Car-free author and correspondent Chris Balish rides Metro Local 217. Click to watch video.

Hat tip to one of my favorite blogs, The Bus Bench, for posting a link to this video on their Facebook page. The video from Planet Green has car-free author and correspondent Chris Balish getting around Los Angeles on his bike and Metro buses.

Chris, who wrote a book in 2006 entitled “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car” and has been car-free since 2003, travels 25 blocks in less than 20 minutes from Wilshire and La Brea to 3rd and Fairfax armed with his bike and a Metro Day Pass. Chris hops on a Metro Rapid 720 and then transfers seamlessly to a Metro Local 217. He admits that driving would have taken him 10 minutes, but the money he saves and the ability to work while in motion is more than worth it to him.

His book, which I read when it first came out, is really a financial guide more than anything else. It makes the argument that by forgoing on car ownership and getting around using the many available alternatives you can save a ton of money and reap all the happiness that comes along with having extra dough. Chris is not tied to any single mode — he rides his bike, takes the bus and is not above renting a car when needed. It’s car ownership that he’ll have no part of.