Thanks Fiat! You were great (except for the falling-off hubcap and bumpy passenger ride).
In a few months we’re coming to the end of our lease on the Fiat 500 (our family’s only car) and we’re committing to getting around for at least one month without owning or leasing another car. We’re considering using any and all of the alternatives below:
- Bicycling, transporting goods in either panniers/saddlebags, or backpacks.
- Using Lyft and/or Uber and/or Flywheel.
- Using City CarShare and/or Zipcar (both have locations within walking distance of our house).
- Increased reliance on local public transit (BART, AC Transit, MUNI, the ferry, etc. — using Clipper cards for universal payment).
- Purchasing or renting a small motor vehicle like motorized skateboard (see demo below).
- Using a grocery delivery service like GoodEggs or Instacart.
- Renting a car for day trips and road trips.
Transportation challenges will include visiting friends in Marin (difficult to get to via public transport) and Santa Cruz, transporting groceries and other bulky/heavy purchases, dropping off/picking up our daughter at play dates and time with her grandparents, getting to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (challenging even with a car) and client visits all over the Bay Area. While in some cases we’ll solve transportation dilemmas by having things delivered, meeting online, etc., in most cases we’re planning to take the challenges head-on: how to do we physically get ourselves and our things from one place to another without owning or renting a car?