3 ms·
I don't understand the logic by which people say that in smaller towns, you need a car. For me the exact opposite has been true: the larger the city, the more
by clarry 7y ago
I don't understand the logic by which people say that in smaller towns, you need a car. For me the exact opposite has been true: the larger the city, the more likely I am to need a car. In small cities everything is in walking distance, that's what small means. Big means things are far. Also, based on all the complaining about public traffic and congestion and whatnot, the larger the city, the more likely you are to be stuck in traffic..
As for the cost of owning and maintaining a car, I recently calculated that mine is about 300 eur/month, assuming I keep it for 5 years and sell or scrap it for 1000 eur. I'm likely to keep it longer (and/or sell for more), however, and that will bring the cost down.
By contrast, I'm paying 1045 eur/month for a 3BR apartment with sauna :-).
- imjared 7y agoUSA small towns != European small towns. Many small cities in the US have no walking infrastructure, horrible (unreliable, slow, etc.) public transportation, and are victims of sprawl. Having just come off a trip to a handful of smaller European cities, if I lived there I would most likely just walk, bike, or maybe scooter everywhere.
- Mountain_Skies 7y agoMany small towns have downtowns with good walking infrastructure (though often in poor repair). The problem is almost everything has closed down because the strip of big box stores located out on the highway bypass on the edge of town attracted away all the customers.
- ghaff 7y agoHowever lots of people in those cities do in fact own cars.
- icebraining 7y agoLarger cities tend to be denser, which means that while, yes, there are things farther than in a small city, there are also more things accessible at the same distance. Plus, that density makes it economical to support other alternatives besides car ownership or walking, like public transportation and delivery services. I once carried a foam mattress for 12km on the Brussels subway. In any small town I lived in, that would have required a car, even if the shop was half the distance away. And small towns are more likely to be missing something entirely, which means you have to travel to another town, possibly much farther than crossing a big city. Currently I live in a medium-sized city, 10m by train from a big one, and I find it to be a sweet spot :)