Could do you do without your car?

[anon2334]

Or would you never consider that ? Public transport? Cycling? Walking all good options depending on where you live. I’m cutting back, school runs I need the car though , but definitely walking more into town etc and to parks. Just doing occasional trips out etc.

In sticks of Norfolk. We have been car free before so yes but...

Are you saying never hire them either? Even when car-free, we still sometimes hired. A lot of our regular activity would take a lot longer to do, many of those things we would do less of & a few items would become impossible if no car access at all.

@drawingpad Driving imo is a life skill and something all 15/16 year olds should be taught. It's about priorities and wanting the best for your child. Also not wanting your child to have to rely on public transport which no parent should want for their child. Luckily where I live Driver's Ed is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, thank goodness.

Yes but I live in a city. I hated driving when I had a car so was glad to give it up. I get my shopping delivered, walk to work and am happy to travel by train, bus and the occasional taxi.

I could if I had to but I wouldn't by choice. I wfh and live 5 mins from a supermarket, the Drs, a chemist, etc. DS lives close by and parents within walking distance.

I would have to change gym and hairdresser, and wouldn't be able to get to my yoga class, and would have to get a bus and 2 trains on the odd occasion I need to go to the office. I would miss the freedom of driving out to the countryside to walk the dog or to get down to the coast.

Yes and no.

Our aim is to grow old in this house. If I had to stop driving there is a little shopping parade, community centre, leisure centre, healthcare and bus stops to town in easy walking/ mobility scooter distance.

But currently with a family, that's very restricted parameters to live by. It rules out swimming/ day trips/ retail parks/ bigger supermarkets for feeding a family. Cars are necessary to balance work and life.

So not impossible, but cars add a lot to quality of life that we can't replicate on foot/ bike/ bus. I very rarely make very local journeys by car without a substantial reason.

No. We don’t have public transport. It would be a great time suck. I used to bike the kids to school and gym class which aren’t too far, but now I will have 3 at 3 different schools and various activities I couldn’t get by without it. Couldn’t get to work either. I could cut down on some usages of it, 20mins walk to nearest store or could get delivered groceries.

When I lived in England it was a 20min drive to work or 1.5hrs on the bus. It’s the time factor that is a problem in all we do, we have to be places at certain time and a car is the most convenient, less time consuming way, generally to get there

@PinaColada123456
Why don’t you think much of people who don’t need to drive lol
I lived in big cities all my life. So often it just doesn’t make sense to drive! It’s better for the planet too NOT to drive. So why do you feel so bad about us people who don’t drive?
Driving to central London doesn’t make sense. Driving to the park/dentist/post office/shop doesn’t make sense if you within a walking distance.

Nope. DHs work has limited parking. First round of parking permits go to those who couldnt reasonably get to work before 9.30. DH gets one every year, because he would need to leave at 6.45pm. No, that's not a typo.

Kids (catchment) school is 6 miles away along roads I wouldn't fancy cycling as an adult. The school bus does normal starts and finishes, but not for before or after school clubs. We arent in catchment for the school 0.5 miles away..... the public service bus to school arrives a 5 min walk from school at 9.05. Gates shut at 9, so they would be 10 mins late every day. It's a similar story with the public bus home.
Until things are linked up or useful, we need car.
We live in a town, not the middle of nowhere.
May people saying they could give up a car have decent public transport. That's not the case in many places.

Far too inconvenient. Awful bus service, I drive to gym, hairdresser, beauty salon, supermarket and to do long walks for my sanity.

[quote PinaColada123456]@drawingpad Driving imo is a life skill and something all 15/16 year olds should be taught. It's about priorities and wanting the best for your child. Also not wanting your child to have to rely on public transport which no parent should want for their child. Luckily where I live Driver's Ed is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, thank goodness.[/quote]
You can’t even begin to learn to drive at those ages, though.

Many people I know don’t drive and have never learned-because there’s no need. Most people don’t have cars. Perhaps if they did need to learn, then they would do so. Public transport is entirely normal where I live.

No. It would impact my earnnings.
I need to visit the post office every day.
The only bus runs every two hours.
The road is very narrow, unlit,very steep and winds around, very dangerous for cycling.

Driving imo is a life skill

What makes it a life skill in your opinion, rather then an option?

and something all 15/16 year olds should be taught.

All of them? Without exception? Why? What if they don't want to drive?

It's about priorities and wanting the best for your child.

Whose priorities? This makes no sense. I want what's best for my children, 2 of them are adults, one driver and one non driver. The non driver is t disadvantaged in any way. 'Best for your child' isn't aldehyde the same. In fact 'best for your child' is very specific to, your child.

Also not wanting your child to have to rely on public transport which no parent should want for their child.

It's not something I have considered never mind actively not wanted. DS gets the train daily and there is no element of me not wanting that for him, I don't want him taking drugs or going into prostitution, but catching a train? That's ok.

Luckily where I live Driver's Ed is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, thank goodness

Luckily for who? This kind of forced thing isn't lucky, it's mad.

Yes. Never had one, managed perfectly well bringing up DC and working FT, shopping pre-internet, holidays, all of it.
I had to consider location and transport links in every decision I made, but why wouldn’t anyone do that?

Theoretically I could, but our quality of life would decrease significantly. DS has autism and its difficult to transport him safely when walking. He could get school transport but we would struggle for outings etc, which out probably make his behaviour more difficult as he needs a lot of movement and sensory movement.

Day to day I could survive. We don't use ours to commute, we walk the kids to school and we are within walking distance of a supermarket. We do have OK public transport links close to our house. But it would make days out, visiting family etc a pair in the arse.

We grew up without regular access to a car and I wouldn't want it for my own kids TBH.

Well PinaColada clearly doesn’t live anywhere urban in the UK if they’re somewhere where driving is taught as part of the school curriculum to 15 and 16 year olds! We lived briefly in the midwestern USA when our children were small, and really disliked the complete and utter dependency on cars. Literally everything is built around cars, so it becomes and self-perpetuating cycle that driving is necessary to function as a part of society. I can understand an attitude like the above if that’s all you’ve ever known.

Fortunately we moved back to London and live happily without a car. I cycle to work, DH walks and the children walk to school. Groceries are delivered and if we want to go further afield at weekends we take public transport. We hire a car once in a year for holidays, but are generally much happier not having to obsess about parking and the price of petrol, and healthier from loads of passive exercise.

No. I work split site and need to travel between them during the day. Also I get really travel sick and can just about survive a 20 min bus journey! I'm fine if I'm driving though.

I can't even drive so definitely. OH couldn't as it's necessary for his work, never mind everything else.

No. We live rurally with absolutely no public transport and I need it for work and to get to the shops (nearest is a 10 minute drive)

No, the supermarket is 20 miles away and work is further. Buses are once an hour and take forever to get into town. So no, I couldn't do without my car!

Yes I could. A weekly shop would be tricky because of carrying bags a few miles, but I should think there’s a way round that.

The trouble with public transport is that it takes so long. The bus to a big city is quite regular, but the drive takes about 30 minutes and the bus takes two hours.

I couldn't give up my car. I live in a large city with great public transport but I work in a different city. It would be a 2 hour commute each way (4hrs travelling per day) to get to work and it's currently 40-60min door to door. That's not even taking into consideration the fact that I need to drop dd off at childcare which is halfway between home and work but not on the public transport route. It would be a nightmare.

Yes. But I commute into London. DH could bike or walk.

I reckon we could if we REALLY needed to, we walk to school and I'm on the outskirts of a city so I get the metro tram into work. DH drives as he works on a big industrial park, there's a bus there but it take 3x as long.
Wouldn't be able to do the extra curricular stuff we do now as they're all the opposite direction to the city and by the time we'd been on the bus after school it would be too late.
Also we go camping as our holiday and would need to hire a car for that.
The 45 minute drive to my parents' takes 2 1/2 hours on the train so we'd see them a lot less, and wouldn't be able to go on Christmas Day etc if trains weren't running.

I could easily manage without my car. When it goes to car graveyard, I won't be getting another one.

I can walk to all my day to day places, and use the bus and train for anything further afield.