Would you live without a car?

[snafu]

Radiance: check with your insurer, if your mileage is under their 'average' they can offer a lower premium rate if you met their long list of qualifiers. I hope everyone understands that it's pointless to carry coverage for more than the Blue/Black Book evaluation. If your car is written-off, you will only get the book value adjusted for mileage. You do not get replacement value.

[photo]

In addition to saving money, I think a lot of us that wanted to could lose weight and get healthier by walking close by for small errands....just an idea.

I agree. What I find frustrating is businesses that are quite close but difficult to access by foot. There are often more parking lots than there are sidewalks in more rural areas, which is a sad state of affairs.

[expo09]

I'd love to live without a car (due to the expense) if I lived and worked in a city where public transport or walking was a genuine alternative. However, I need to drive to get to work and my family live an hour drive away (with no realistic public transport alternative). So, really, having a car is necessary.

[jteezie]

Here's a twist on the question: would you live without a car if you had access to a carsharing program like Zipcar or Relay Rides? If you do, what are your experiences? Do you save money?

[SNRote]

I just couldn't live without a car b/c of my kids. I can live with a car WITHOUT a car payment. Currently (Thank God) we have two fully functional paid off vehicles.

[nick__45]

If I take public transportation, which is paid for by my employer, I can't be as good a worker as I am and I'll off the assignment. Since I am climbing the ladder still, it is more important to drive and be accommodating to my employer's schedule. Public transportation around here is basically van-pool program, which has horrible hours of operation and are not remotely safe. I am not going to trust my wife to random people each day driving a 15-passenger van without a proper training. The hours of operation is horrible and is too early for normal workforce and too late for my schedule half of the time.

Since I am taking my personal car, I just work extra hours to pay off the operating cost. One extra hour a day is enough to pay for the cost of owning 3 cars and gas money. I can live without working an extra hour each day, considering that commuting already take 2 hours. Since I have a car, I come and go as I please, take lunch when I want and can work on weekend if I feed like it. That is a freedom that pennies counters don't have.

[alex499]

I personally would not live without a car, but we keep our costs significantly down by driving older, gas efficient vehicles, etc. The public transportation around here is terribly expensive, so I find it hard to come out ahead without a car. (& certainly not worth the inconvenience factor). I am sure if I lived in another area I could do well without a car. But, life is infinitely more enjoyable...

[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]

try it out.

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