4 ms·

I don't own a car and live in a very cycling friendly place, but even I have to admit that a car is very convenient : - you can transport several person at once

by mijamo 4y ago

I don't own a car and live in a very cycling friendly place, but even I have to admit that a car is very convenient : - you can transport several person at once. If you have kids this is very valuable. - can go longer distances. I wouldn't go more than 15km on my bike as a mean of transportation, as opposed to as an activity in itself - you don't get wet when it rains - you can actually transport stuff. I do my regular shopping on my bike but for gardening I need to rent a car. Same for several things (large packs of stuff, pet food etc.) - you are just more free to go wherever, especially on a weekend. With public transport you are very limited and can't access a lot of wild places. I actually force myself to rent a car once a month so that I go around to different places and not restrict myself to my immediate surroundings and what I can access with public transport. That said, I do not plan to own a car as long as I live in a major city, it is just financially unsound and not really needed for me on a daily basis as I don't have kids.

gernb 4y ago
I ran into this issue moving from the USA (owning a car for 15yrs) to another country where public transportation is the norm. Lived without a car for 15yrs. For the most part I didn't miss the car. I just took it as "life". But, a few friends owned a car and a few times a year I'd met up with them and notice that my world seemed 4x larger with car. They were going all over the place because it was easy and comfortable and while I wasn't a hermit I stuck to easy to get to places. I also joined a surfing group and the person that ran it owned a van and we would not have been able to get to the various beaches without it in any reasonable time frame using public transportation. Another area was running errands. Back in car centric USA I might spend a Saturday going to 3-5 places (Home Depot, Costco, Target, the Mall) and at each place I might buy something I needed and just put it in the trunk and carry on. Where as in my 2nd life I could only go to a single store in a day because I needed to carry what I bought. Maybe that's good but it felt frustating not to be able to get shit done as quickly. Sometimes I could order or have things shipped but it took an extra 10 minutes to fill out the forms, more if there's a line, and then I had to be home to receive the packages.

by mijamo 4y ago

gernb 4y ago

I ran into this issue moving from the USA (owning a car for 15yrs) to another country where public transportation is the norm. Lived without a car for 15yrs. For the most part I didn't miss the car. I just took it as "life". But, a few friends owned a car and a few times a year I'd met up with them and notice that my world seemed 4x larger with car. They were going all over the place because it was easy and comfortable and while I wasn't a hermit I stuck to easy to get to places. I also joined a surfing group and the person that ran it owned a van and we would not have been able to get to the various beaches without it in any reasonable time frame using public transportation. Another area was running errands. Back in car centric USA I might spend a Saturday going to 3-5 places (Home Depot, Costco, Target, the Mall) and at each place I might buy something I needed and just put it in the trunk and carry on. Where as in my 2nd life I could only go to a single store in a day because I needed to carry what I bought. Maybe that's good but it felt frustating not to be able to get shit done as quickly. Sometimes I could order or have things shipped but it took an extra 10 minutes to fill out the forms, more if there's a line, and then I had to be home to receive the packages.