In the real world, my experiments with scooters, bicycles, and motorcycles are part of my long term mobility preparation. Rather than "guns", I'm looking at ways to stay employed, frugally, and let others turn to violence and get shot if that's their choice. And it often is, or so they say. I still contend that the cost of a firearm and proper training today is often more than simply moving somewhere with less violence. Usually. If you're tied to multiple jobs and the evil is everywhere you have visited, you may not be able to move far enough to escape it. Cities are full of muggers and rapists and politicians. The countryside is full of pot farmers with guns and methed up burglars. The suburbs are full of drug addicts, anger, and potential killings sprees. I heard a murder a mere night before I moved out of Unpleasanton, about 125 meters away from where I was sleeping. Slow, methodical, gunshots. And that was in the Garden Spot of the Bay Area. Everywhere else is worse.
Up here in the Sierras there are backyard pot gardens, methed up Middle Schoolers (really, not joking at all!), trophy wives trying to con their husbands into murdering them in crimes of passion via deliberate infidelity just to feel love one last time, and endemic unemployment. This is the real world. There are rough roads, big potholes, line springs, tar snakes, and driveway gravel on every road. If you ride two wheels, you must be cautious. If you aren't, you're going to die. As I'm interested in transportation, not suicide, I'm a very cautious rider. Except going down Hughes road on my bicycle. Give me that small moment. My brakes work fine.
In the real world, we drive cars. Some obsess over safety and insist on bigger heavier vehicles that suck so much gasoline they bankrupt over the cost of their commute, necessarily long because a big heavy vehicle needs higher wages to pay for it, and you don't much get those here. A big heavy vehicle with a long commute is a clear case of Bad Choices, and someone to be avoided because one bad choice likely has many friends and this person is a disaster zone, desperate, and desperate people do desperate things.
The smarter people I see around here are driving older Subarus. They are practical and can be maintained and offer whole minutes more traction in very light snow than a front wheel drive with similar tires. Minutes. It's hilarious too, once the snow starts coming down. If you put them in studded snow tires then that's something different. A Subaru with proper snow tires? Those work well in the black ice, if driven very carefully. Folks around here have the original steel wheels mounted with studded snow tires for snow and alloys with all-season rain tires for the rest of the year and they switch back and forth as needed. It really only takes about half an hour to swap wheels if you have a floor jack and stands. I've done it.
Most people who aren't in Subarus or pickup trucks or SUVs (retired mostly), are driving Hondas like mine. Front wheel drive is better than rear in light snow, and while that means there will be days you can't get to work, its only days, not weeks unless you live above the snow line. And if you have a job? Don't live there, stupid. Be more responsible with your choices. Air conditioning in summer is cheaper than wrecking your car every winter.
People who don't own pickup trucks do not despair. Gardening trailers and a hitch will fit your Subaru or Honda and I see people hauling plants and building supplies often enough. It's very practical and some fold up for convenient parking upright in the garage. I think that's Awesome. Learning to drive a trailer is mostly about awareness that something is behind you and you can't really back up. Use your mirrors. It's a proper skill every man should know today, like plowing a field in the old days. I don't have a hitch, but I have access to an SUV with one so that's covered.
Back when I first became aware of Peak Oil, in that first big run-up in price from $15/bbl to $147/bbl, I thought the answer to the problem was buying a car with max MPG/$$ value, which was NOT the Prius, but a Honda Civic. If I'd known about the Geo Metro, would have gotten that instead. They were cheap, gutless, but reliable. Nowadays most bubble cars get that MPG and are much more comfortable and powerful. They just cost a lot. Its hard to justify the expense when you aren't sure they'll matter after another unexpected and unpredictable oil crisis happens. And I mean that non-ironically. I kept expecting fuel rationing, but it didn't happen. Not yet. Instead we get demand destruction by both price and bad economy reducing people's dependence on fuel by unemploying so many of them that they simply can't justify buying it or using it much of the time, if they don't have a job to pay for it. Pleasure driving? That's for Top Gear on TV. Most of the fans will never own a supercar, even a beater. The most POWER a normal person can have will be a Rice Rocket, probably used, needing the cowling replaced after it was wrecked on a bad corner and its prior owner killed.
People who can restrain their joy to just apexing corners at low speed and seeing the sights? Well, jeeps and Miatas and a Honda with the sunroof open and the windows down? That's nice enough. Clean the glass properly and you'll see more of the world. Good tires and tire pressure, it corners better. Knowing the road well means you can drive it a little faster, feel more Gee's safely, and still have fun, as a driver. Take as much weight out of the car as you dare, remove all rattling objects and trash, make it spotless by detailing it in small parts at a time and eventually you'll feel better about your car and yourself. And that's so important. Most of the misery in the world is self inflicted. And most of that is by women fouling their living space, then getting angry and fouling it even more. I used to live with that. I've worked in places like that. Clean environments really are happier. If you walk into a cluttered workplace? Be prepared to deal with misery.
I find paper towels and Windex on the insides of my car's windows really helps a lot with visibility. Most upholstery out-gasses stuff that sticks to the glass, and you need to clean that off every month to see properly. Don't believe me? Wipe your finger on your side window and look at it. There's a clean spot now. You'll have to clean it all. You often have to hit it twice, because once with ammonia just smears it a lot. The second time gets most of the rest. Use a handvac to get up the stuff once you take out the floor mats and shake or vaccuum them off. Those little parking lot pebbles and bits of leaves and endless long hairs from your wife. They go everywhere. Wipe the tiny dust and skin flakes off the consoles and such. It will look so much cleaner. Toss old napkins, organize or dispose of papers, ask yourself if that CD case really needs to be there and check if the flashlight battery still works. Check your tire pressure every Sunday, just to make sure. I find removing trash, rattling stuff, cleaning the rugs and under the seats, the car feels new.
With good visibility its like it drives better because you can see the road properly, in all lighting conditions. Clean off the headlights too, btw, and Rainex them. If they are pitted? Fine car polish will make them smooth again. Works great, and a lot cheaper than other options. Glass Wax (rainex) fills in the pits and improves brightness. New headlamps are cheap, compared to a new car.
These little things, and a little effort, may reduce your need to buy a new car, increase your debt burden, and financial stress in such uncertain times. Be the smart person, be frugal, and put in the maintenance. Maybe some of what hurts you will end.
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