Do you think car sharing would really restrict your life ?

[GingerKittenTail]

We’ve car shared for quite a few years
but looking back I think that’s been a mistake
I know it would have been more expensive running two cars
but the freedom would be so much more

We are just about to get rid of DP’s car. We live in a small city, both less than 10 minutes’ walk from work. Both have bikes and there’s excellent cycling lanes here. 8 minutes walk to the station. DP’s car used so rarely that he needed a jump start last time he used it.

If one of us needs the car we just check in with the other.

I think I second car now is an expensive (£ and environment) luxury for us.

I live rurally. We have one car. We moved and planned to get another cat but then dh ended up wfh. It depends on your circumstances.
In the last 3 years we've only needed a second car once. So we hired one for £100. That's a lot cheaper than running a car for 3 years.
We work it by planning things like appointments for when each other are at work and outside of the predictable school runs. At the weekends if we need it for one thing or another we work around it.
So it can be done. It's definitely easier not to have to plan if you have a second car but we can't afford two now anyway with all the costs rising so it's no longer a choice for us.

We did for a while when the DC were little. If i needed the car that day and DH was working I'd have to get up, get the DC up and take him to work. Then pick him up after. Doing anything spontaneous with the DC was a problem. I didn't like it much.

Once DS's weekend football started with two kids playing for three teams we had to have 2 cars then.

Now we both work different hours at different places, and other things that involve us being out of the house in different places at all hours we need 2 cars.

Technically we could go to one car. I can walk to work and we live semi rurally but on fairly decent bus route but dropping to one car would be the last resort for us.

Visiting friends and family would become a chore if we decided to car share due to distances involved. It absolutely could be don't but neither of us would volunteer that unless there was. No other option

I've never had a car.
I guess by its nature this restricts you however to me it's like, you can't miss what you've never had.
You just work around it

Did it for years. We got a second car last year, since DH now weekly commutes. But sometimes by train, not car. Or goes abroad for a bit.

The second car has been used in over a week now, so I'll be using that tomorrow for a trip to the supermarket.

We have 2 cars. I wfh and actually barely use mine as much as I did, but I do think I'd struggle without. DH could cycle to work, I'm part time and have the DC on my days off which I would struggle with without a car I think. We do live on a good bus route, but for things like food shopping etc which I do on my days off with young DC in tow, i think would be a challenge having always had a car to rely on. Would need a lot of juggling though I do think would be doable. Just less convenient!

We have always either had no car (when living in London, Paris, Brussels), or had one car when we have lived in smaller places. Both used public transport for work, so the car was only really needed two days a week and it was never an issue sharing it as we still used it very sparsly. We are now separated and I don't have a car, and don't know if I will need one. Been without one now for almost a year, and not missed it.

No because my DH thinks that what he is doing takes priority and that he would be the 'default' car owner and I would be expected to check with him each time. No thanks.

We did for a while when the DC were little. If i needed the car that day and DH was working I'd have to get up, get the DC up and take him to work. Then pick him up after. Doing anything spontaneous with the DC was a problem. I didn't like it much

We did the same. it was a pain, but at that time if we'd had 2 cars there wouldn't have been that many days where both got used, so we made it work.

A month ago we finally cracked and got a second car. We've moved much more rurally and DC1 has started school - the dropoffs and pickups alone would be impossible otherwise as we both work. Very little is walkable from home and the bus route/times are fairly useless for us. Now both cars are used every day during the week,

Yea it would be shit. We live very rurally, DH works all hours god sends and all my closest friends like 45+ minutes away. He’d hate it too, it would mean I couldn’t go and get parts/bring food/bring diesel etc for him! Technically I suppose I work from home as the paperwork for our business is done here but I also have a 1yo son who is with me 24/7 and I take him all over the place, whether that’s to just see daddy in his tractor or to actual baby classes.
My BIL borrowed my truck for a day a couple of weeks ago.
I hated it 😂

The pandemic put paid to DH’s work. He struggled on until the start of the year, but realised it wouldn’t improve any time soon, so we sold the cars and got one cheaper one.

I hate it. I hate having to negotiate over it. If I wanted to go out, I’d get in the car and go. I hate the inflexibility of sharing a car. It’s not that I want to go out all the time, it’s the feeling that I can’t.

Can’t be changed though, so it’ll have to be put up with.

Absolutely, but if we were non-drivers we'd never have bought our current house, which has rubbish public transport links. I also work on a business park that has not a single bus serving it, that's too far away for me to walk or cycle. I wasn't forced to buy this house, or take this job, but they were structural decisions that have entrenched my reliance on the car. It's not just getting used to making do.

It wouldn’t work for us

We live rurally and Dh and I work in completely opposite directions in different counties to where we live.

The school run in 9 miles.

I can see the attraction of only having one car it would cut our costs in half but sadly we just can’t get rid of one.

We've car shared for 8 years. Made sense for us as we work in the same place. There's nowhere that I would drive to without DH. I can walk to plenty of places here (currently on maternity leave and still haven't missed the car). The money saved is a bonus.

This is one of those threads that highlights the gulf in public transport options between major cities and the rest of the country.

I work 12 minutes drive from my house, it's about 9 miles away. We live on the edge of a large village less than 2 miles from the edge of a (small) city. To get to work on time using public transport would take a minimum of 50 minutes - realistically an hour. It would also cost £24 per week which is more than the fuel costs with a fraction of the convenience and flexibility.

Although DH mainly works from home there are days where he unexpectedly has to go out to a call so needs access to the car at short notice. Public transport to his work is a minimum of 1h 45 mins but a 35 minute drive.

I would happily get rid of a car if there were viable public transport options, however almost everyone I know in this area has 2 cars as there just aren't the other options there.

If you a car sharing is not having access to a car 24/7 really restricting your life that much? Really?

I have zero access to any car, zero family locally, few friends locally that have cars. And theres very little public transport available.
ie most of the time I get to go only where I can walk to. Car sharing sounds like a dream to me.

We've only had one car for about 20 years now. H can walk or cycle to work, pre covid I was a train commute, the kids are walking distance to school. The car hardly gets used during the week.

DH can work anywhere in the country north of Leeds, and be away for a week at a time. I'm not being left reliant on foot or bike for that period of time, because lets face it, busses that run once an hour between10 and 4 aren't really much use for evenings or getting to work.

Wouldn't work for us. Dh needs a car to get to work.
I live in a suburb but no train station and 1 bus an hour.
I need the car for supermarket, gym, meeting friends, driving for walks and generally my independence!
My car is 14 years old and costs peanuts over the year to run.
I wouldnt enjoy my life anywhere near as much without it. Dull as fuck.

We're down to one car, DH and I are only in the office once a week each, and apart from swimming, all the kids after school activities are walking distance. It sometimes makes Saturday mornings a little complicated but worth it for the savings and we factor in the odd taxi or bus if needed.

Yes. I couldn't do my job without my car - I need it to transport dogs and get between my clients homes. There's no public transport and it's too far and too dangerous to walk.

We’ve got three vehicles for that very reason. So we very rarely have to share. We’ve got a big estate car each and we’ve got a transit. We can’t share.

Yes it does. Or it would. I'm disabled. And there is no public transport bar one bus in for the school kids and one home at school home time. How would I get to medical appointments for a start?

I think it depend on where you live, and what you need a car for.
If you live in the city/town where you don't really need cars to go around daily life, you can do without a car.
I have a car but hardly ever use it. I can get rid of it if I need to. Dc is old enough to take bus/train/walk to meet their friends, don't need to take them to the clubs, etc. There are multiple super market near by. So having car is handy, but not absolutely necessary for me.
But if I had to use the car for work etc, it will be a different story. So, depends on your life style and where you live, imo.