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.

I did get rid of my car for 18 months just before the pandemic. It was ok in some ways but I did start to resent the fact that a 20 Mon journey to my mum's or daughters houses only 8 and 5 miles away took 90 mins each way door to door. My weekend is just too short for that. I broke and got a car again when it took me 2 hours to get home once.

It was also tricky getting stuff for the house and garden at the weekend let alone taking stuff to the dump.

It removed all spontaneity around popping out to nice places esp with the dog.

Fortunately I bought a car just before covid started as shopping could have been very tricky since deliveries were only for the vulnerable and I wouldn't have fancied buses at that point.

As discussed on a thread this week, public transport is stupidly expensive and very unreliable too.

I'd have to change my job, cancel 75% of DCs' hobbies and only see family members once every 6 months ish.

No I live rural. Buses are every 2 hours. There are no buses on a saturday or sunday. I have mobility issues. Cycling is out of the question.

I could. But it would be hard. A 20 minute drive to work would take 100 + minutes on public transportation. I often work 11 hour shifts, so add another 4 hrs on top for daily commuting - not sure I would last in the job.

No. Public transport from here is one bus every two hours and doesn't start in time to get me to the station for work. Station/Town is 8 miles away. Primary school is five miles with no bus, but next year secondary has a bus to and from. Gym is four miles away but I suppose not a massive priority. We are considering reducing to one car.
If we lived in town I could and would definitely lose the car-i didn't have one till I was 30 (lived elsewhere). If we had a reliable public transport system running from 7-10 I would happily ditch the car.

Some options I do not see listed are, easy to access car rentals; school listed car pools; neighborhood listed car pools.

Reduction in car use doesn't mean no car use. It means finding alternative solutions to using cars....

I mean options on the op, btw...

Yes. We don’t have a car and never have. It is fine. But we do live in a city so there is plenty of public transport.

Yes. School is 20min walk which we do lots of. Work is less than a 10 min walk for me and DH works from home. We only really use the car at the weekends for days out or visiting family and going on holiday.

That said, we're not getting rid of our car.

I could, yes, but I would be broke and miserable.

I wouldn’t be able to shop at aldi/spudshed/Costco/markets. I would have to pay for taxis/Ubers every week or shop at the local IGA (expensive).

I wouldn’t be able to visit my friends, I have no family and DH works away, so I’d be extremely lonely.

We would have to rely on the generosity of others to get DH to/from the airport and would become a burden, or pay a crap load for taxis/Ubers.

Teen DD wouldn’t be able to work at she often finishes late, and we live in a dodgy area. No way I’d let her catch public transport late at night where we live.

Public transport around here is rubbish and not even all that cheap.

The price of fuel is crippling me at the moment and it would still be more expensive not to drive.

No. Public transport around me is not good enough and far too expensive to rely on for getting to work.

My parents also look after my DC and they live in a different town about 7 miles away couldn’t walk or cycle to them and bring DC back safely.

We do walk DD1 to school though, even when it’s raining.

We arranged our lives in London so we didn't have to- 2 train stations and loads of buses. I cycled to work in Central London. We're overseas at the moment and have to have one as there is no public transport. The kids have now both taken up hobbies that will be a total pain with no car, but I'm going to see what the other options are rather than owning one. I don't want the hassle of maintaining it and parking it.

Zipcars work out stupidly expensive. I really dislike cars, and think it's important not to have one if you don't need one. The impact on air quality and related deaths is huge. Most of our neighbours cars in London sit on the street most of the time or are used along routes where there is a bus every 5 minutes. I'd really like to get a car pool system going but everyone seems to have a car already and I can't see them dropping them.

No.
We have a teenager with severe autism and behavioural difficulties ( gets higher rate mobility for this) and a car is necessary for getting him everywhere and most things he accesses are not local and he cannot share transport with others, wait for buses etc. We also use car trips to help him self regulate and keep him calm.
We also need the car for ourselves because everything we do has to fit around him and his needs so we use the method of transport that is quickest and most reliable.

We cycle a fair bit (e.g. to the station) and DDs school is within walking distance but we're in a village that's not particularly well served by public transport and have two children and their things to transport. For longer journeys these are not very viable options unfortunately. I am very much hoping there will be a day when self driving vehicles mean i don't have to do my own bloody driving (and perhaps negate the need for individual car ownership altogether).

I'm not allowed to drive post surgery and it's been a challenge to not be able to drive, poor weather and my chronic health condition flaring so making it hard to go the distance.

The buses used to be great but their times have changed during Covid and not returned. So my work journey will take me an hour and 15 minutes instead of a 10 minute drive. I couldn't get a bus to the dr so had to walk and I struggled.

Roll on the day I get to drive again.

Once, at a hospital visit ( frequent, because of an acquired long term illness) I was asked why I didn't come by public transport.

The answer being that a return journey by public transport toy nearest hospital would take ( literally) a week.

No way.

I hate online food shopping so need my car for the huge weekly food shop.

I go to the gym most nights after work, I could walk but I'm not adding a half hour walk each way to make me home even later.

I WFH but one day a week am in the office which is an hour bus ride then a walk. I'd have to leave the house at 7am to get there which isn't feasible.

I love driving - my car is staying I'm afraid! 🚗

No, I live in the countryside it would make me completely isolated, I wouldn't be able to go to the shop or my GP or anywhere really.

In theory I could as I work from home most of the time and have a bus stop pretty much outside my flat. Practically though I can’t.

Elderly parents who don’t drive any more but need taking to appointments, a 46 hour working week which means I’m time poor and don’t want to spend my one day off a week spending 3 hours on public transport to do a journey that takes less than an hour in the car. An elderly dog who still likes to potter around the park but can’t walk there and back as well, occasional train journeys which cost me £9 to park at the station but £30 round trip to get there by cab.

A visit to the cinema which is walkable but the path goes via a subway which floods when it rains and is full of drug dealers the rest of the time.

A car makes my busy life easy. And if I’m totally honest I like driving.

Absolutely not.

I live 1000ft above sea level. Everywhere is down hill which means uphill to get home. I walk loads but walking to work is not doable. Would take me 2 hours each way. Could tun it, i have done but 4 days a week? No, and there are no shower facilities at work.

Bus passes the end of the mile long lane at 7:30am then nothing.

Run not tun!

No. I didn’t have a car until my early thirties ( I live in the same area) and it really did limit work to either long, expensive London commutes or badly paid jobs in town.
Having a car is a one of life’s pleasures I think. Especially a convertible (second hand is no difference in price to a saloon).

I got rid of mine two years ago. On the rare occasion that I need one, I hire one. I usually walk to work (takes about 45 minutes). I get the bus or sometimes cycle if I'm going to the city (about 8/9 miles).

Having said that, if I still lived where I did three years ago, it would have been much harder to live without a car. Not impossible, but I would have had to change my working hours to fit in with bus times, and life outwith work would have been much more limited.

I'd find it hard
To get to work I'd need two busses and then a 20 min walk down a country lane with no pathways in the wi term this would be in the dark .
Food shop I guess I could get delivered although it's not something I've ever done .
I can walk into the nearest town ..about 30 mins there and 40 back ...it's downhill on the way there !!
I can walk to Dr and a small high street
We couldn't go on holidays ..we tend to self cater around the UK
Visiting family ..would be prohibitive cost wise using the train and the train would take nearly a day there and a day back making it impossible for a quick trip .

Husband could not get to work without a car ...well he could cycle but has a lot of 'kit' which he couldn't transport