Link: Car-free in Pittsburgh
Dec. 10th, 2025 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soniaConfessions of a ‘passenger princess,’ traveling Pittsburgh without a car by Emma Riva.
My parents gave me their older car when I was a senior in college, and later I bought one new, both small hatchbacks with few fancy features. I already biked around town a lot and arranged my life so I didn't have to commute by car. After a crash in September 2002 totaled my little blue hatchback, I decided I didn't want another car.
Over the last 23 years as cars have gotten bigger and more complicated and more invasive of privacy, I'm only confirmed in not wanting one.
I use public transit sometimes, and I get rides from friends sometimes, but mostly I get around on foot and by bike. Even in a place with good transit by US standards, it's still infrequent enough and unreliable enough to be a huge hassle. I'd rather be out in the cold and the rain on my bike than standing waiting for a bus.
Someone asked me recently how cold it has to get to stop me from riding. The answer is, cold won't really do it in the places I've lived. In Portland I had good enough gear to ride when it was 25 or 30 degrees. In the Bay Area it just won't get cold enough. Ice and snow stop me, and wind strong enough to blow me into the opposing lane.
I hope I can continue being car-free for a good long time to come. I love being out in the weather, breathing the air, saying hello to other cyclists, and being graciously allowed to cross big streets by drivers. I have a bike trailer to haul big items, and a bike pannier to haul groceries or sheet music or whatever else I need.
Taking the bus might not feel as sexy as driving a Mustang, but this is the role of the passenger princess: to romanticize the blue glow of the late-night buses; to celebrate the serendipitous conversations with poets, former MMA fighters and sommeliers doubling as rideshare drivers; to enjoy the intimacy and trust of a loved one driving you somewhere you need to go. Let’s keep the city yours and mine.
My parents gave me their older car when I was a senior in college, and later I bought one new, both small hatchbacks with few fancy features. I already biked around town a lot and arranged my life so I didn't have to commute by car. After a crash in September 2002 totaled my little blue hatchback, I decided I didn't want another car.
Over the last 23 years as cars have gotten bigger and more complicated and more invasive of privacy, I'm only confirmed in not wanting one.
I use public transit sometimes, and I get rides from friends sometimes, but mostly I get around on foot and by bike. Even in a place with good transit by US standards, it's still infrequent enough and unreliable enough to be a huge hassle. I'd rather be out in the cold and the rain on my bike than standing waiting for a bus.
Someone asked me recently how cold it has to get to stop me from riding. The answer is, cold won't really do it in the places I've lived. In Portland I had good enough gear to ride when it was 25 or 30 degrees. In the Bay Area it just won't get cold enough. Ice and snow stop me, and wind strong enough to blow me into the opposing lane.
I hope I can continue being car-free for a good long time to come. I love being out in the weather, breathing the air, saying hello to other cyclists, and being graciously allowed to cross big streets by drivers. I have a bike trailer to haul big items, and a bike pannier to haul groceries or sheet music or whatever else I need.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-11 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-11 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-11 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-14 04:06 am (UTC)As I've gotten into my 40's and 50's it feels weirder to be car-free from a What Adults Normally Do perspective, but I still like it better.
Bikes = freedom of movement
Date: 2025-12-12 08:37 pm (UTC)I'll never forget how powerful I felt when I learned how to ride a bike. I could go anywhere--at age 6.
I didn't go everywhere, but I surely was able to determine my fate in a way that's not available to those who grow up being shuttled about in cars.
...which is why I turned to wheelchairs so readily.
Long may you ride! I'm tickled by how smoothly you manage with your trailer.
Re: Bikes = freedom of movement
Date: 2025-12-14 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-12 10:41 pm (UTC)I think more people would be fine with being passenger princesses if they were reasonably able to get to their destinations at the time they wanted to. (If only the bus routes and/or train routes worked that way.)
no subject
Date: 2025-12-14 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-14 06:04 pm (UTC)