My ex owned the last car I drove. She did not have a license, so I was pretty much the only person to ever drive in the house. Now I'm out of her house, so no more car. I'm walking everywhere in an extremely car dependant area, there's public transport it just sucks ass. However, I'm liking the walking. The more I do it, the less I even think about it. My ass is gonna look great, I can still get pretty much everything I care about within walking distance, life is good.
I don't drive my car for anything under 10 miles and I live in a walkable city with every amenity close by so I walk or ride a bike most of the time. But I've gotta admit, climate change is making it miserable in the summer months. The oppressive heat and humidity just makes you instantly sweat and even the breeze from bike riding won't evaporate it. Summers were perfectly walkable 10 years ago but those rare Heat Advisory days went from a week to entire months.
Florida is like a combination of steamer and oven and I'm not a fan. Only about 2 more months and it's bearable again. And then around April or May it starts to cook us once again. It's a big part of why I'm such a hermit since 2020 and getting worse.
In some ways, places like Florida have it better off than more Northern climes that are now blanketed with heatwaves. The infrastructure and culture have already adapted to living under brutal heat so they are better prepared for it. Every indoor space is blasted with AC and everyone has relaxed dress codes. But now you've got regions in Europe that rarely ever saw 90 degree heat having to suffer through prolonged weeks of it and people are dying in droves. There were over 60,000 deaths attributed to heat last summer across Europe!
Hadn't known it's been that bad in Europe though, that's rough.
I'm from massive two shits originally, so I kinda understand, but I didn't remember the summers being that bad and I know it's gotten worse but before I left in 2009 it was common to have AC, at the very least as a window unit and using methods like blankets to concentrate the AC in certain rooms, and I'm sure using plastic on the windows like we would during the winter would help too.