Tell me about going carless

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to sell my car and live without one. I already use my car fairly rarely. I live close enough to work that I can walk. The climate in Santa Barbara is very amenable to not driving, since it rarely rains. And I now have a motorcycle that I can use when I just need to get somewhere a bit further (and it’s not raining).

I would also expect to rent a car several times a year for longer trips.

I am thinking of this as having both financial and ecological/quality of life benefits. I like walking and riding my bike, and I used to do it more often. But I’m often lazy. I think that not having the car would provide a bit more incentive for me to do so. :wink:

Here are my economic considerations.

[ul][li]On average, I spend about $1500/year on car ownership, including registration, smog, repairs, maintenance, and depreciation.[/li][li]My car is worth about $5000, which costs me about $300 in lost investment gain a year.[/li][li]My insurance costs around $500/yr.[/li][li]I seem to end up with about $100 in parking tickets a year, just from forgetting to move my car for street cleaning.[/li][/ul]

So, if I can reasonably rent a car for, say, $2000/yr or less, when I need to, I figure I’m coming out ahead. I’m not including the cost of gas in my calculations, but I’d expect to spend less in that area as well, both because I expect to drive less and because the econobox rental car I’m likely to get most of the time will be better on gas than my current car.

I have no experience renting cars, but from checking out a few car rental websites, it looks like I can have a reasonable expectation of < $80 for a weekend rental, without insurance. That gives me about 25 weekends of rental a year.

I’m guessing that I’ll need to get insurance, though. If I buy the car rental insurance, it pretty much doubles the price. That takes me down to 12 weekends a year. That seems doable to me (although I’m hoping that I can find a cheaper way to get insurance). I am currently doing a test run where I don’t use my car, to see how it goes.

Am I missing something major? Anyone who’s done this want to offer helpful suggestions? Any car rental companies that have really good repeat-customer benefits?

2

You’ll have insurance for the motorbike, it may cover your rental insurance. Ask your agent.
Are there any tax benifits you will loose from not owning a car?

3

I probably don’t count since I’ve never had a car or had anything more than a learner’s permit. But I live in Los Angeles and am carless and it’s not a big deal.

I guess how easy it will be will depend on how accessible places are to you. Everything I need is either within walking distance or a short bus ride away. My workplace is a mile from my apartment (it used to be a 30 min. bus ride away, but we changed offices). There’s two post offices, three supermarkets, and a half dozen convenience stores within walking distance. It can be inconvenient when I need to carry something heavy or bulky, but for those rare occasions I either suck it up or take a taxi.

The downside to giving up a car is it can be tiring and time-consuming to do mundane things like grocery shopping. Depending on your mood, you might put things off if you know it’ll make you tired or sweaty or take an hour to finish. On the plus side, though, you’ll get more exercise, and develop a decent tan from being outside that much more.

4

If you have a good credit card, it may have free rental car insuarnce but you have to use it to pay for the rental.

5

cars are for suckers. you’ll never look back

6

Are there any shared-car companies in your area, like City CarShare or ZipCar?

7

I’ve been a couple of times not owning cars. I’d be overseas a lot, so I’d sell my car and rent one during trips back.
I found that the cheaper car rentals, with names like Rent-a-Wreck can be quite reasonable. The cars wil have high mileage and some cosmetic problems, a dented door or non-working A/C. You rent by the week or month.

My daughter never had a driver’s licence, lives in a medium size city with good public transportation, and just has to get rides or arrange a shared airport limo for trips off the transit grid.

8

Hmm. Good thinking. It looks like UCSB is starting a program, but it’s limited to students/staff, which I am not.

It’s also about 12 miles away from where I live, which pretty well limits its usefulness.

I’ll check into the credit card insurance and into how the motorcycle insurance might cover things. Good ideas.

9

That’s what I was going to suggest. If you’re in a big city, there is probably some car of car share company.

I am carless and get by without one quite well. I only need one for out-of-town trips.

10

$80 for a weekend car rental is conservative IF you are over 25. You can do much better.

I’m not 25 yet and I can rent a car for the weekend (Friday afternoon to Monday morning) from Enterprise for about $35. I use one of my credit cards for the insurance. If you have bike insurance, you should ask if you can add some kind of rental rider to it for a modest cost. The thing about car rentals is that it’s just like buying plane tickets - It’s more a matter of planning ahead than anything else. If you are well organized, the cost will be very low. If you show up at the counter at the last minute, expect to pay more.

11

Not in New York City. It cost several hundred bucks to rent a car over the weekend.
If you live in NYC owning a car is a very expensive pain in the ass. ZipCar or rentals are there if I need to travel out of town and it’s still much cheaper than having a car year round when you factor in insurance, parking, gas, and maintenance.

12

Really? Not where I’m at. I’m waaaay over 25, and 'round here $80/weekend is a decent rate. It gets much higher depending on who you go with.

13

I am over 25, and I checked the websites at Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis, and got between $60 and $90 for a random weekend. I’m assuming a 3-day rental, since I’d probably leave on Friday night and return the car Monday morning. The varying costs probably have to do with location.

And, obviously, I’m going to be renting a car for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., which aren’t random weekends and are likely to cost more, right?

14

If you go on the Enterprise website, right on the first page, there is a big banner for “50% off full weekend rentals”, which is what I have always used (No other rental company will rent to me anyway, being under 25), and would bring the cost down to around $35. Of course, I typed in “Santa Barbara” and there were no participating locations in your city, but I think it does show that they are still quite profitable at that rate, so I’m sure you can find some way to browbeat them into giving it to you for half price (I’m a glass half full kinda guy, and I believe all people are basically good, etc) - e.g. discounts for being a customer of an insurance company, or employee discounts, or AMA or maybe bat your eyes and show them some cleavage…

Do you plan on travelling outside of your state? Here in Canada, there are limits for travel outside of the province (for insurance purposes, I imagine), so if you were going to drive across the country for xmas, that could be an issue.

15

Nope. My family lives in CA (just on the other end). The Enterprise restriction is that i stay in CA or a few listed neighboring states. If I’m going to go further than that, I’ll just fly.

16

How good is public transportation in your area, for days that you can’t take the motorcycle for weather or luggage issues? The motorbike should be fine most of the time, but in case it breaks down/you have a freak thunderstorm/you need to do a lot of laundry, you might need to take a bus or cab.

I’d also look into a grocery cart (like the little old ladies have) for groceries and laundry. You can probably pick one up for around $20 or $30, and it’s nice to be able to do a full week’s shopping and be able to get it home without a car. I got one for less than $20, it folds up for storage, and holds about a week’s worth of groceries for a single person. They also make slightly larger ones if you need to carry more stuff.

Other than that, I’d recommend sun block if you’re going to out walking or bicycling around every day. The sun is eeeevil.

17

I haven’t owned a car for over 20 years. I mostly use public transport, which is pretty good where I am. Otherwise, for short trips I take a taxi. For longer trips I rent a car. I don’t have the hassle of paying for the upkeep of the car (petrol, registration, insurance, depreciation), so I’m thousands of dollars ahead financially. The drawback obviously is that you can’t be as spontaneous in your movements - more forethought and planning is involved. The plus side is that I don’t have to do much driving, which is good, because I loathe driving.

18

I actually already do most of my grocery shopping on foot or by bicycle. There’s a grocery store a block away from where I work, and I usually just pick up a few things as we need them. It’s a hassle getting heavy things, but I have roommates who can be tasked with the purchasing of a case of beer or soda. I do the majority of the grocery shopping anyway.

The bus system is pretty good, I think. Oh, I forgot! I have a free bus pas because I work downtown. I’ve only used it twice so far, but I could use it lots more.

I live in a house, so we have a washer and dryer off the kitchen.

I travel to LA about twice a month for the weekend; my girlfriend lives there. I went down this weekend on the motorcycle, and that was ok, if not quite as quick, easy, or non-terrifying as in a car (I’m a newbie with the bike, and trying to take it slow). I just looked, and I can take a train to LA Union station for $42 round trip, which is a nice option to have.

19

I’ve been car-free for ten years now (three in Orlando, seven in San Francisco), and I don’t miss it at all. Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like you wouldn’t have a tough time going without. I do almost everything by bicycle, and use a cargo bike for big loads. You might want to consider that or a trailer as an option. I joined a carshare group about a year ago, but have only used it a handful of times, almost entirely for leisure. While it’s nice, there aren’t many things you can do with it that you couldn’t do with a renting and a little more planning.

It’s nice to live in an area with good transit options, both short and long-distance.

20

Since you’re asking for general comments, let me commend you on your choice. I’m sure you’ll find it very enjoyable. Having an ipod and some audio books is a great way to pass the time while on the train, or walking (probably not a great idea on the bike), and edumacational too. If I had my way, fuel would taxed to the point where most people would be forced to do as you and I do.