Blackcap Blog

Published at 20:00 on 25 August 2026

These are my answers to the questions asked in this video.

Do you own a car?

Yes, a small pickup truck (19 year old Toyota Tacoma).

Why a car?

I like exploring wild places and there is not much transit service to the backwoods. I seldom use my vehicle for in-city trips (basically, only when transporting large, awkward items).

Rentals? Car share?

Used to, before I bought the truck. They can be a good option.

Is car-free living a sacrifice?

Mostly not. It saves a significant amount of money! And urban driving is often stressful and unpleasant. I lived without a personal motor vehicle for about 10 years. What made me return to car ownership was the desire to spend more time camping in the woods.

Cycling?

Yes. It is my default means of getting around. Has been for most of my life, since I was a child.

Transit?

Yes. Typically when the streets are icy and treacherous (which doesn’t happen often in Vancouver, but occasionally does). Or when the trip is unusually long or unusually late at night.

Kids?

Don’t have ’em. As a kid, we were in a suburban car-centric family, but once one car was in the shop and Dad had driven the other car to work and Mom decided to take us into Chicago for the day. Commuter rail to city buses, worked just fine. And this was in the 1970s, during the peak of the urban decay era.

Can you be a good urbanist and own a car?

Yes, I think so. Mostly giving up my interest in the outdoors would be, as Reece put it, living a less fulfilled life because of ideology.

Catalyzing experiences?

When I was about six years old, my family took a day trip into Chicago on a weekday (it must have been one of those teacher-training days when there is no school). On the return trip to the suburb we lived in, we got caught in traffic. I thought something was seriously wrong, but my parents explained that this was a normal thing called “rush hour” and most of the people I saw in the cars around me drove in traffic like this twice a day. It was at that point that I decided I wanted to have as little to do with car dependency as possible.

Why the pushback?

Most people grow up in car-dependent households and most people do not question the norms of the culture they grew up in. Plus North Americans are heavily propagandized that cars equal freedom. A logical examination of the facts often concludes the opposite, but again, most people do not question the norms of the culture they grow up in.