“Where’s my car? I GOTTA have my car! OMG, what am I going to do without my CAR?” – Don Paul, going through car withdrawals.

What he did was go cold turkey — check himself into car rehab and get clean. No freeways, no gas stations, no parking lots, road rage, or carbon footprint.

Just his bike and LA Metro.

Yeah, I know, terrifying. No car in LA? Shoot me.

Let’s go back and pick up this story at the beginning. On that dark day last April when Paul looked down at the dashboard of his 2001 Chevy Camaro convertible – his baby – and saw the “check engine” light flashing.

“I thought it was probably something minor my mechanic could adjust, and return the car to me within a day or two,” he says, wistfully.

Yeah, right. It’s amazing how delusional we car addicts can be. What he got within a day or two was a call from his mechanic saying, “Don, I have bad news….” Baby needed a rebuilt engine.

“My car was ‘collectible’ and worth the repair, so I surrendered her and faced the inevitable — getting around LA on my bike and Metro,” he says.

He knew it would be a challenge doing the grocery shopping, meeting friends across town for a movie or dinner, and getting to auditions (Paul’s an actor), but he figured he could tough it out for a few weeks while baby was in the shop.

“I sluffed it off and thought I’d be back to normal very soon. Wrong! There were parts that needed to come in, and more problems. Time wore on.”

But as time wore on something unexpected began to happen. He started missing baby less, and enjoying his bike and Metro more.

Paul’s an experienced cyclist who participated in the AIDS/LifeCycle charity ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, so he’s faced most every road situation there is. It was riding Metro with his bike strapped on the front of the bus that would be something new and challenging.

“There was nothing I could do. I just had to trust it would all work out,” he says. “And, it has.”

On a recent Sunday morning, Paul peddles his bike at 5 a.m. from his Chatsworth home to the Orange Line Nordhoff station five minutes away. He’s going to Manhattan Beach for a training ride with some of his cycling friends.

At 64, he pays 35 cents for the trip — the rate for seniors during non rush hours. When the bus arrives at 5:30 a.m., he lowers the bike rack, stowing his bike on the front of the bus and locking the wheels.

Then, he sits back for the ride to North Hollywood, using the time to call his family living on the east coast. He connects with the Red Line for the ride into downtown, then hooks up with the Blue Line to Long Beach.

At the 105 Freeway, he gets on the Green Line, which takes him to Douglas Street in Manhattan Beach by 8 a.m. From there, it’s five minutes by bike to his training ride.

“Of course, it took some time, but for 35 cents — 35 CENTS — I was able to leave my home in Chatsworth, board Metro, and ride to Manhattan Beach without having to deal with traffic, gas, freeways, the ‘unknown,’ and arrive at my destination on time.

“The system worked like clockwork. It was a piece of cake,” he says.

Los Angeles is a tough city to meet people in different socio-economic situations, unlike San Francisco, New York, and Chicago where most everyone rides the same public transportation and get to eyeball each other.

“In L.A., there’s this ‘ you don’t have a car? What’s wrong with you?’ This feeling that if you take the bus you must be a loser, which is absolutely not true,” Paul says.

“What I see early in the morning on the Orange Line in the Valley, the Gold Line all the way to Azusa, the Blue Line to Long Beach, and now the Expo all the way to the beach in Santa Monica are people going to work and enjoying the quiet time — catching up on a few minutes of sleep or talking on their cell phone.”

As he glances out the window, he sees the traffic jams he used to be stuck in, the stress on the faces of drivers going nowhere in a hurry. Paul smiles, sits back and takes a nap.

“Life has slowed down for me,” he says. “I get where I want with much less stress, and I enjoy the ride.”

Baby got out of the shop last Saturday — three months and $3,000 in repairs later. Paul’s put a dent in the bill by saving $500 or so he would have spent on gas, plus the wear and tear on his car.

So, what’s he going to do now? Go back to baby or leave her for his bike and Metro?

“I’m not going to change much,” he says. “I’m comfortable saving all this money. I’ll use my car for grocery shopping or if there’s a bike trip in a different part of the state I want to go to, but not much else.

“That check engine light flashing has turned into a blessing for me. I discovered a new way of getting about this city, and I prefer it.”

Baby, on the other hand, is not so thrilled.

Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Friday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.