But what if there weren’t any taxis?  “Ludicrous thought”, said my husband in that irritatingly certain way.  “There are at least ten cab companies with offices a stone’s throw from our house.”

It was not the unassailable environmental and financial arguments that bothered me.  Owning a car is totally unnecessary as well as antisocial if you live in the inner city as we do.  It was the loss of this polluting metal comforter at times of need that I was really worried about.  But the day came and went without incident.  We watched, mesmerised as every single part of our 15 year old car was recycled into something useful – and then they gave us £80 for it!

The car pool we belong to – Streetcar – is good value and works perfectly.  There are at least 6 pick-up points within easy walking distance from us.  We have only used the car pool three times in the three months since we became car-free.  We have had to get used to better shopping planning: although we arranged to have the wine for our Christmas party delivered to us, we forgot to order glasses and soft drinks – and had to do that the hard way.  We didn’t have enough time to book Streetcar in time to ferry my elderly mother to and fro over Christmas – so had to shell out another £85 in taxi fares.

But there was a further, hidden advantage of car freedom we hadn’t thought of:  every time one of our children asked if we could ferry their friends home late at night we took great pleasure in saying – better ring their parents for a change!