Sustainable Living
September 2007

Bucking Blind Inertia
by Charlie Cousins

Nature's bounty fills many of us who live in Northeast Washington with a sense of gratitude for being able to live here. Whether we are four-wheeling toward our favorite fishing hole or simply enjoying that ethereal stillness that comes after a heavy snowfall in a remote stand of mountain pines, some of us consider our lifestyles here to be more a gift than a right. We accept the bounty nature offers because we can conceive of no better way of living. Even when that bounty is leavened by drought, ice storm, or fire -- we carry on with a sense of faith in the coming of Spring or the advent of rain. Sustaining a lifestyle on our rural homesteads very often requires we commute long distances to work or school. As the cost of vehicle fuel, maintenance, and insurance goes up, some of us are being presented with some hard choices found at the crux of the question: "Can we afford to live here?" One way to promote sustainability grows from a solution as fundamental and old as the concept of community: share the load.

A carpool is one way of sharing the load by getting folks where they need to go for less. It's easier on the environment, easier on the bank account, and actively promotes the notion of individual accountability. After all, if someone doesn't show in a carpool, others may be stranded. Some people see that reliance on others as a barrier to clear thinking and common sense; I see that reliance as a cornerstone of building relationships and providing a clear incentive not only to accept responsibility for your choices, but to enjoy that same quality in others. It's the stuff friendships and communities are made of. It's also a way to help people get to work or go to school.

There are people in Metaline Falls who commute into Loon Lake and Deer Park to earn what they need to sustain their homes and families. In Ione, at least one person commutes into Spokane. If we take a few minutes to pick up someone else and drop him or her off every day, is it worth cutting your fuel bill by up to half? I use about 15 gallons of gas per week making my commute. Is $22.50 cut from the weekly expense column useful? You bet it is! Yet the number of people who have registered for the Rural Resources Carpool Match Program is barely more than the number of dollars I would save by sharing my commute with someone else for one, single month.

I call it blind inertia, a corollary to Newton's first law: Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. Applied to people, I figure it means it takes a big stick to force us out of the daily grind long enough to look around and take a fresh look at things. It's the inertia of our lives that carry us forward in great, heaving gasps rather than take a different approach to any particular problem. Getting in our cars and turning our brains off for the length of time it takes to complete our commutes, then complaining about the price of gas appears to be a case of blind inertia on par with burning slash during a burn ban and then complaining about the wind that kicked your fire into the trees. We do things because we've always done it that way -- why change things that work for us? Well, because they don't work for us any longer.

Rural Resources Community Action's Carpool Match Program is one way to put a brake on all that blind inertia. The program maintains a list of registrants seeking carpool partners and matches folks sharing the same commute pathways at about the same times. Then we put those folks in touch with each other. It's up to each registered commuter to make whatever deal works best for him or her. We just provide the opportunity. If a carpool is formed, we document people, miles and hours to satisfy the requirements of the grant that funds us, offer some ongoing incentives, like gift cards, and provide a guarantee that any registered carpool member stranded at work or at school will get a ride home. The program is open to anyone commuting within or through any part of Pend Oreille, Stevens, or Ferry Counties.

Sustaining our rural lifestyles is important to many of us, for as many reasons as there are deer in the garden as the sun sets. If you have ever thought about finding a way to cut commute costs and you're driving alone -- or if you aren't able to drive, but need to get to work or school -- give me a call. I'll send you a registration form and an informational brochure. After you've registered, I'll work hard to find a carpool match for you. Let's shake blind inertia and see what we can do to help ourselves out.

Charlie Cousins is the Carpool Coordinator at Rural Resources Community Action, 956 S Main St. in Colville. For more information, or to register for the carpool program, call (509) 685-6005, fax (509) 684-5787 or email ccousins@ruralresources.org.

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