What would your life change if you had to get rid of your car/could no longer drive

[Netcurtainnelly]

Do you ever worry about this?
How would it change your life tomorrow?
Which things would not be possible anymore?

Fortunately I'm a fairly fit 69 year old and I always walk into town ( about 1.5 kms away) if I can so could cope on a day to day basis at the moment.
However public transport isn't great here so I'd not be able to visit the coast or NT properties etc and visiting our two nearest cities, including for hospital visits, would be a bit of a pain and take far longer than going by car even though they aren't that far away.
DS would have to visit here rather than sharing visiting as a rail journey to his home would be quite complex and expensive .
Finally our regular touring holidays through France and Spain wouldn't happen.

I couldn't work in a job outside of my very small town that started at 9am. Which is many jobs.

We live in a town where public transport is dreadful. The extent of our town is a small leisure centre, a Lidl, an inadequate Tesco, a Card Factory and a B&M. No train station, buses twice a day do it would be depressing to lose my car! My children go to school 5 and 11 miles away as well so they could no longer get there. It would be catastrophic if I lost my car/license.

I had to stop driving literally overnight due to a medical condition (epilepsy). It was horrendous. Maybe wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d had time to prepare and get my head round it. I had a seizure in late ‘24, so had to stop driving and be seizure free for 12 months. I had a further seizure at the 10 month point, so the clock reset for 12 more months.

I fully appreciate that things could be A LOT worse and am sorry for those on this thread who are suffering from conditions that won’t improve and I wish you all the very best.

Unfortunately the loss freedom I’d taken for granted, and being able to go here, there and everywhere has made me very depressed. I’m trying to take steps to improve, but loads of things that would make me feel better aren’t easy to get to, so it’s a vicious circle.

💐 The time for change is now while you have time to adapt. Don't wait until you have no choice.

I have health conditions that mean I intermittently lose the ability to drive, sometimes for many years at a time. I have planned my life - work, hobbies, friendships - around places I can get to.

I grew up in a village where there were no regular buses, and if I had stayed there I would have been totally housebound and very lonely for large portions of my life.

My health issues started as a teen, and I didn't get a driving licence until I was in my twenties, giving me plenty of time to learn how difficult it is to live carless in a rural area. IME it is nigh impossible outside of large towns and cities.

Where I live now has plenty places I can walk to (shops, parks, community centre, cafes etc) and nearby and frequent trains and buses (to city centres, hospitals etc).

I absolutely love the countryside, but realistically my disability means I'm fucked if I live there. I deliberately chose to live here because I will still have a life if (when) I can't drive a car.

I wouldn't be able to do my job and as I am SE my company would probably fold, although DH brings money into it was well.
I would never find a job as enjoyable or well paid, I would be devastated

So does mine. I live on a main bus route and tram into the city and to another larger town. But I wouldn’t get the bus now - I certainly won’t be getting it when I am vulnerable and can’t see.

I have the town in walking distance.

I hardly go out anyway, other than to walk the dog.
its just knowing that I could if I wanted to. When I lose that I will feel trapped.

I'd have to move. Public transport is shite where I live and I'm too old and arthritic to cycle, or walk more than short distances.

No way are DH and I ever going to be without a car. We live in a little village 4 miles from the little market town near us, there is no public transport from the village, and we have no shops, and no facilities. We have one pub, a Church, and a small parish hall that has 5 or 6 hobby groups, and small events (like wedding receptions when people have had a wedding at the Church, and the odd party, and Royal family celebrations, and the like...) We have 5 or 6 fetes and events on the parish hall field, over the year, including Christmas and summer fetes.

Even our little market town has no public transport anywhere. Just a couple of buses that go from one side of the town to the other. If you have no car you are fucked. If anyone wants to travel anywhere by train, they have to get a taxi (or a lift) to the nearest train station (15 miles away.) Or try and get to the next town 5 miles away from our local market town - also a market town but a little bit bigger, and has buses to 3 big towns (2 that have train stations.)

Taxis are quite hard to get too, unless you book it a few days in advance, as there are very few taxis. You can get one straight away, or within an hour sometimes, but sometimes you can't. When DH and I have our MOT done on our car (and we need a taxi there and back to the garage in our local little town) we book it a week in advance.

I love living in a low population, low crime, rural area, with lots of woodlands, the river, the canal, fresh clean air, beautiful views (also close proximity to the Welsh border, and beautiful places to see there,) but you are fucked if you have no car.

Yes, I know that a car can let you down now and again, but IME, people I know - in other towns - (who use public transport,) are let down way more by public transport than DH and I are by the car. We have been let down by our car 3-4 times in 12 years. (Since we have lived here.) I know people who have been let down that many times by public transport in a month before now!

I’d have to change my job as it relies on me being able to get around different sites. It would be difficult with my dog too. I’d lose a lot of freedom to travel easily and have the type of UK holidays we like. Public transport is ok where we live but only on the main routes.

It would be absolutely life changing and make my world much smaller.

So the answers break down as

Londoners - no real impact as have Oyster cards

Residents of other large cities - would get by with public transport

Suburban and small cities - would really struggle

Rural - utterly stuffed, would have to find a way to afford to move

and many of us who work in different places evey day
would have to give up working

I’d lose my business so it’d be more than shit. And most of my leisure stuff too. Love my cars.

Exactly. Our 2 DC live 18 and 20 miles away too, and not in the same town, so we wouldn't be able to get to them at all. DH wouldn't be able to get to work either - he works odd hours. As I said, there is no public transport anyway from our village though, so even if he worked 9-5, he wouldn't be able to get there. My 2 BFF lives 12 and 15 miles away (in opposite directions.) I would not be able to meet up with them with no car.

DH and I would lose our freedom, and it would feel like being under house arrest! 😬

And yes it would be life changing. And not in a good way.

.

It would be a nightmare. Three trains with a 20 min walk either way to get to work or a bus that would take 2 hours. My parents live 80 miles away so wouldn't be able to visit them easily either.

God, I'd have a breakdown. We live in Devon - 200m from an A road, feels v rural but not middle of nowhere.

I'd have to give up some of my work, the home based bits would be fine. No shops within walking distance so online only. Couldn't pick up my prescriptions. Couldn't take dd to and from station (7 min drive) for college. No buses or footpaths and she'd have to go across a motorway junction to get there, no other way so that wouldn't work at all.

Couldn't get dd to her friends' houses, most live in a large village about 20 mins drive from here - about 2 buses a day IF it's not cut off by flooding, which it regularly is.

Couldn't visit my elderly parents 2.5 hours drive away. Even my local friends aren't within safe walking distance (no footpaths for vast majority) so without relying on other people to drive me, I'd see nobody.

Doesn't bear thinking about. If I couldn't drive at all we'd have to move but God knows what I'd do about family 2.5 hours away.

Haven't had one in years. More hassle and cost than they're worth.

I was unable to drive for about a year after an accident that included a significant head injury. It was only meant to be 6 months but it took DVLA so long to process everything that it was nearer 12 months until I got my licence back. It was awful as we live rurally with no public transport and no facilities within walking distance so I was dependent on people giving me lifts for everything. Whilst I was actually ill it wasn't too bad but once I was better it drove me crazy as I was almost a prisoner in my own home.
DH and I intend to move once he retires in a few years and plan on going somewhere with public transport. We still want to stay fairly rural but are already investigating villages nearer to our adult DD with train stations and/or on a bus route and have seen a few possibilities. My year with no transport opened my eyes to what old age could be like and we know we can't stay here indefinitely. I want to move whilst we are still active and in good health rather than wait til we can no longer cope.

I can't drive due to a medical condition.
I don't feel overly deprived or disabled & I'm quite resourceful.
I have more money to spend on other things.
There's worse things than not being able to drive.

That's an excellent summing up. Spot on.

But you have the luxury of better public transport. You would be pretty stuffed if you lived where I do.

I do live rurally. I have had to move due to isolation where we were before which had zero public transport. I've had to move to where is realistic rather than being able to live wherever which obviously has meant compromise.

Public transport is limited - Buses every 2 hours weekdays so involves a lot of planning, bike & the 'connect' service plus taxis in an emergency.

I've had to make compromises & sacrifices (like anyone with a disability) but I wouldn't say I'm 'stuffed' - quite happy with my lifestyle

I need to be able to drive with a husband who needs frequent hospital appointments at three different hospitals and a daughter at university.

I’d have no job because I’m a driving instructor!

Suburban and small cities - would really struggle

which small cities would be places where people struggle? can you give an example?

Salisbury. Maybe Bath. The city centres themselves are manageable but the surroundings are rural. I waited 90 minutes for a cab on a busy Saturday afternoon in Bath.