Where can we live without a car?

[DespairingInLondon]

We're thinking of leaving London but really do not want to have to get a car.

Our children will be in secondary school soon, so we want them to have social lives but without having to drive them everywhere.

Tell me about the places you know within about 2 hours of London where you truly can live without a car. Frequent, reliable public transport, safe cycling options, walk to town centre and shops, etc.

Oooh def Windsor.

great quality of life-

You can walk everywhere-GP, dentist, vet, shops, restaurants, pubs etc.

The town is fun for teens, great links to London.

You have the Thames and Great Park on your doorstep, loads of cycle paths-

ticks a lot of boxes!!!

@mumsiedarlingrevolta

Oooh def Windsor.

great quality of life-

You can walk everywhere-GP, dentist, vet, shops, restaurants, pubs etc.

The town is fun for teens, great links to London.

You have the Thames and Great Park on your doorstep, loads of cycle paths-

ticks a lot of boxes!!!

But not the affordability box, crucially

What roughly are you looking to spend on housing?

You could look at Slough instead of Windsor.
Parts of Slough will be nearer Windsor town centre than parts of Windsor

@AliceAldridge

York apparently has an amazing PT system. Not 2 hours away.

It is on the train!

You could live perfectly happily in York without a car, particularly if you were within a mile of the centre. I do have a car but rarely use it, not least as you can walk/cycle/bus more quickly than you can drive in York. However, nice houses in the centre are very expensive.

There are a couple of very good co-ed secondary schools.

I live in Leicestershire (near Loughborough) and commuted daily to London for 5 years - was well under 2hours each way door to door. The villages are lovely and relatively cheap.

Theres a branch line to Leicester and Nottingham (and beyond) and bus services from my village and it's 10 minutes to Loughborough station for mainline trains.

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda

Sorry-I didn't see a budget.
But just to clarify-Windsor has all sorts of options in different types of housing and price ranges-
It's not just the Castle

I'm laughing like a drain at the suggestion you can do without a car in Birmingham.

I get the distinct impression the people saying this are all drivers.

The bus service from KH/Moseley is a disaster at the minute, a 15 minute journey into town now regularly takes 40+ minutes.

The cross city line is ok but trains are regularly cancelled. They've just suspended the tram service indefinitely. I'm very glad I can walk to work or I would be screwed.

For example, I recently travelled from Sutton Coldfield to the Jewellery Quarter. It took an hour and a half on public transport. I could have walked it quicker.

The less expensive the house the higher the likelihood having a car is essential.

I am not sure that's strictly true. Bus companies put bus routes in 'good bus territory' which usually means: people less likely to have cars, urban areas, or commuter routes. Expensive places and roads where I live do not have a bus route. However in my local city, there are nice family areas with excellent bus routes because they are urban.

Most market towns.

Newbury has schools and college, shops, theatre, race course, town centre, sports facilities, hospital, mainline railway station, bus station and plenty of housing all within about four square miles. Regular & train bus services to surrounding towns.

I had a similar experience as @TheWholeWorld with PT in Bristol, albeit not recently. I used to walk to avoid catching the bus.

Hastings. I don't have a car. I walk to the station (10 mins) and get the train to London (hour and a half.) The children walk/ cycle to school. The train goes along the coast too, to Eastbourne, Brighton etc. There's a beach.

Also Hastings houses are v. Affordable (in comparison to London) and it's cheap to commute (unlike York.)

@supremelybaffled

Sark. No cars allowed, and it's within 2 hours by air

Slough is a hole. Quick trains into London so you would think it would be great but it’s not.

Another vote for Newcastle. Affordable, decent schools, good public transport, lots going on etc. Fast trains into King's Cross take about 3hrs so a bit more than you were planning but doable, and from there walkable to eurotunnel. Or you can fly from Newcastle International.

We do have a car and live nearby; but have plenty of friends with no car who manage just fine. You wouldn't want to drive into the city centre anyway.

Central Bristol.
We have a rarely used car but it is much easier to cycle, bus or recently, e-scoot.
It's quite a small city so relatively straight forward to get around.
Also, it's quite a "green" city so there are lots of car sharing type schemes around if you do need a car for something.

Market towns tend to have enough going on but you can still walk or cycle around. We are in Newbury.

Chippy without a car would be hard. Witney would be better.

Cambridge?

If you want a chipping Norton ambiance with good links to London and somewhere you can survive carless but is okay for teens and near a big city then look at market harborough

Nowhere is like London. So first you have to accept that.

The next best cities are those where cycling and a car-free lifestyle is encouraged - Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Edinburgh, York etc. But as you say, expensive.

Then you’re really having to adjust your expectations of what a car-free lifestyle looks like in the next tranche of cities/towns. There will be much, much less frequent transport and the routes won’t necessarily make joined up sense like London does, so your world really shrinks, even within an already smaller place. You have to adapt your lifestyle and expectations to the transport available - less choice, less convenience etc.

If I were you I’d look at what cities have car clubs, and work from there…

@DespairingInLondon what's your housing budget?

Chipping Norton definitely not! And any teens will hate you forever. There is no where like London. I was brought up there. Key to me is a couple of bus routes. Don’t rely on one bus every hour. What if it didn’t turn up?

Oxford is an option

Two words. Not Winchester.