Moving out of town when I don't drive?

[6784F]

I am a first time buyer, and have found a lovely flat in a housing development built 5 minutes drive from the town centre. It's surrounded by lots of countryside with the town just 5 minutes drive away. There are no local shops (like a Co Op) in walking distance.

I don't drive, so to get into town or to the nearest supermarket I would have a 10 minute walk to the bus station, and then a 5 minute bus ride. Does that sound feasible or too impractical? I would order my food shop online.

if your friends drive, invite them to see you at the flat for coffee sometimes and enjoy the lovely countryside.

I have always chosen green views and quiet back roads for my properties no matter the bus rides to the nearest town. I had survived this with buggies on buses, with buggies up hills, walking for fresh air on country lanes, it is Paradise.

I am looking now at nothing but green hills front and back of my window. The pleasure of such life is immense

And how do you suggest that "one" would pay for this. Have you priced driving lessons recently? Not everyone has the funds available to just "get a car".

Don't do it OP. I know it sounds ideal but public transport isn't reliable enough. What if you wa t to stay out late one night or meet friends for a Sunday lunch?

One could pay for this with money.

This sounds completely fine to me unless the buses are very infrequent.

Depends on the area and how reliable and frequent the buses are , and what type of person you are

Round here you would struggle to get to work in the town or go out for an evening

If you like the house and could learn to drive and currently it has a great bus service then why not

Five min is nothing. Of course consider it it

If the buses run regularly and reliably, then it's not too arduous. The problem is if the bus service is crap. Is there a Sunday service?

A 10 minute walk is nothing - all the people saying that it's too far, are your legs made from marshmallow?!

Just to say, in my last house it was a 20 minute walk into the town centre and a 25 minute walk to the railway station both of which I used to do regularly and thought was great because in my previous to that house, it was almost an hour's walk to either

Is the 10 minute walk safe in terms of a proper pavement and street lighting and no overgrown vegetation? I'd be considering how it feels late at night, in the dark, rain,cold. or wind. What seems like an easy stroll on a warm summers day in long daylight hours feels very different in winter.

I had friends I used to housesit for and walking the 10 mins to the local Co-op was positively dangerous as it was a badly lit, semi-rural road with fast cars and no pavement. Fine in summer taking a shortcut over the fields but that wasn't an option in winter. A real pain if you've run out of milk!

Presumably you've checked the frequency and reliability of the bus route and what time it stops running at night, and could afford to put aside a taxi budget for when bus isn't an option.

I wouldn't, no. As others have said, bus routes are under threat - where I live several 'key' routes have been cancelled or scaled back, leaving people isolated. Even if you could cycle, I would also be wary about doing so in the winter and the impatient motorists who treat cyclists as moving targets......

What is 5 minutes drive in distance? 1 m/1.5m ish? If so that sounds like it's really no further from facilities than you could be living in a more urban position. Are there safe and usable pavements between the property and town?

The lack of local shop would put me off. I don't drive but have a shop a couple of minutes' walk from me and it is so handy. There's also a row of shops 5 minutes walk in the other direction and a community centre, swimming pool, school etc all not far away. There's also a bus stop a 2 minute walk from mine that has regular buses to the town centre. I definitely prioritised transport links and local amenities when we were looking at houses. No way would I personally want to be in an estate with nothing else around.

Is there any chance bus routes might change or the service be cut completely? This happened to my DM and it severely impacted how frequently and easily she could get into town.

A 5 minute bus ride isn't very long. Is that 5 minutes on urban roads or rural roads? The first is walkable, the second likely not.

It's hard to be reliant on buses, though. Bus services chop and change all the time. Some of the villages around my small city were completely cut off when we had a protracted strike by bus drivers, last year.

I wouldn’t do it. You could potentially be putting yourself in a highly vulnerable position.

My questions would be: what kind of 10 min walk to a bus? Is there pavement all the way or is it hugging the verge on a fast rd ? (I live 5 mins from the garage that fixes my car - but have to wear hi vis and wouldn't do in twilight/dark).
Do you intend to learn to drive?
How frequent are buses? What hours do they run?
Closest station?
Children?

As others have said, what is the 10min walk to/from the bus stop like, could you ride a bike to the shops, how frequent are the buses, do you have children/pets that need GP/vets/school, in future would learning to drive be a possibility or no due to medical issues?

Where I grew up, this would have been fine but where I live now, it wouldn’t. A lot of new builds are built on the edge of towns but without the infrastructure (doctors, schools, shops, pubs, takeaways, hairdressers) so it does go beyond the food shop. I would answer these scenarios to see if it can work.

Can you get a takeaway delivered either via the takeaway itself or by deliveroo etc.?
Are there a number of taxi firms that run all hours of the day? Can you call and have a taxi in 10 minutes or is pre-booked in advance only?
If you need to see the GP and the only appointment they have is in 30 minutes, can you get there?
Can you get to the dentist in time for a 8am appointment?
Can you get to the hospital for a 9am appointment? Can you get to the hospital at 2am on a Sunday morning, if using a taxi do you know the cost and will you always have that money to hand?
If you need to go into town for the shops, are the buses frequent that you can do your shop and get home pretty much straight away? Or are you going to be waiting for an hour (or more)? If you’re waiting is there enough to occupy you in town?
Can you go for a coffee with friends and be able to go home when you want or are you watching the clock for a specific bus because otherwise it’s a long wait for the next one?
Can you get home at 12am on a Sunday morning if you went out for a drink?
If on a Sunday, your phone charger (or other relatively essential but non-food item) breaks can you get into town easily enough to get a new one?
Where will you have to go to return clothes? Is there a Hermes/yodel drop off point or do you need to get the bus to town?

Then don't move to a place where you need a car! It is a financial strain to learn to drive, pass a test a buy a car, but millions of people do it

@alwaysmovingforwards
@Justcallmebebes

Well yes of course millions of people do it (and loads of people don't), and yes of course you use money to do it.

I would imagine that as OP is a FTB then she has plenty of things to spend her money on at the moment. Learning to drive and buying a car is a perfectly logical solution but it's not really going to help the OP in the short term is it. Lessons and tests take time as well as money and not everyone has the spare cash sitting in a drawer to fund this.

I work in a city … lots of people from outside villages are struggling with busses every couple of hours .. so route would be dependant for me .

My local bus route is the first one to stop in snow because of the next town is high up …

5 minutes out of town in London would be different to 5 minutes from a much smaller town.

My son moved to a new city for his first proper job after graduating. He rented a flat right at the edge, in a residential area, just within the orbital ring road just 25 minutes away by bus. Right on a bus route. He checked the timetables which showed a service at an average of 20 minute intervals during peak times and then hourly evenings and weekends, and thought that would be fine. How wrong he was!

He was late for week at least once a week because the 8:15 bus simply turns up when it wants - sometimes it's late, sometimes it's cancelled. Despite there being 4 buses between 7am and 8am, there's only two buses between 8am and 9am (how does that make sense?). Coming home is just as bad. Sometimes he doesn't get back to his flat until 7pm despite finishing work at 5pm due to the buses either being cancelled, or full when they turn up, or simply don't bother stopping at the bus stop!

The "last" bus of the day is 9.30pm which isn't ideal for when he wants to eat/drink with friends in town in an evening. More often than not, it's cancelled anyway!

He's bought a car! Just couldn't cope with the stress and wasted time. Now he either drives into town, parks a bit away and walks in, or drives in the opposite direction (away from the town) to get the park n ride which is more reliable, runs every 15 minutes, but the downer is that it finishes at a stupidly early 7pm! Thank goodness he learned to drive whilst in sixth form, so was able to buy a car and drive, although he never intended to!

If driving lessons and a car are in your short term future, then yes, but otherwise I wouldn’t risk that level of isolation. Buses are not reliable at the best of times, but throw in the slightest bit of adverse weather and it’s game over.
If you are also buying on your own you could find yourself feeling very cut off indeed.