What might be the advantages of life without a personal vehicle?

[caption id="attachment_19581" align="alignleft" width="225"] Portlanders fancy pedal power[/caption]

Mike Gordon----If you live in a city that has a public transportation system that allows you access to your frequent daily and weekly destinations, you may be considering ditching your car. There are many advantages to living without a personal vehicle, like reducing your carbon footprint, getting in some additional exercise by walking and biking more frequently, and eliminating the growing costs of insuring and fueling a vehicle. Below are some items to consider when deciding if living carless in the city is right for you.

Advantages of Public Transportation

The largest motivator for many individuals considering ditching their car is the savings. By selling your car, you can eliminate your car payment, car insurance, gas, licensing fees and tabs, and car maintenance expenses. However, driving in a large city also comes with other costs such as rented parking spaces, parking meters and garages fees at all of your destinations, parking permits, city stickers, valet parking, parking tickets, and the additional time and gas spent looking for parking spaces.

Besides savings on expenses like these, taking public transportation can sometimes be faster than or just as fast as driving, particularly in poor weather or rush hour traffic. Ditching your car will reduce your carbon footprint and often allows you to learn more about your city by spending more time on foot or bike.

Disadvantages of Public Transportation

While there are many advantages to living without a personal vehicle, there are some disadvantages and adjustments you will need to make. You will need to learn the frequency and times of day that public transportation is available and always be ready with cab fare when you are traveling during a time in which transportation is not running in your area. While cabs may become part of your car-free living plan, if they are used too often they can really add up. Public transportation sometimes has excessive delays (as does conventional city driving), and public transportation is sometimes dirty, crowded, and noisy.

Car Rentals

When you need to travel outside of the city or need to shop for large items that don't travel well via public transportation, you can rent a car. Due to the growing demand of short-term car rentals many cities offer hourly or reduced rate one-day car rental options. Here are some car rental options to consider:

Hourly Car Rentals: Sometimes you just need a car for a few hours so you can run to the grocery store and stock up on bulky and heavy items. Instead of paying a full day's rental fees, you can rent a car from an hourly rental service. These services distribute their cars in multiple locations throughout the city to give you ease of access.

Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing: There are many peer-to-peer car share websites and apps that allow a person who has a car that they don't drive frequently to lend it to someone who just needs a car for a few hours or a few days. Peer-to-peer car share programs are often less expensive than hourly rentals or rental agencies, but you are likely not to be in a brand new car like when you rent from a traditional car rental agency. Sometimes you can even rent hotrods and luxury cars on peer-to-peer sites, but they will cost you a pretty penny. Before renting with a peer-to-peer site, make sure you understand your state laws for car sharing, verify that the owner's insurance provides you coverage, learn the deposit required to rent, and your responsibility for loss, damage, tickets, and accidents.

Car Rental Agencies: To stay competitive with the short term rental needs that city residents have from time to time, many car rental agencies offer special short-term rentals to local residents. Call your local agencies to find out what they have to offer, but it can be anywhere from half-day rentals to discounted full day pricing.

Eliminating your car will take some time and adjustment, but once you get used to the routes you travel frequently it will begin to feel like second nature.



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This article was provided by Mike Gordon, earth-conscious volunteer and recent business school graduate. If you are a California resident trying to save space and money (on top of ditching your car)

Few medicines work as well as fitness

[caption id="attachment_15810" align="alignright" width="297"] Johanna Quaas, 86, performing at Germany's Cottbus Challenger Cup.[/caption]

Fred Greenblatt — Today, in the 21^st Century, countless studies, articles, and fitness experts all agree that aging does not have to be the automatic decline of health. It is a proven fact that all people, regardless of age, can still improve such things as muscle strength, agility, balance, bone mineral density, and reduce cognitive decline all through exercise and health supporting nutrition. Age is not a barrier to a happy, more enjoyable, and fulfilling life.

The American College of Sports Medicine said it best; from their studies they concluded that a program of ongoing exercise for adults, especially as they age, is truly one of the most effective medicines a person can take to enhance the quality of their life. Physical activity – exercise – will provide the recipient with greater strength, mobility, and longevity.

The College says there is no medicine more powerful or more important to an adult, or can improve more bodily functions than a regular program of exercise. Ignoring exercise is cheating yourself out of a higher quality of life.

Some people take the position that “some” exercise is better than nothing, and it surely is; but “some” usually still falls dramatically short of the real benefits of a regular ongoing exercise program.

Probably the principal myth of growing old, which must be dispelled, is the assumption that growing old is the automatic certainty of a weakening body and a forgetful mind, all ending in death. As it stands now, too many aging people see themselves becoming this archetypical persona of an old and frail person – a bumbling and stumbling old geezer. This perceived reality, although for many the historical norm exhibited by their parents and grandparents, today, does not have to be a reality.

The media and especially television and movies, continually tell us how exercise and nutritious foods are good for us. Although we are all aware of this reality, and we know we're supposed to exercise our muscles to stay strong, but few follow this health supporting path. Whether it is due to laziness, ignorance, or indifference, the majority of adults continue to live in a sedentary and inactive manner.

The US Center for Disease Control estimates that over 75% of aging adults live in a sedentary way. This seemingly innocent way of life is in reality a person’s greatest nemesis. Inactive living precipitates more illness and injuries than any other single age-related causative factor. People live this way despite the frequent informative articles insisting that activity helps prevent many related ailments, from coronary artery disease to cognitive decline.

For many, the term fitness is possibly a misnomer and may cause confusion as most people think of fitness as a state of being for athletic endeavors. To help clarify this issue I will define what I have learned about fitness for adults.

For the younger adults, it is easy: being fit is about making a strong body stronger or a fast body faster. It can mean defining musculature – being ripped. Young people are concerned with the physical appearance of being fit and their enhanced physical endurance – probably to more successfully attract the opposite sex.

For adults, particularly those on the aging path, staying fit is very different issue. It is primarily about combating the effects of aging such as Sarcopenia – age-related muscle loss. It is about keeping your muscles strong, agile flexible and simply feeling good. Being fit, you can more easily stay active and have more fun until your very last days. For the older adult, being fit will also allow one to recover more quickly from any illness or injury we will surely encounter one day.

As a person grows older – and we all will – hopefully, we must remember, staying fit is the best possible thing a person can do for themselves. It is the one thing we can do, that does not cost much money and is guaranteed to enhance the quality of our life. The earlier a person focuses on fitness and the more able-bodied they will remain, the easier it will be to deal with the harsh reality of aging when it finally comes along. The more strength and ability a person retains, the greater the control they will have over their destiny, and the more positive their overall sense of well-being. I call it being prepared.

Feeling good is also a major influence on our attitudes. The better we feel, the happier we are with ourselves, and more relaxed and peaceful we become. Also, the better you feel, the better you will look and the greater your confidence and self-esteem. Regular physical activity is well known to help prevent depression, which is also common with aging. As we grow older, staying fit, will keep the doors to greater independence open longer and will add to a more fulfilled life.

It is important that early on, one should start to think about their golden years, for one day, they will be arriving at a place in their life that is the reward for their lifetime of efforts and responsibilities.

Everyone has earned the right to enjoy this time of life and do what they want to do – on their own terms. The more fit you stay during your adult years, the more options and choices you will have later. The earlier in life you develop a fitness plan, the more rewards you will experience as you grow old.



About the Author

Fred Greenblatt is a retired dentist living in Fountain Hills, Arizona. During a varied career he wrote professional books and articles and lectured nationwide. He has served on a number of Boards such as the Board of Dental Examiners and The Screen Actors Guild. He has also been a professional actor, sculptor, and an active sportsman. Today, he is living in the desert with his wife Nora, trying to grow old successfully and writing about life’s experiences and the aging process. He is accessible on Facebook. Email contact: DrfredG@aol.com