4 ms·

I hope the first HN comment is always a book suggestion. :) I recently got rid of my car after four years of living in a city. I don't know why I held onto it

I hope the first HN comment is always a book suggestion. :) I recently got rid of my car after four years of living in a city. I don't know why I held onto it for so long, but my life has improved dramatically. Not only can I go anywhere I want, but I never have to worry about permits, tickets, or parking. This lifestyle can't work for people outside of cities, though. There's no way to get anyplace without a car, and there isn't enough density to make uber very effective. No one wants to wait a half hour for a ride. Being in a city has downsides, but for this reason it's wonderful. There's even an app now where you can just use someone else's car. (Getaround, I think?) I've used it twice: one when I needed to go buy something about 20 miles away, and another to go on a trip a hundred miles away. And the price was very low.

pdonis 8y ago
> This lifestyle can't work for people outside of cities, though. Exactly. Which means that, if cities are designed sanely, they will be more attractive to people who don't want cars (when I lived in a city during college, I never had a car and never missed having one), and suburbs and rural areas will be more attractive to people who do (as I do now since I like having a detached house and an actual yard).
tdfx 8y ago
There's also Turo, which seems similar to Getaround by your description, as well as hourly rentals through Zipcar. And the established rental players like Hertz and Enterprise have started trying to emulate the smaller startups with flexible locations and hourly billing. And there's always Uber. My lease is up next year and I can't wait to get rid of my car. I won't be replacing it. My car payment is rather high, but even with just the insurance, city parking/tickets, gas, tolls, and maintenance costs, I'm pretty sure I can Uber/Lyft everywhere I need to go for less money and rent a car on the occasion I really need one.
- briandear 8y ago
  Uber with car seats for 4 kids is a pain. With kids, a car provides a “base” for when you go out — you can carry everything you need without having to tote it all around once you arrive at the destination. Public transport for older kids is fine, but with small kids, it’s a nightmare, especially in NY where apparently only a few subway stops have elevators and they’re generally filled with piss.
MarkusAllen 8y ago
In a city, how do you handle buying a socket wrench to fix something in your house? (It sounds like a MAJOR hassle.)
- sillysaurus3 8y ago
  Amazon prime 2hour delivery. $22 has it at my doorstep in two hours. If I want it faster than that, or cheaper, I walk to the home depot a mile away.
- kalleboo 8y ago
  15 minute bike ride to the hardware store
- couchand 8y ago
  I walk a block to the locally-owned hardware store and give my dollars to my neighbor, obviously. What do you do, throw your money into the giant corporate black hole?
- c22 8y ago
  I just use the socket wrench at the community makerspace 5 blocks from my house.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  Bike to one of the 3 (or 4?) hardware stores in a 10-15min radius. The closest one is barely 5 minutes away, but it's a bit expensive. If I need something specialized, I either take public transit all the way there, or ride my bike to the S-train station and bring my bike on the train.
- ACow_Adonis 8y ago
  I walk down to the hardware store, i purchase it, i walk back :| If i want to go to the really big hardware warehouse, I catch the tram from just outside my house. And if i need big things for some reason, I book the share-van, drive there, load it into the back, drive home, unload it, park the van, walk away.
- kaybe 8y ago
mikekchar 8y ago
> This lifestyle can't work for people outside of cities I'm not sure. You have to look to other places in the world to see examples of lower density living, though. I live in rural Japan in a small town. Officially I think it is officially 25K people, but that's only because it is more efficient for a single city hall to service a larger area. In reality, I think that it is closer to 5-10K in the town itself and then a spattering of people around the outskirts. The main street of the town is 6 blocks long, if I remember correctly. I live 2 km away from the "hustle and bustle" of the town ;-) I live in a 3 story walk up apartment building surrounded on 3 sides by rice fields. Here and there, there are similar small apartment buildings, single family homes and small farms. In the walkable area, there are 3 grocery stores, a variety of restaurants, some clothing stores, some hardware stores, one electronics store, many bars (Japan is a drinking society), etc. There are many factories in the area (including TDK, Suzuki, and a few other big ones). There are dentists, doctors, etc, etc, etc. I have to walk to the "down town" to catch the bus to the nearest big city, which I probably do once a month or so. However, that's it. Near the main street, it is mostly houses and shops, but by the time you get out my way (which is only a 20 minute walk) more than half of the land is farmland. The main street is right by the beach, too, so it only spreads in one direction. That should give you an idea of how small it is. There are definitely places where it would be very difficult to live without a car, but it's pretty darn rural here and it's extremely comfortable to live if you are able bodied. If you have a bike, you can even easily ride to the next town (or the one after that). When I was teaching in the high school here, most of my students rode from 2 or 3 villages away, because there weren't enough students in the area to fill up the school. So depending on your definition of "city", I think it's completely doable. You just have to intentionally design the towns to be accessible. (It also helps that farms in Japan are extremely small, by law).

pdonis 8y ago

> This lifestyle can't work for people outside of cities, though. Exactly. Which means that, if cities are designed sanely, they will be more attractive to people who don't want cars (when I lived in a city during college, I never had a car and never missed having one), and suburbs and rural areas will be more attractive to people who do (as I do now since I like having a detached house and an actual yard).

tdfx 8y ago

There's also Turo, which seems similar to Getaround by your description, as well as hourly rentals through Zipcar. And the established rental players like Hertz and Enterprise have started trying to emulate the smaller startups with flexible locations and hourly billing. And there's always Uber. My lease is up next year and I can't wait to get rid of my car. I won't be replacing it. My car payment is rather high, but even with just the insurance, city parking/tickets, gas, tolls, and maintenance costs, I'm pretty sure I can Uber/Lyft everywhere I need to go for less money and rent a car on the occasion I really need one.

briandear 8y ago
Uber with car seats for 4 kids is a pain. With kids, a car provides a “base” for when you go out — you can carry everything you need without having to tote it all around once you arrive at the destination. Public transport for older kids is fine, but with small kids, it’s a nightmare, especially in NY where apparently only a few subway stops have elevators and they’re generally filled with piss.

MarkusAllen 8y ago

In a city, how do you handle buying a socket wrench to fix something in your house? (It sounds like a MAJOR hassle.)

sillysaurus3 8y ago
Amazon prime 2hour delivery. $22 has it at my doorstep in two hours. If I want it faster than that, or cheaper, I walk to the home depot a mile away.
kalleboo 8y ago
15 minute bike ride to the hardware store
couchand 8y ago
I walk a block to the locally-owned hardware store and give my dollars to my neighbor, obviously. What do you do, throw your money into the giant corporate black hole?
c22 8y ago
I just use the socket wrench at the community makerspace 5 blocks from my house.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
Bike to one of the 3 (or 4?) hardware stores in a 10-15min radius. The closest one is barely 5 minutes away, but it's a bit expensive. If I need something specialized, I either take public transit all the way there, or ride my bike to the S-train station and bring my bike on the train.
ACow_Adonis 8y ago
I walk down to the hardware store, i purchase it, i walk back :| If i want to go to the really big hardware warehouse, I catch the tram from just outside my house. And if i need big things for some reason, I book the share-van, drive there, load it into the back, drive home, unload it, park the van, walk away.
kaybe 8y ago

mikekchar 8y ago

> This lifestyle can't work for people outside of cities I'm not sure. You have to look to other places in the world to see examples of lower density living, though. I live in rural Japan in a small town. Officially I think it is officially 25K people, but that's only because it is more efficient for a single city hall to service a larger area. In reality, I think that it is closer to 5-10K in the town itself and then a spattering of people around the outskirts. The main street of the town is 6 blocks long, if I remember correctly. I live 2 km away from the "hustle and bustle" of the town ;-) I live in a 3 story walk up apartment building surrounded on 3 sides by rice fields. Here and there, there are similar small apartment buildings, single family homes and small farms. In the walkable area, there are 3 grocery stores, a variety of restaurants, some clothing stores, some hardware stores, one electronics store, many bars (Japan is a drinking society), etc. There are many factories in the area (including TDK, Suzuki, and a few other big ones). There are dentists, doctors, etc, etc, etc. I have to walk to the "down town" to catch the bus to the nearest big city, which I probably do once a month or so. However, that's it. Near the main street, it is mostly houses and shops, but by the time you get out my way (which is only a 20 minute walk) more than half of the land is farmland. The main street is right by the beach, too, so it only spreads in one direction. That should give you an idea of how small it is. There are definitely places where it would be very difficult to live without a car, but it's pretty darn rural here and it's extremely comfortable to live if you are able bodied. If you have a bike, you can even easily ride to the next town (or the one after that). When I was teaching in the high school here, most of my students rode from 2 or 3 villages away, because there weren't enough students in the area to fill up the school. So depending on your definition of "city", I think it's completely doable. You just have to intentionally design the towns to be accessible. (It also helps that farms in Japan are extremely small, by law).