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And Gas Saver Makes Three Cars In The Driveway

As a recent story in the New York Times explains:

With gas prices well over $3 a gallon nationwide, many drivers are lining up to buy small cars.

But hundreds of thousands of consumers aren’t giving up anything to downsize. Instead, they are simply adding pint-size transportation to their driveways, parked alongside their S.U.V. or pickup.

According to CNW Marketing Research:

In households that own a small car, the family fleet is close to an average of three vehicles…(the national average is just over two cars per household; America was a one-car-per-family nation a generation ago).

These growing fleets suggest an approach to conservation that is more addition than subtraction.

Contrast The Times story about additions to a household's fleet with this heartfelt dilemma posed on Sightline (post #28 in a series by Sightline's director, who is exploring the benefits and dilemmas that arise from being a car-less family with three kids):

Last week, Flexcar stationed one of its hundreds of hourly car-share vehicles outside our house. So, there’s now often a car sitting at the curb that we can use.

Are we still car-less?

By our definition, yes. For my family, “car-less” never meant anything beyond not owning a car. Some people have misunderstood, thinking we’ve made a pledge not to drive (and teasing us for “cheating” when we do drive). We’re happy to drive; we just don’t own.

The big difference between car-less and car-full, it turns out, is not whether you drive or not. It’s how much you drive: whether you purchase your driving by the car (and the tank) or by the hour (and the mile).

Of course, not everyone has such easy access to a Flexcar. Matter of fact, I'd guess that the nearest Flexcar is at least 300 miles from Jackson. But we all have easy access to the basic choice of driving less, no matter haow many cars we own.

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