I lived in a walkable city for a decade and now live in a more rural area where cars are a necessity.
Now that I need a car, I need to:
Keep my driver’s license up to date
Pay tolls/monitor my transit account
Renew my registration every year
Get the car inspected every year
Pay for my car insurance
Remember to refuel
Keep up with oil changes and general maintenance
Monitor tires and wipers for degradation
Keep the interior clean and tidy
Budget extra money away for more expensive repairs or service
Deal with snow removal for a driveway
As someone with ADD the extra responsibilites are stressful and often slip by me, not to mention the costs add up. It’s also omnipresent in my mind that on any given day that I drive, especially on the highway, statistically that is the most likely way I will die considering my current age and health. I don’t miss carting my groceries around in the snow or rain, and it’s nice to be able to move large, heavy items relatively easily, but man I miss the freedom of just leaving my door and walking somewhere.
I keep wondering whether I raised my kids right or deprived them. My older is 18 and has no interest in driving - he’s also anxious about his adhd. But I’ve had to really push to get him to do any time behind the wheel. My younger is really jumping on the opportunity to drive but expects to live in a walkable city with transit like we do now - he’s used to being able to go anywhere without a car
That’s all well and good, and we should all aspire to that, but what are the chances they can live without cars here in the US? They probably should be able to, even if they think “most places you do t need a car”
It’s certainly possible to live in a walkable place but it’ll be very expensive. Most actually walkable areas in the US are in well established cities in the east where the “bones” of their layout were built before the GM conspiracy played out. I could barely afford to live there at the time and probably couldn’t afford to live there now. There are still some towns out there that haven’t lost their downtown main streets though. Unfortunately I think the path forward for the moment looks like settling for car dependency and pushing your local area to make positive changes for pedestrians and alternative transport.
I lived in a walkable city for a decade and now live in a more rural area where cars are a necessity.
Now that I need a car, I need to:
As someone with ADD the extra responsibilites are stressful and often slip by me, not to mention the costs add up. It’s also omnipresent in my mind that on any given day that I drive, especially on the highway, statistically that is the most likely way I will die considering my current age and health. I don’t miss carting my groceries around in the snow or rain, and it’s nice to be able to move large, heavy items relatively easily, but man I miss the freedom of just leaving my door and walking somewhere.
Growing up with cars as the norm, you don’t realize how much it sucks till you list it out like that.
I keep wondering whether I raised my kids right or deprived them. My older is 18 and has no interest in driving - he’s also anxious about his adhd. But I’ve had to really push to get him to do any time behind the wheel. My younger is really jumping on the opportunity to drive but expects to live in a walkable city with transit like we do now - he’s used to being able to go anywhere without a car
That’s all well and good, and we should all aspire to that, but what are the chances they can live without cars here in the US? They probably should be able to, even if they think “most places you do t need a car”
It’s certainly possible to live in a walkable place but it’ll be very expensive. Most actually walkable areas in the US are in well established cities in the east where the “bones” of their layout were built before the GM conspiracy played out. I could barely afford to live there at the time and probably couldn’t afford to live there now. There are still some towns out there that haven’t lost their downtown main streets though. Unfortunately I think the path forward for the moment looks like settling for car dependency and pushing your local area to make positive changes for pedestrians and alternative transport.
I currently live in a very walkable area.
Rent is indeed significantly more expensive, but not when factoring rent/transportation together. (At least in my experience).
For an equivalent apartment in the suburbs & a car, it comes out as roughly the same cost as my current apartment without a car.