Modo Family

Modo selfie! Easy to park the little Mazda2 for a family lunch

One of the reasons we choose to live in Canada's most expensive city is because, in the neighbourhood where we live, we don't need to drive. We have six frequent bus lines within a ten-minute walk of our house, many bike routes. Our cargo bike can carry more than some small cars can. However, we hardly need to bike to get groceries, go to the post office, community centres, cafes, or parks--we can easily walk to most things in less than 15 minutes.

Easter lunch with my family in Burnaby

But, our family--my two sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces & nephews, my & Oli's parents, our aunts, uncles, cousins--have for the most part chosen the more common suburban home & one car per adult lifestyle. They live in North & West Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Mission, & the Okanagan.

It's a trade off: we pay much more for housing than they do, but then again, we save much more on transportation. I fwe lived somewhere more suburban, less dense, with less cycling infrastructure, outside the range of Modo (or any other carsharing organizations), we'd probably need to own two cars. which costs an average of $8000 per year in the Lower Mainland. The majority of our transportation is by bike, with the occasional transit fare thrown in. Our fleet of bikes cost under $200 a year to maintain--the bikes don't need much work & parts are so cheap. Modo bills & the occasional car rental fees are easy to track. We average less than $2000 a year on our driving.

Buckling up the kids to head out to Mission with Modo

So how do we keep in touch with all our far flung (well, far by transit or bike) relatives without owning a car? Modo.

There are at least a dozen Modo vehicles within a ten-minute walk of our home. & when I say vehicles, I mean compact cars, SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks, hybrids, sedans, even some new luxury cars like a Lexus & BMW have been added to the fleet recently. We can use whatever type of vehicle suits our purpose & only pay when we need it, which tends to be once or twice a month. Paying to maintain & insure a car that just sits there 28 days of the month just doesn't make sense.

My little city kids were excited to meet the neighbour's horse!

The last two times we used a Modo car were perfect examples of what I've been talking about: not sexy outings to gorgeous ski resorts or spontaneous road trips, but keeping connected with family. We drove to Burnaby to have a raucous lunch with my side of the family at a restaurant. The next day we made our way out to Mission to visit Oli's cousins & aunt for Easter dinner.




Disclaimer: As an Official Blogger Ambassador, Modo will be providing me with some driving credits & I'll be blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, & Instagramming about our adventures big & small with Modo. I've already been writing about carsharing for years, so if you've been following me for a while, expect more of the same!

To follow my Modo travels, & the other Modo Blogger Ambassadors (there are a few of us!) click on the hashtags #LetsModo & #MyModo & follow @Modo_CarCoop on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook.

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