So lately, I’ve been wanting to get a bike. And it’s spiraling into an extreme source of stress as I can’t decide if I truly want or need it.
It all started a few weeks ago, I was walking down to Walmart from my University job wanting to get some art supplies. The trek however, was so exhausting, that I ended up walking out with a Bike.
Turns out however, that the bikes sold at Walmart, like a lot of things at the store. Aren’t very good. I guess I should have seen that coming for a bike that only cost me 73$. But regardless, it seems to work good enough, but I still want to get something more modular and repairable for the future. I just can’t decide if it’s a worthwhile investment or just some trend that I’ve been obsessed with.
Fast Forward to last Saturday, I decided to head out cycling from home. It took over 3 hours, I had to take breaks multiple times, at one point having to lay down in the grass from exhaustion. And throughout the course of it, I was stopped by an officer asking if I was lost (probably from others seeing me lay in the grass). And that’s including all the people that were honking at me too for being on the road.
I was at the local bike shop (about 10 minutes from where I work) today looking at bikes, and they said it would be about 150$ in maintenance per year. Needing to:
Inflate the tires once a week/month (not exactly sure)
Oil the chain once a week
Replace the tires every 1,000 - 2,000 miles
Occasionally replace break pads
Get some extra repair tools for my backpack
A lot of it seems like a lot of work, but it also sounds more interesting and exciting compared to dropping off a car at some place and letting other people do it. Not to mention that it’s probably cheaper in the long run.
I live in an area that is very car centric. It teeters on in between being a rural and suburban area. There are a lot of highways, and the main campus I work at (I actually attend the universities other campus because they don’t offer degrees for Information Technology here) is a 15 minute drive by car. It’s the only place I can actually walk towards other areas nearby. There’s plenty of sidewalks to do so, and plenty of traffic signals to press and wait for.
I’ve been needing to rely on my parents to take me to and from work because I don’t have a drivers license. It’s been a really difficult process to handle because there’s a lot of risk to it, as should I fail, I’ll have to take a bunch of extra educational material. And this is really been provoking my nerves a lot. And also been really difficult trying to find time to practice driving as well. Not to mention there’s no parking near the place I work either.
Even worse with trying to get a drivers license that you have to drive with someone who also has a full license and is over the age of 21. Which is practically indifferent from having them drive for you.
My parents eventually want to find me a driver’s ed so that there can be dedicated time scheduled for me to learn this stuff and eventually feel confident. But it still feels tiresome having to do everything over and over again.
My temporary license will have expired by the end of May, and it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to get it finished by then, so I will likely have to let it expire and take the knowledge exam again for what I can only imagine is the 5th time. Sometimes I get the impulse to drop everything and just go and do it, regardless of how prepared I am. But Mom and Dad always stop me and don’t allow it because of the aforementioned consequences for failure.
It’s really frustrating, because it means I have to wake my father up or make sure that he’s awake on time. And then there’s just the notice of burning through all their gas money. And needing to be responsible for myself.
I know deep down I can’t ignore the inevitability of car ownership and its expenses forever. I do not live somewhere that’s sustainable to cycle everywhere. I don’t get good public transit out of the county, and it’s also only available on weekdays.
It just fills me with a white-crimson rage to think about that all the good, sustainable cars are going to be out of reach for me for a very long time, if not forever. The ones that will have a higher upfront cost, but will pay for themselves with greater fuel efficiency (as long as I stay away from areas with higher speed limits). And also to have to follow all the bureaucracy that comes with having to register a car, pay for the auto insurance (that is required by law to drive the car). Not to mention having to constantly refuel the car and deal with all the advertisements that come with it (yeah, they can be muted… For now).
It’s just that knowing that if I ever eventually want to travel to cons and stuff, I’ll inevitably need to get one so I can spend 5+ hours sitting in a place as my body goes numb and cannot get up and do other things.