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Carless Commute

Michael Spooneybarger / Tribune

Sue Ebner checks her watch after riding the route 30 bus to work in Tampa from Town-N-Country.

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By Susan Hemmingway The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2007

TAMPA - Sue Ebner could be cruising the Veterans Expressway on her way to work each morning, with hot coffee in the cup holder and her favorite radio station tuned to the traffic report. Like most other drivers during the morning rush hour, she could be driving in the private cocoon of her own automobile.

In Hillsborough County, solo drivers rule the road. The 2005 American Community Survey found that nearly 420,000 commuters get to work as single drivers. About 52,000 drivers in the county go to their jobs with at least a passenger or two.

But Ebner doesn't own a car, even though she can afford one. At age 57, Ebner has owned only one automobile in her life, an old Volvo she purchased in Minneapolis during the 1970s. When it was totaled in an accident, she sold it for parts.

"I thought about buying another car, but I really didn't need one. I hardly ever used it except to go out of town on trips," she says.

Ebner found it was easier to rely on the public transit system in Minneapolis. The same held true when she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could get around by commuter rail, the subway or the bus system.

Ebner relocated to Tampa in 1996 to be near family and for the weather. She settled in Town 'N Country, where fast-moving drivers collide regularly at Waters Avenue and Hanley Road.

The lack of an extensive mass transit system didn't faze her. She got a Florida driver's license — passing the driving test with flying colors — but not a car. The public bus system suits her fine. It gets her to work at Bay Area Commuter Services in the West Shore Business District and out to shop at International Plaza and for weekend outings at the Museum of Science & Industry.

Of course, she gets questions about her transportation choice all the time.

Doesn't she get wet? Occasionally, but her motto is "I don't melt." The worst drenching was during a hurricane alert. No umbrella could stop the vertical sheets of rain she encountered after leaving work. She made it home but was soaked to the bone.

How does she buy groceries? Ebner shops at any of three supermarkets near her house. She doesn't mind walking or having to carry grocery bags. "I don't buy much, and I have plastic handles for the bags."

Isn't she afraid of crazy drivers? Ebner isn't often ruffled and pays attention to what is happening on the road. At times, the cars come close, but so far she hasn't been clipped.

How does she visit friends? She plans outings around the bus schedule. "It's restrictive only when you want to go someplace on the spur of the moment during off-hours," she says. Friends will offer her rides when they are going out, but it's against her own rules to ask.

"I refuse to rely on other people for my transportation. That is my one rule in life," she says. "If I choose not to have a car, that is my responsibility … wherever I go or whatever I do, I have to get [places] on my own power. It's a mindset."

She offers gas money to friends who are doing the driving. When they refuse, she slips the cash into the glove box or a purse.

Ebner also uses taxis, estimating she spends about $50 a month on cab rides. She might call a cab when she has gone to the mall and has too many packages to carry home.

But most days, her routine revolves around the bus schedule. For her morning work commute, she arrives at her stop to catch "the 30" around sunrise. It is the bus on HART's Route 30 from Town 'N Country to downtown Tampa.

"People who would never give up their cars think you're crazy," Ebner says.

But others around the United States — including the "bus chick," a car-free blogger in Seattle — would be cheering her on.

It's hard to know how many people are going car-free in the United States, but the idea is generating buzz. Global warming, clogged roads, dependence on foreign oil and pollution are some of the concerns of groups such as Car Free Pittsburgh and Car Free USA. Based in Berkeley, Calif., Car Free USA is working to create two new car-free communities in San Francisco.

In cities around the world, Global World Car Free Day is observed on Sept. 22. In June, Portland will host the Towards Carfree Cities conference. It is the first time the event, which attracts international urban design and transportation experts, will be held in the United States.

In Seattle, a family of five is chronicling its yearlong adventure going car-free in an online journal. In California, a filmmaker is documenting her attempt to go without an automobile in car-centric Los Angeles. Author Katie Alvord, who lives in Michigan, sounded off in her book "Divorce Your Car" about America's infatuation with automobiles. Alvord says get over it: The planet is hurting.

And in Tampa, a group of cyclists wants to persuade more people to use their bikes to go to work and run errands.

Julie Bond, an associate researcher at the Center for Urban Transportation is Tampa, helped form Tampa BayCycle, which held its first Bicycle Commuter Challenge this year. The goal was to convince at least 1,000 people to try riding their bikes to work during May.

Bond and her husband own one vehicle, a 2001 Ford Escape that mostly sits in their driveway. They take it to the beach, but they cycle to work on the University of South Florida campus, walk to the grocery store and shop on the Internet to eliminate car trips.

Bond says she lives a minimalist lifestyle to back up her commitment to helping the environment. Keeping her Ford off the road is her contribution to cutting the use of petroleum and reducing smog.

Loan payments, insurance, gas and other expenses can add up to twice the car's purchase price over five years, according to Chris Balish's book "How to Live Well Without Owning a Car," which recommends the True Cost to Own calculator at www.edmunds.com.

Ebner says she isn't really motivated by the money. She hasn't ruled out getting a car, and she stays current on car trends by reading Consumer Reports' new car guide. She is interested in hybrids.

But her bus commute is a direct trip and gets her to the stop near her office in less than 40 minutes.

"I don't think it's a bad transit system," Ebner says. "I've managed for almost 12 years. … It's just a matter of getting to know the system, figuring out where to live and adapting."

Reporter Susan Hemmingway can be reached at (813) 259-7951 or shemmingway@tampatrib.com.

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