About Marcie Haley
I have been looking for a “cause” that could help make a difference. Not having children, I am concerned about leaving a legacy. A blog on economical transportation alternatives concept really appealed to me on a number of levels. It helps housebound housewives have mobility and options which appeals to my feminist side. It supports efforts to curb the climate crisis by reducing emissions. Anything that reduces commute costs and stress for employees will make for stronger family and work environments. Lastly, but not least, I am very concerned with the United States’ increasing vulnerability due to its dependency on the politics of oil.
When I worked for a property management company in San Jose, I had to commute an hour in the morning and hour and a half at night. It ruined my life and my relationship and very adversely affected my job performance because I was so burnt out and stressed from driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. All I did was work and commute. I was miserable. It darn near turned me into an alcoholic.
I’m known among friends, family and business associates for being resourceful and intuitive. It seems I have a knack for finding unusual resources and enlarging on them to solve problems. Part of it is having a broad range of personal and business experience as well as being a voracious reader. It constantly amazes me how I’ll hear of a need or a problem somebody has and then within a few hours or days I’ll come across a resource that could be a solution. I also seem to always know somebody who knows somebody.
Having had an experience of being without a car, I love the idea of helping others get a free or almost free car or second car so they can be independent and have more options. When I was first married, I lived in rural Vermont out in the boonies. My husband commuted into town each day with only vehicle. I was alone 12 hours with no neighbors and was bored senseless. I felt lonely and trapped.
Later, when living in the Metro DC area my husband drove vanpool and we got to keep the van personal use. More recently, when I divorced, I got custody of the dogs, cats, parrot and bills and he got custody of the vehicle. To get to work, I had to walk to bus in pouring rain and beg rides to grocery store.
Except for serious illness, there is nothing worse than having your back against the wall financially and not having options because of it. I’m all about finding resourceful ways for achieving financial security and freedom. Working and commuting is hard enough on individuals, their families and finances. Now with the soaring price of gas and its effect on the price of goods and services, it is even more critical to find alternatives. If, like the vanpool concept, these alternatives do double duty, it will be even better.
I do volunteer debt counseling and see many people who are in big trouble partly because they have an outrageous car payment or payments. Car payments average between $350 and $550 a month.
A free car, free second car or being paid to drive their own car can eliminate or cover their car payments. That’s a huge chunk that could go toward paying off debt, into savings or a retirement fund or toward a down payment for a home.
My “aha!” moment with this blog came shortly after I was talking with another member of my local Chamber of Commerce. Brian’s company, Enterprise, organizes vanpools here in the Bay Area. I was telling him what a great experience I’d had with it when I lived in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area. It is a relatively underutilized concept in the Bay Area.
The very next day, one of my neighbors was walking to the bus that would take him to the BART train. I was headed to the dog park and offered him a ride to the train. He is a software engineer, recently arrived from India. He was telling me that he and his wife can only afford one car, so he commutes two hours a day by bus and BART, so his wife can use the car to get the kids to school and run errands. I told him about the vanpool/2nd car concept. I realized his situation is very typical in the Silicon Valley.
I have had personal experience with many of the alternatives and resources discussed in this blog-van pooling to save on commute costs; the use of the van as a free second car; the nightmare car donation can be if not done right; why it is especially critical for seniors to have trip insurance: how it cost my family $12,000 to charter a med jet while on vacation; finding a free car to drive across the U. S. and more.
I’m looking forward to creating a community around these resources and meeting all of you who will be contributing and sustaining the goals of economical transportation alternatives.
