Why I hardly use my car any more

One of the more dramatic, unforeseen changes that has come from moving from the suburbs to downtown: I actually resent my car now. Back in the suburbs, I had to take the car everywhere. Driving was sort of like breathing: Need a gallon of milk? 10 minute drive each way. Want to go out to a movie? 20 minute drive. Restaurant? 10 minutes in the car.

I knew that moving downtown would allow us to walk to more. But I did not realize that I would come to just resent getting in the car. "What? I actually have to drive in order to do that? Oh, never mind then, it can wait."

To illustrate my point, I chose just one type of business, restaurants, and then did a little Google mapping. The total number of restaurants within a two-mile radius of my former house = 8.

The purple mark in the middle shows the location of my old house in the suburbs. The closest
restaurant is .5 miles away, and it's the concession stand at Long Lake Park (open seasonally,
fine selection of sunflower seeds and bottled sodas.)

Here is the same search for my condo downtown. Total number of restaurants within a two-mile radius = 174. See why I just sort of hate the idea of getting in the car now?