How much of a necessity is having a car where you live?

[OneRealFinch]

Not very maybe at night more so

Depends if you want to go anywhere after 8 pm.

A car is essential where I live.

There is only one bus to town and I would have to walk for just over a mile along a country lane with no footpath to get to the bus stop

If I were to walk or cycle to town I would have to go along public footpaths on the fields as the A road would be far too dangerous to cycle along. Cycling to town on the footpaths would probably take about an hour.

No at all necessary. I have a bus stop less than five minutes away, the bus runs four plus times per hour. I enjoy sitting upstairs at the front of the bus with my Greggs tea.

I live near a train station that has a fast service into London and the coast.

I have an app for a local cab company and use them quite a lot and know lots of the drivers.

Not 'doing' public transport makes your car ownership a matter of choice, not necessity.

Essential. Nearest shop (v small Spar) is 4 miles away. I live in a rural hamlet. I work almost 40 miles away. There is no public transport. Nearest supermarket is 15 miles. Nearest train station is 35 miles.

Nearest hospital with an A&E Dept is 35 miles.

Completely essential, I live in the north and public transport is abysmal. I would have to get a bus to the train station and then an hours train ride to get to work however the last few times I have thought about driving to the station my trains been cancelled. I wouldn’t have a job anymore if I didn’t drive.

Not necessary at all. I gave up my car 2 years ago and used the money saved to drop down to working four days a week. I live in a big city, regular buses, 25 minutes walk to work and no dependents. Haven't missed having a car at all and love Mondays off work!

I consider a car essential. I live in a village with no buses, the nearest bus route is 4 miles away, the nearest shop 3 miles uphill in the opposite direction in the next village which is also where the nearest school and doctors is. Nearest supermarket, train station and taxi firm is in a small town 7 miles away where I also work. The only adults I can think of in the village are elderly people who have had to give their licences up for health reasons and now rely on family. Sadly some are forced to move away from their friends into the town in later life when this happens and there is no close family to help them.

I couldn’t get to work and back the same day without one. My village has a shop so I wouldn’t starve.

For day to day: not a necessity at all. I live in London 7 mins walk from the train, and 2 mins walk from a bus stop that takes me to the tube.

I have a car for weekend and holiday hobby trips out of London and visiting family who are all in the arse end of various noweheres. (not on public transport / rail network). And because sometimes it is nicer / quicker to drive rather than go on public transport when travelling across outer London.

Not essential for the area but essential for me in the sense that it gives me back time- and working full time with 2 young kids time is important!

Necessity mainly for my job and logistics of school drop offs and getting to work. Live rurally, Work in community nursing

Absolutely necessary or my lifestyle would have to change a lot, and there is no bus directly to my work. I live in a fairly rural area, i can get from my village to centre of the nearest town on the bus but nowhere else and only to the middle of town not to out of town shops, supermarket shopping would be pretty impossible without a car

Essential, no real options public transport wise and it would be a several mile hike to get to the very occasional bus.

I feel as though it's essential, but I imagine in the past people walked the 3.5 miles into the nearest town most days.

Absolutely essential for when we need to leave the little village that we live in, but it has enough services that we don't actually need to do that all that frequently.

We're extremely remote (3hrs drive to the nearest city.)
No public transport to speak of. A bus to said city runs on Mondays and Fridays, with a ~4hr stop before it returns the same day.
No taxis.
No Uber or equivalent.

Not necessary. Live in coastal city. 2 kids and no car.

Essential here in deepest, darkest Devon as the nearest public transport is 4 miles away. I can walk to a secluded beach though so there are some compensations (walking back up a hill isn't a barrel of laughs I admit!).

It's not at all. We were considering selling it because our insurance is so expensive and estimates look like we'd get almost all the money we spent on it back since the rise in prices for secondhand cars. But, it does definitely make our lives more convenient since we have since adjusted things to make use of it e.g. DC1's extra-curriculars being far enough away that lack of car would mean we'd have to move at least one of the classes to a closer provider. And it makes DH's and kids lives a lot easier on the days we both work when he has to do two drop offs and also get to work on time.

Absolutely essential.

The village shop (opened by volunteers a couple of hours on weekday mornings only) is probably half an hour walk each way (an hour round trip using a muddy footpath (on roads would be further) so fine for a good dog walk and the pub is 20 mins, nothing else is within walking distance and no public transport to the village at all.

I mainly work from home but need a car for my freelance work. I shop online, but still need a car to go to the doctor, the dentist etc and to see friends and family who live outside the village.

I’ve just put our nearest supermarket into google maps, going by public transport would take 35 minutes. It’s a 5 minute drive away.

Absolutely essential.

Rural village, no shops, no pavements, no buses, nothing to walk to. 30 mile round trip to schools with zero bus options.

I live within the M25 with generally excellent public transport links. I bought my current car when I had a job five miles away with rubbish bus times. Six months later I got a local job with a 15-20 minute walk. In five years my car has done less than 6000 miles. Did less than 200 miles in 2020! Generally just used for shopping, picking DH up from the station after football (big uphill) and one or two long journeys a year up north to see friends and family.

Could easily live without it but I like having it.

Essential. Zero public transport. Walk to nearest village on busy main road(no bus there anymore) with no paths. It is ridiculous. Other village has a bus 4 times a day which takes 90mins to get to city.

Local elections coming up. Easy way to gain opinions on possible plans the various parties will have.