Would you live without a car?

[jadet]

Why don't you get a cheaper, fuel efficient, cheap to insure vehicle? This country makes it difficult for us not to have a car.

[thefrugallery]

My advise would be to try it out for a couple months before committing to it. Yes, you would still have the payments during this time of course. But it will give you a trial before you are "all in." I did this for about 6 months. The only problem I had was grocery shopping. I would find things that were good deals, but I wouldn't be able to get them because I couldn't tote them home on the bus. But depending on where you live, you might be able to make more frequent trips to the stores and have it not be an issue.

[hulegu3]

There is no way I could go without a car. My roommate currently does it and I could not stand having to rely on my girlfriend whenever I wanted to leave the house.

[Branden62225]

Sure i can live without car because i like walk.

[SLemon]

I've never owned a car and manage perfectly well without it. I take the train or plane for long distance, and for shorter distances I bike or walk. I live in Europe though, so I suppose the situation is a little different from in the US. I do miss a car sometimes though, and will probably get one in the near future. Even if I would own a car, and I would not use it to replace how I travel today but rather make more trips to locations where you cannot go unless you have a car (today I rely on borrowing or renting a car for this, which is tiresome).

[breathemusic]

I did it for a year and a half after my first car finally bit the dust. I live in DC and since I work for the gov't, I get a stipend that pays for my public transportation to work, but even though I hardly ever actually drive anywhere in the city, after a year and a half I finally broke down and still got a car (granted it was an older used car that I knew the insurance would be cheap on and keep my costs down). I travel outside of the city just frequently enough to either visit family or go to concerts and other social things that it was driving me nuts to constantly have to figure out a way to borrow someone else's car or metro out and meet up with a family member and catch a ride to go visit family in MD and always rely on someone else's schedule.

It's definitely possible for some people, but it all depends on where you live and what kind of traveling you do.

[J.Apple902]

Absolutely. Right now I live closer to the CBD yet commute oppositely to the suburbs. I am forced to drive because my office is 4 miles from the heavy rail station. However, my roommate works downtown and through using the light-rail transit, commutes to work in about 30min. He sold his car, doesn't pay for parking, doesn't pay for gas, doesn't pay for car insurance or an auto-loan, and doesn't have the liability of have a vehicle in a city.

boom.

[Radiance]

Nice,

I am getting myself a bycicle... This will allow me to skip the car on the weekends (weather permit) I have tons to do and visit on a 2 mile radious

[adpiterp]

I don't have a car. I walk to work and live 3 blocks from a metro station (DC). I have 3 grocery stores within walking distance. I have a Zipcar membership, so if I'm going to visit someone/somewhere not metro/bus accessible I can.

If I moved to the suburbs, I would definitely need a car though.

[DebtFree&Broke]

I might be without a car for a few months. My car is breaking down again and it's only worth about $800. I don't want to get it fixed if it's going to cost more than $200. So we might be getting rid of it before we have the money saved for my "new" car.

Would I live without a car to save money? No, because I don't like having to wait for my husband to get home so I can drive our truck.

[PetMom]

We have our cars paid off.

We have a repair fund.

I have the oldest car and basically have it only to get my dogs to the vet quickly either regular (within a mile) or emergency (a bit further away).

Waiting for a cab would not be an option.

But we do have shopping, entertainment (walking trails, library, Sonic = food entertainment),
banking, post office, all within walking or biking distance.

A lot of things are done online (eg banking, shopping, post office items) which does not require a car trip but does reguire a working computer (which negates the tip to use the library computer for free).

In bad weather walking or biking would not be fun.

[BrokeMike]

I live in Los Angeles where it I have no idea how people live without a car.