Car Shedding

Today at work, we were talking about strategies to encourage "Car Shedding" — getting households that currently own cars to sell them. In SF this usually means either a two-car household going down to one, or a one-car household going completely car-free.

It wasn't lost on me or my coworkers that I am a prime candidate for car shedding behavior.

• I own a car;
• It's old (I've had it for eleven years);
• I don't have a parking space at home
• I don't commute with it, since I usually bike to work and otherwise walk or take Muni;
• Both ZipCar and City Car Share have pods within just a few blocks of my house.

I constantly have to shuffle Kitty around to avoid street cleaning tickets. I even think that more than 50% of the times that I start her engine, it is to merely move her a few blocks to avoid a street cleaning ticket.

So, why do I still have my car? Yes, it was paid off years ago and I'm only paying insurance, gas, and maintenance. But seriously, on most days it's more hassle to worry about street cleaning when I get home at night than the benefit of being able to pick up my dry cleaning on Saturday without first reserving a ZipCar online (which takes about 30 seconds).

So, why do I still have my car? When I move later this year, I'm going to reconsider this.