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

Neither of us need it for work so we work social life around each others needs.

If it's a big pain we hire a car for the weekend.

Wouldn't work for me currently. I live in a village with poor transport links and my main commute is down country lanes with no public transport available anyway. Here's a view of my route to work 🤣

My work would cover a hire car in this scenario, for those who don't have a company car or car allowance.

We've only ever had one car and it's never occurred to me that it would be better to have two. We decided where to live strategically - so we could both walk to work, kids can walk to school, we can walk to shops and cafes etc. Our car only really gets used if we have a day out at the weekend or go on holiday. Neither of us like driving and we chose our current location specifically so we could avoid driving.

We can't car share despite us both WFH.

That being said, we do both have work supported cars, e.g. his is a company car and I've got a car allowance.

Also, if he's WFH and I'm going to the office I might take his instead as it's fully electric and far nicer.

I couldn't cope with only having one car. We've done it for the odd week, well nearly a month when he was transitioning between car allowance and company car, and it caused far more difficulties than it should have done.

We literally have no local public transport options and nothing in walking distance. There is a service that will pick up the elderly and disabled and take them to the doctor or the supermarket if they make an advanced appointment and that is it. The suggested public transport route for getting to Dh’s office involves 2, 20 minute Uber rides and a 2 minute bus ride along some little circuit that loops around a shopping district in a random small town. He can drive there himself in 25 minutes.

we could not have only one car. We will be buying dc a car the second she is old enough so we don’t have to drive her to school or work anymore. on average that will get me 2 additional free hours a day.

I don't disagree. My parents manage fine with just one car, as do my in-laws, but they're all retired which makes things much easier!

But in rural areas you will find lots of families need two cars. Work is often 20+ miles away, schools are often a similar distance and public transport is expensive (if it even exists).

For many rural families, mum/dad drives to work and drops child off on the way, then the same in reverse each evening. Sure, they could use public transport but it would be slower and much more expensive, as well as much less reliable.

So the only reason you can’t cope on one car is because your husband sometimes works away (fair enough), but goes by air so his cat is sat at the airport? Is an airport taxi not an option? Or just hiring a car short term? Probably cheaper than airport parking anyway!

Sorry this was for @theemmadilemma
i assume there are other considerations that she had not mentioned

What's so wonderful / worthy about 'managing' with 1 car if you can afford 2?

We spread our mileage over the two cars so they last twice as long.
We have the convenience of a car each.
We have a large car for certain needs, and a smaller one otherwise. If we only had 1 car then the larger, less efficient car would do more miles.

we've only ever had one car.
But
dh works from home. When he travels he tends to use public transport so I have car.
primary school was walking drop off.
secondary they can bike or bus if there is no car.

I work from home too, but I am out and about a lot for work, mostly during the day, and dh is wfh.
When I do travel longer (for work), either kids use public transport, or I borrow my mum's car as I have to take stuff with me.

shopping is delivered.

but if either of us needed the car every day for work, it would be a massive pain to only have one car

@Frazzled2207 Unfortunately not really an option. Our closest airport is EA and they don't tend to have the flights he needs. Often he ends up needing to fly out of an airport down South, or at best Birmingham. If you then try to factor in public transport for an early flight it's a joke, he'd be doing a 20 hour day instead of 15....

*EMA

@theemmadilemma
point taken but that doesn’t explain why short term car rental (for you while he is away) isn’t an option. We occasionally do this. Still save thousands.

not picking at you but if only families that really needed them had two cars and the rest of us made do with the occasional taxi/rented/car pool car our carbon footprint/ general road congestion/ associated pollution would be a fraction of what it is.
we just can’t accept a society where the easiest thing is just to buy more cars. Well I can’t. But it would appear many people just don’t care (again, not a poke at you)

We have a large car for certain needs, and a smaller one otherwise. If we only had 1 car then the larger, less efficient car would do more miles.

This is a good point. Since getting the small second car for the kids, we do use that instead of the large car for some journeys. But we couldn't do without a larger car altogether.

Agree with this which is the biggest disadvantage
I do errands in a much bigger car than I normally would do as it needs to be big enough to take us all on holiday. That said we chose an accordingly efficient vehicle (electric)

I'm disabled and live in a tiny village. Who would I share with? I need the car from 5:45 am on some days and I'm not back until 10pm on other days.
I go to a lot of medical appointments - sometimes at short notice.
I also use a car 6/7 days a week - GP is 5 miles, school bus stop is 4 miles away so not sure who I could "share with" as I'd need a car for 2 slots a day minimum

Depends what "managing" means. If it just means doing twice the mileage with 1 car, then absolutely nothing. But, if it makes you think about whether you could walk or cycle, or plan your journeys more efficiently, or sometimes take the bus, then there's real environmental benefits.

Example - I live a mile from my workplace. I mostly walk. Many of my colleagues live a similar distance away. Virtually all of them drive, the car sits in the car park all day, and then they drive home. If they didn't have the convenience of a 2nd car, would they choose to do things differently?

(I'm not talking about being a martyr here - the day DD has a swift turnaround between school and getting to work, I drive so I can give her a lift. But that's one day out of 5.

@Frazzled2207 That may work for you, it wouldn't for me.

I have a car that is paid for, doesn't require a huge amount of maintenance because I don't do the miles, and therefore I don't guzzle gas. Sitting on my drive it is costing me nothing, and not polluting.

Pollution wise, any journeys I do, would still be done - nothing saved there.

DH car is paid for under an allowance.

We'd be spending £100's more to have a car available to me if/when I needed it. Which is fairly regularly. This last 2 months DH has been away 4 days every other week, so it's not an occassional thing.

@theemmadilemma
fair enough you originally suggested , or at least I understood that, your dh wfh- there is a big difference between occasional (my dh is away and needs a car) and regular (your dh is away every other week). Also we pay for our own cars/car!

however @sheepdogdelight is spot on about the benefits of sharing. I walk far more than I would do if we had two cars and feel a lot better for it. If everyone round here- congestion hot spot- walked or cycled short distances, those that needed to drive would get there an awful lot quicker

Not to mention if the school phones to say collect your child - they’re ill. Have you ever tried to get a vomiting child on a bus? Or worse if it’s coming from the other end!! And no a taxi won’t take them either.

That’s what annoys me about the council saying oh but we provide school transport. Yes one way there and one way back but for us to get there on a service bus it’s two there and two back if they miss the bus or have an appointment in school time.
Then there’s the after school clubs like being on the school football team or school band you have to say to your child you can’t take part because I can’t get you back here.

I did, sorry. It's fits and starts, annoyingly. It depends on a myriad of unpredictable things. There may be long periods when he's home with no travel.

But it is why we've discussed it and will continue to think about it going forward if we can make it make sense/work for us.

@theemmadilemma
if circumstances allow in the future, then you won't regret it.

Fully understand that if employers are actually paying for the cars there is far less motivation. Our motivations are roughly equal financial and environmental.

We need 2 cars. We work at different places, at different times and in opposite directions. There is no bus service for the time I head off to work (6am), and if he took the only bus through the village in the morning he'd be 2 hours late. Car sharing is absolutely not doable for us.

I would never give up my own car. It represents something else intangible to me - genuine freedom I guess. I once split up with an ex and lost my home and huge social circle. having my own car & job brought much comfort.