You don’t have to drive, you can take the bus, ride a bike, use taxis/rideshares, etc. Plenty of people get around without a car. My area is pretty poor for carless living, yet I did it for a few years.
Car insurance is to protect others from you, and a lot of it is due to medical costs and lawsuits. Without insurance, one accident would financially ruin you and the person you hit, so it’s a good thing people are required to have it to drive on public roads.
Every time I see a comment like this, I want to beat the poster mercilessly with public transit maps for cities like Houston, Jacksonville, Phoenix, etc. until they realize what a stupid fucking suggestion that is for millions of people.
Yea sure, just walk 5 miles in 100+ degree heat to the nearest bus stop for the bus which comes every 50 minutes and will drop you off 5 miles away from your destination. So easy!
I used to bike to/from work ~10 miles, and in the summer it gets 100+ on my way home. Sometimes I would take the bus because it was too hot. I get it, it’s not convenient in many parts of the country.
However, you do have options. You can move closer to transit, move to a different city, etc. There are options if you want to make living carless a priority.
When I switched jobs, going carless was not a priority, so I ended up driving to my new job. I could have moved closer, dealt w/ a long (2+ hour each way) commute, or gotten an e-bike to make it feasible to ride the 25-ish miles to work. I made the conscious choice to drive, because it was a better fit for my family.
Victim mentality is destructive, reframing things in terms of choices you can make is healthy. That’s what I’m getting at. It’s okay if you choose to have a car, but do know that it is a choice.
Oh golly, you’re right. I forgot the option of packing up my entire life and moving cities simply so I can go carless. It’s not like I have any ties to my current location, and I definitely have the funds available to make such a move. My job is also happy to work with me on my relocation and will certainly accommodate my desire to not have a car by providing options, such as WFH or office transfers. Yep, moving sure is a perfectly reasonable option that anyone can just do without weeks/months of planning and no major impacts to their life that would be harder/more expensive than just driving a car.
People move for work all the time, and reducing the barrier to moving is one of the main perks of renting. Median job tenure is about 4 years, with a lot of people spending less time or significantly more time. You can move across town and keep your job if you like it, or you can apply to closer jobs if you prefer the area you live but want to have a more comfortable commute.
If you value a car-free lifestyle, plan for that the next time you move. ~2/3 of renters have been in their current place less than 5 years, and 1/4 have been there for less than 1 year, so most people will have plenty of opportunities to try something different. If you don’t value a car-free lifestyle, that’s fine too, just know that it’s a choice.
When I bought my house, my priorities included proximity to a bike trail so I would have the option to bike to work and close enough to a grocery store and the library to bike there as well, and I have made good use of it. My previous apartments were close to something I went to frequently (first and second were the city library and close enough to school, third was the grocery store and the freeway). There are more factors than just rent cost, and I really enjoy not having to use my car for every little trip. I could have gotten a bigger, nicer house for the same money, but I would have had a very different, very car-dependent lifestyle, and I didn’t want that. Likewise for when I rented an apartment, I could have saved a bit on rent by moving further away, but I decided that my lifestyle choice was more important.
It’s fine if you make different choices than me, just own that your lifestyle is a choice, instead of whining about transit not coming to you (general “you”, not you specifically).
I will say there are lot of areas of the country where things like biking and bussing aren’t feasible and I empathize that people don’t have that level of convenience.
I will also say that there are many areas of the country that do have bus service or could bike to work and refuse to try it.
I’ve been in a number of places in America as well (not everywhere), generally in places that are explicitly not convenient to live carless. For example, I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, before the nice train lines were put in, so the only option was the crappy bus line that didn’t go anywhere. My sibling still lives there, and they biked to work for a few years, despite the infrastructure there sucking for it. I live in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, just out of reach of the train system, yet I was able to bike to work for a few years. My in-laws live in the suburbs of LA, which has notoriously bad mass transit, and I’ve seen people there cycling to work.
I don’t cycle or take transit to work, but I could if I really needed to, it would just take about 1-2 hours each way to get there vs 30 min or so by car.
If you look for solutions, you’ll find them. If you look for excuses, you’ll find them. Either way, it’s a choice you’re making, whether consciously or not.
i’m not talking city suburbs, i’m talking that town in the middle of nowhere USA whose name nobody remembers, that only exists because of the local trucktop. with a 4 lane highway splitting the whole town in 2 and no pedestrian crossing on that roadway at all.
Eh, I have a different sibling in an area like that. They live right off the highway about 10 miles from town, the highway has no sidewalk, and road speeds are typical highway speeds (about 60 mph). Yet they ride into town all the time. It’s not as small as the type of town you’re referring to (my sibling’s city has several thousand people, and the larger town has 20-30k people), but it’s about the same setup.
Yes, car-free living isn’t practical in many areas, but it’s practical in a lot more areas than most people give credit for. And it’s possible to move if that truly is the lifestyle you want.
Again, my point is that you’ll find whatever you’re trying to find, be that solutions or excuses.
You don’t have to drive, you can take the bus, ride a bike, use taxis/rideshares, etc. Plenty of people get around without a car. My area is pretty poor for carless living, yet I did it for a few years.
Car insurance is to protect others from you, and a lot of it is due to medical costs and lawsuits. Without insurance, one accident would financially ruin you and the person you hit, so it’s a good thing people are required to have it to drive on public roads.
Every time I see a comment like this, I want to beat the poster mercilessly with public transit maps for cities like Houston, Jacksonville, Phoenix, etc. until they realize what a stupid fucking suggestion that is for millions of people.
Yea sure, just walk 5 miles in 100+ degree heat to the nearest bus stop for the bus which comes every 50 minutes and will drop you off 5 miles away from your destination. So easy!
I used to bike to/from work ~10 miles, and in the summer it gets 100+ on my way home. Sometimes I would take the bus because it was too hot. I get it, it’s not convenient in many parts of the country.
However, you do have options. You can move closer to transit, move to a different city, etc. There are options if you want to make living carless a priority.
When I switched jobs, going carless was not a priority, so I ended up driving to my new job. I could have moved closer, dealt w/ a long (2+ hour each way) commute, or gotten an e-bike to make it feasible to ride the 25-ish miles to work. I made the conscious choice to drive, because it was a better fit for my family.
Victim mentality is destructive, reframing things in terms of choices you can make is healthy. That’s what I’m getting at. It’s okay if you choose to have a car, but do know that it is a choice.
Oh golly, you’re right. I forgot the option of packing up my entire life and moving cities simply so I can go carless. It’s not like I have any ties to my current location, and I definitely have the funds available to make such a move. My job is also happy to work with me on my relocation and will certainly accommodate my desire to not have a car by providing options, such as WFH or office transfers. Yep, moving sure is a perfectly reasonable option that anyone can just do without weeks/months of planning and no major impacts to their life that would be harder/more expensive than just driving a car.
People move for work all the time, and reducing the barrier to moving is one of the main perks of renting. Median job tenure is about 4 years, with a lot of people spending less time or significantly more time. You can move across town and keep your job if you like it, or you can apply to closer jobs if you prefer the area you live but want to have a more comfortable commute.
If you value a car-free lifestyle, plan for that the next time you move. ~2/3 of renters have been in their current place less than 5 years, and 1/4 have been there for less than 1 year, so most people will have plenty of opportunities to try something different. If you don’t value a car-free lifestyle, that’s fine too, just know that it’s a choice.
When I bought my house, my priorities included proximity to a bike trail so I would have the option to bike to work and close enough to a grocery store and the library to bike there as well, and I have made good use of it. My previous apartments were close to something I went to frequently (first and second were the city library and close enough to school, third was the grocery store and the freeway). There are more factors than just rent cost, and I really enjoy not having to use my car for every little trip. I could have gotten a bigger, nicer house for the same money, but I would have had a very different, very car-dependent lifestyle, and I didn’t want that. Likewise for when I rented an apartment, I could have saved a bit on rent by moving further away, but I decided that my lifestyle choice was more important.
It’s fine if you make different choices than me, just own that your lifestyle is a choice, instead of whining about transit not coming to you (general “you”, not you specifically).
I will say there are lot of areas of the country where things like biking and bussing aren’t feasible and I empathize that people don’t have that level of convenience.
I will also say that there are many areas of the country that do have bus service or could bike to work and refuse to try it.
And many people could move across town or something if a car-free lifestyle was important to them.
Having a car is a choice in many parts of the work world, and making a different choice can be uncomfortable and require effort. But it is a choice.
i’v been nearly everywhere in america, and this very obviously not true for large sections of the country…deliberately so
I’ve been in a number of places in America as well (not everywhere), generally in places that are explicitly not convenient to live carless. For example, I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, before the nice train lines were put in, so the only option was the crappy bus line that didn’t go anywhere. My sibling still lives there, and they biked to work for a few years, despite the infrastructure there sucking for it. I live in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, just out of reach of the train system, yet I was able to bike to work for a few years. My in-laws live in the suburbs of LA, which has notoriously bad mass transit, and I’ve seen people there cycling to work.
I don’t cycle or take transit to work, but I could if I really needed to, it would just take about 1-2 hours each way to get there vs 30 min or so by car.
If you look for solutions, you’ll find them. If you look for excuses, you’ll find them. Either way, it’s a choice you’re making, whether consciously or not.
i’m not talking city suburbs, i’m talking that town in the middle of nowhere USA whose name nobody remembers, that only exists because of the local trucktop. with a 4 lane highway splitting the whole town in 2 and no pedestrian crossing on that roadway at all.
cross that on foot/bike and you risk your life
Eh, I have a different sibling in an area like that. They live right off the highway about 10 miles from town, the highway has no sidewalk, and road speeds are typical highway speeds (about 60 mph). Yet they ride into town all the time. It’s not as small as the type of town you’re referring to (my sibling’s city has several thousand people, and the larger town has 20-30k people), but it’s about the same setup.
Yes, car-free living isn’t practical in many areas, but it’s practical in a lot more areas than most people give credit for. And it’s possible to move if that truly is the lifestyle you want.
Again, my point is that you’ll find whatever you’re trying to find, be that solutions or excuses.