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

Of course we could 'manage' with just one car ..or actually without a car at all if we had to. Just like people can manage without a holiday, bottle of wine occasionally, trip to the cinema, buying Christmas presents etc etc but most of us want to enjoy our life and, assuming we can afford it, make certain choices.

I've made a choice to do a volunteer job that needs a car and to visit my elderly mother regularly ... I suppose I could refuse to do both and manage without a car ... but who will do those other roles?

I car shared until exh left me, was fine living in the city. Would be fine now if I worked locally but I have to drive to work and so does dp

One of those threads where the op disappears.

And one of those questions which those living rurally wouldnt dream of asking

We have 1 car. DH cycles to work and its a 40 minute walk for me so do able when the cars in the garage. The rest of the time it works out fine.

We car share and barely even notice. DH walks to and from work, I don't even use it most days (shops and playgroups within walking distance). He takes the car on certain days if he has to be in early/late, and one of us always has to be at home of an evening because of the kids so there's no clash there. On the very rare occasions there's a clash, we can usually get an Uber.

Nope couldn’t do it. He needs his for work (to carry tools) and I have to drive to different sites for work.
Despite living in the suburbs of a large town I wouldn’t start work until about 10am if I relied on the buses, whereas with a car I can be there by 9 after the school run.
I think those that have always done it (or never driven) don’t miss what they haven’t had so will say ‘of course you can do it, If you want to!’

We haven’t “always” done it. We did have two cars and made a conscious decision to sell both and buy one together to share.

it has meant sacrifices yes. We do, on occasion, miss the convenience of having our own cars. But an occasional Uber here and there, and it’s no big deal at all
(disclaimer- although I live in a city I was brought up rurally and know it’s a totally different situation rurally) and saves literally thousands of pounds every year.

asdasult so of course for you access to a car is essential. For many others it will be too (especially if living in rural areas) - The impression I got from the op was that it was a bit of an inconvenience which isnt the same as needing something. My comment was based directly on the op not every other person commenting.

thelobsterquadrille same as my response to asdasult. Everyones circumstances are different and yes of course some people cant manage without for various reasons. But plenty others think they "need" when actually they could manage well without constant access to their own car.

I don't know anyone who runs two cars, but we live in London and the vast majority of people have just one car that is used on weekend's only, or no car at all.

Actually, I lie. I do know one family who has two cars - a bigger hybrid for the weekend/ longers journeys and a smaller electric runaround for the week.

I've never had my own car, my DH has a work car which i'm insured on but only drive when we go somewhere together. We live Zone 3 south London and I always cycle, walk or use public transport. I've debated signing up to Zipcar but I'm so used to other options that it doesn't bother me. usually get food shopping delivered. But it totally depends on your work and location!

We've discussed it because we both WFH. But DH works away for days both in the UK and abroad, and we live locally. So I'd have to be super organised while he was away in the UK and not need to get anywhere, and I'd have to do horribly early and late airport runs on top my own work.

So it's a no for now.

Once we could afford two cars, life became a whole lot easier, yes.

*we live rurally

Gosh. I absolutely assumed you meant sharing with another household or through some scheme and started to think about whether we could make that work. Possibly, as we don't use the car that much. Didn't occur to me that people would refer to having one car for two adults in a households as "car sharing"!

We only had one car until the children were old enough to learn to drive (it was a large automatic, so not really practicial). We bought them a super cheap to insure little manual and they share it (as do we, as it is cheaper to run). We live in a village, but there is a station and we take the train to work. There were a few times when having one car was bit awkward when children had to be in different places etc. but I think it was a good discipline to think through lift-sharing solutions, public transport etc. Once the children have left home we will certainly go back to having just one car. Before the children were born (and we lived in a city) we didn't have a car at all.

We've car shared for years. Yes, it's sometimes a bit inconvenient, but the cost savings more than make up for occasional inconvenience. We've also got better about how we schedule journeys and using other methods of transport which I think is good for sustainability/the environment.

We've actually discussed selling our car altogether, but we would need community car sharing to be more of a thing to enable this.

We've gone down to one car temporarily and I hate not having my independence. My car is due in at the end of next week and I can't wait!

I do realise that some people's situations mean that only having one car would be extremely impractical. But I think there are others who could try a bit harder. I know from my own experience it is very easy to get into the habit of using a second car more than you really need to once you have it.

Perhaps I'm selfish, but I couldn't be doing with someone else talking to/ at me each morning and evening. I'm not a morning person and have a stressful job, so my commute is my de-stressor with pod-casts or audio books. I don't mind the odd favour for someone, but not a regular thing.

To add to this, it's a short commute (25 mins) and no-one from work is from my area anyway.

We’ve only ever had one car. The pay off for full flexibility / autonomy is the HUGE amount of money you save over 10-20-30 years. We wouldn’t be able to fund our pensions as well, for example, if we ran two cars.

I should also say, that we chose where we live on purpose so that we wouldn't have to drive much. Station, primary school, essential shops are all within easy walking distance. I strongly dislike cars, wish there were far fewer around, and can't understand local people who jump in their cars automatically when the train/walking/cycling would be very easy.

But why?
'Trying a bit harder' could mean more miles dropping people off and driving home before later going out, and then driving to pick them up.
Car sharing is not necessarily the same as driving fewer miles in total, it can just mean inconvenience all round.

We have never even tried, our work and family commitments make it near impossible without massive life changes (giving up job)
DH's hospital is not easy to get to by public transport, PT also doesn't run the hours he works and for his on calls he needs to be in within 20mins (not doable without a car)
Although my studio is at home, often my job sites can only be accessed by car - some are a field in the middle of nowhere. We live rurally and although our village is better for public transport than many it's still limited and there is no way I would be able to pick the kids up from school (eldest gets school bus) in an emergency, do shopping, go to my hospital appointments (I'm disabled) or do the kids swimming lessons/beavers/explorers etc. My disability also means that sometimes life is just quite exhausting & physically difficult and walking or getting PT is just not doable.
When I lived in a city which had excellent public transport, I lived for years without a car.
We now have an electric car and a 4x which covers us for most eventualities but also tries to minimise impact.

Car sharing is not necessarily the same as driving fewer miles in total, it can just mean inconvenience all round.

Everyone's situation is different. I acknowledged that. I think in our case only having one car did lead to fewer miles driven.