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After all, it's the city you can live without owning cars in the United States. I know a lot of other people in Boston that don't own cars.

by cbr 10y ago

ghaff 10y ago
Yes. And some other cities as well. But there's really no US city other than [EDIT: parts of] NYC where not owning a car is widely viewed as typical and just part of the culture. You can certainly live in Boston, say, without a car but many/most of the tech jobs are out in the suburbs as are, most likely, many of your friends. As a result, most people will find that not owning a car becomes limiting at some point. (This is probably less true than it used to be. If nothing else, services like Zipcar make it easier to drive out to the suburbs for a party or whatever. And more people of a certain demographic are probably clustering in the city after school. But move forward a few years and most people will want the mobility provided by a car.)
- pbh101 10y ago
  Chicago, for many demographics and parts of the city, though admittedly much less pervasively than NYC.
yellowstuff 10y ago
Boston has the third lowest car ownership of US cities, with 63%, compared with New York's 44%. But that understates the difference. NYC contains suburban areas and Boston proper doesn't. Manhattan (population 1.6M) has just 23% car ownership, far lower than Boston, population .6M. So while over 200k people live carless in Boston, over 1.2M do in Manhattan alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_households_without_a_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_... http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-cars http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-cars
- fps 10y ago
  Anecdotally, the people I work with in Cambridge, who live in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington own cars, but don't use them to get to work. The cars are for the weekends and vacations because there's a lot of leisure activities in the area that are out of reach of the T. I know a lot of people that don't ski and don't even dig their car out after the first big snowfall - They just let it sit from December until March.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Certainly there are a lot more tech jobs within easy reach of public transportation within the city than there were even 20 years ago. Back then, the tech industry was almost entirely well outside the city. And if you don't need a car to commute, it is weekends that are mostly the issue. Of course, people can always rent but that gets to be a hassle if it's every weekend or every other weekend. It also gets back to culture. As an adult, being that person in a group who always needs a ride gets old after a while.
    - fps 10y ago
      Yes, lots of tech jobs have migrated from 128 to the city over the 10 years that I've lived here. There are still a lot of jobs on 128, and those companies run shuttles from the city out to the offices for people who live in the city.
      - ghaff 10y ago
        I'm not sure it's so much that jobs have migrated but that a fair number of new startups and branch offices of firms tend to locate in Boston/Cambridge rather than the suburbs. Companies may continue to expand in the suburbs but new offices for both new and existing firms are more likely to be in or near the city. You're also correct about the shuttle buses. Those were unheard of when I first started working at a computer company on 495 in the 80s. Boston and Cambridge, as well as attitudes about city living, have changed a lot in the past 2-3 decades. When I first moved back to the area after grad school, some people I knew lived in the city but not many. It certainly wasn't the norm.

After all, it's the city you can live without owning cars in the United States. I know a lot of other people in Boston that don't own cars.

by cbr 10y ago

After all, it's the city you can live without owning cars in the United States. I know a lot of other people in Boston that don't own cars.

ghaff 10y ago

Yes. And some other cities as well. But there's really no US city other than [EDIT: parts of] NYC where not owning a car is widely viewed as typical and just part of the culture. You can certainly live in Boston, say, without a car but many/most of the tech jobs are out in the suburbs as are, most likely, many of your friends. As a result, most people will find that not owning a car becomes limiting at some point. (This is probably less true than it used to be. If nothing else, services like Zipcar make it easier to drive out to the suburbs for a party or whatever. And more people of a certain demographic are probably clustering in the city after school. But move forward a few years and most people will want the mobility provided by a car.)

pbh101 10y ago
Chicago, for many demographics and parts of the city, though admittedly much less pervasively than NYC.

yellowstuff 10y ago

Boston has the third lowest car ownership of US cities, with 63%, compared with New York's 44%. But that understates the difference. NYC contains suburban areas and Boston proper doesn't. Manhattan (population 1.6M) has just 23% car ownership, far lower than Boston, population .6M. So while over 200k people live carless in Boston, over 1.2M do in Manhattan alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_households_without_a_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_... http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-cars http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-cars

fps 10y ago
Anecdotally, the people I work with in Cambridge, who live in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington own cars, but don't use them to get to work. The cars are for the weekends and vacations because there's a lot of leisure activities in the area that are out of reach of the T. I know a lot of people that don't ski and don't even dig their car out after the first big snowfall - They just let it sit from December until March.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Certainly there are a lot more tech jobs within easy reach of public transportation within the city than there were even 20 years ago. Back then, the tech industry was almost entirely well outside the city. And if you don't need a car to commute, it is weekends that are mostly the issue. Of course, people can always rent but that gets to be a hassle if it's every weekend or every other weekend. It also gets back to culture. As an adult, being that person in a group who always needs a ride gets old after a while.
  - fps 10y ago
    Yes, lots of tech jobs have migrated from 128 to the city over the 10 years that I've lived here. There are still a lot of jobs on 128, and those companies run shuttles from the city out to the offices for people who live in the city.
    - ghaff 10y ago
      I'm not sure it's so much that jobs have migrated but that a fair number of new startups and branch offices of firms tend to locate in Boston/Cambridge rather than the suburbs. Companies may continue to expand in the suburbs but new offices for both new and existing firms are more likely to be in or near the city. You're also correct about the shuttle buses. Those were unheard of when I first started working at a computer company on 495 in the 80s. Boston and Cambridge, as well as attitudes about city living, have changed a lot in the past 2-3 decades. When I first moved back to the area after grad school, some people I knew lived in the city but not many. It certainly wasn't the norm.