To add on: I just moved to Seattle from Chicago where I lived for several years. In Chicago, I used strictly public transportation or walked, it worked great be

To add on: I just moved to Seattle from Chicago where I lived for several years. In Chicago, I used strictly public transportation or walked, it worked great because I never needed or wanted to leave the "city" in general. If I did, it was infrequent enough to warrant renting a car. All my errands could be done on the walk home from the office as well. Now that I'm in Seattle (well, Bellevue), the beauty of the PNW has me going on several hours of driving and exploration every weekend. Good luck doing that without a personal vehicle. Also, my commute is agonizing, but even in a personal car it's still orders of magnitude more time efficient than the public transportation options, and I can get all my random errands for the family done during. I'm probably preaching to the choir by replying to you, but my car is now an indispensable part of my life. I could only imagine not having it being in the densest and most "isolated" American cities at this point (Chicago, Manhattan possibly).