My household has two cars, and would require some fairly serious restructuring without it. We’re close enough to Hartford that the bus would be an option for work, but it would require a complete reorganization of our schedules and add about 20 minutes onto each side of our commute. Groceries would be a much bigger problem since it’s about a 3 mile walk to the nearest supermarket, and social life would be severely restricted as well as a lot of our friends live anywhere from a 30 to 90 minute drive away.
On the other hand, when I lived in Baltimore, I didn’t have a car and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It was nice to have friends with cars for emergencies, but groceries and campus and bars and gym and friends and everything else all within half a mile, plus a shuttle to a major train station and a reasonably priced cab ride to a major airport, makes for a really convenient life.
congodwarf: Sounds like you’re stuck in the same general area that I grew up in. I’m sorry. Easily the worst place I’ve ever lived in terms of public-transportation-friendliness.
Sorry because I’m here? Or sorry about the transportation issues?
I grew up in Worcester so while I had the luxury of awesome public transportation, I also hated city life. I’ll take the inconvenience of needing a car for the pleasure of living in this town. The other night I could hear an owl hooting right outside my window. That is so much more appealing than gunshots (which were all too common in my neighborhood in Worcester). It is amazing how inconvenient the transportation is here though.
I’m from the Motor City. That should say everything right there.
Where I’m currently assigned, though, I could get by without a car, since taxis are plentiful and dirt cheap. Some quick figuring on cost here: nah, gasoline is much, much cheaper, even for the behemoth that I drive. Maybe if I take depreciation into account on the truck… yeah, maybe the taxi would have been cheaper all this time, just for purely commuting. The depreciation, however, takes into account all of my miles, not just the commuting miles, so who knows? I prefer to drive.
Germany, town pop. 85k, good bus system (340 km of bus lines with 17 million passengers/year)
I don’t own a car but am a member of a car sharing club - use one or another of the cars about two times a week. Otherwise I ride my bike everywhere (~ 20 km/day), occasionally take the bus.
Without the car sharing club I’d definitely own a small car as there are one or two occasions per week where biking there (or taking public transport) would not work well. For example I have running training now twice a week for the next month, and running 8.5 km would be quite a bit harder if I had to bike there 8 km horizontally/200 m up first.
The particular location without having consistent transport, mostly. Though, about just the location, I hated the travel time issues of being in that area. More people than not have pretty lengthy commutes, and even basic stuff like a supermarket is 20+ minutes each way. I do see what my parents were looking at when they moved there since it was a pretty good place to raise a family, but you’d have to pay me a lot of money to spend as much of my life driving as my father has over the last 30 years.
IME, most people whose lives would be significantly improved by having a car find a way to get one.
Personally, I’ve just never yet even bothered learning how to drive. My life now is pretty well structured around not needing a car: my apartment is less than a mile from where I work and I’m on two major bus lines that go pretty much everywhere I want to go. When my boyfriend’s in town, we rent a car if we need one.
This may end up changing if I move to his part of the country, even if we move closer to D.C. and the Metro than the 'burb where he’s at now.
I could not make my livelihood without a vehicle, so, it’s absolutely a necessity for me.
Chicago is just spread out enough that even if my livelihood didn’t depend on it, it would be much better for me to have a car. I just about went crazy when I didn’t have regular access to a car for about a year in 2004. If all I had to do was go and out of the Loop, it’d be fine. But with friends and family scattered across the city and suburbs, it’s simply a pain in the ass to get anywhere in under an hour.
Now, in a city like NYC, except for the nature of my job, I would elect not to have a car. When I lived in Budapest for five+ years, I briefly owned a car, and then got rid of it–it was pointless unless I was leaving town and, in that case, it was more sensible just to rent a car. So, it’s not like I’m not used to being in a major metropolitan area without a car. I prefer it in certain cases. Not in Chicago, though.
I did have 4 vehicles, now just three. You need cars/trucks/motorcycles in rural Virginia, I live near a town but that is 2 miles away on a 55mph 2-lane highway. The nearest cities are 40 minutes away.
I work from home, my wife doesn’t have a license, and everything I need* is within a 30 minute walk from my apartment. A car would be nice for the weekends, but it wouldn’t be worth the money.
My kid’s preschool, 3 malls, a train station, a hospital, government offices, my gym, three or four parks, a bunch of movie theaters, my bank and literally hundreds of restaurants, bars and cafes. City life rocks.
I’ve spent more of my adult life not owning a car than owning one; while living in an area not requiring a car is awesome, owning one is much better. Unless one lives somewhere insurance is hundreds a month, and the parking costs even higher. But those places typically have great public transportation, so…
All in all, I’m in favor of owning a vehicle. (Monetarily I choose clunkers and just keep them running until they fall apart, so the relatively low cost vs leasing or owning something shiny might sway my preferences, too.)
Yes, it would. I’m in Pittsburgh PA, and the the prices of public transit are about to increase to the point where it’s actually slightly cheaper to own a car and drive than it is to catch the bus. Combine that with the planned decrease of service on every bus route I use to get around and you get me in the market for a used car.
This poll is going both ways. I’ll say that my life would be significantly worse if I didn’t need to own a car. If I didn’t need to own a car that would mean I would be living in the city. I’m not trying to dis those that love the City. When I was younger and visited Manhattan, Boston, Seattle and others, I loved it. I lived in Denver for years. It’s just not for me now.
I’m pushing 50, and it concerns me that someday, my Wife and I will not be able to take on the tasks that are required to live where we do. Snow mostly.
Today, like any day, I will take the dogs for a walk behind the house. Our property backs up to National Forest. Every walk is another nature hike. Sat on the deck with all lights out and looked at the stars last night. To be able to look up and look out through the Milky Way shuts everyone right up.
We are having a party next weekend. It will be cold when the sun sets. That’s what the fire pit is for. Just down a few dead standing trees and Bob’s your Uncle.
Yep. Was the name of my Dog too. I was going to use “Alpine” for a user name here. But it was already taken. Also by someone that lives in the mountains of Colorado.
I haven’t left the house except to go grocery shopping for an hour since last Friday. It sucks. Sucks royally. Luckily, the place we moved into a couple of weeks ago is right on the bus route. I’m going to try that in the next couple of days. The bus goes right into downtown Greenville.
Easily the worst place I’ve ever lived in terms of public-transportation-friendliness.
