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I live in the UK. I own a house with a long term partner. We live outside a city. Neither one of us drives. I feel like we've saved an incredible amount of mone

I live in the UK. I own a house with a long term partner. We live outside a city. Neither one of us drives. I feel like we've saved an incredible amount of money over the years. I think you can get by and do very well without a car in the modern world especially now that WFH is common.

nerdponx 4y ago
> I think you can get by and do very well without a car in the modern world It very very heavily depends on the part of the modern world that you live in. A lot of ostensibly well-off, relatively dense areas in North America are completely unlivable without a car. Public transit isn't reliable enough, distances between your house and various amenities (parks, shops, transit) are too far, and roads are too narrow for walking (no sidewalk or shoulder and travel speeds of 60+ km/h in many places).
- webnrrd2k 4y ago
  To add to your point, it also depends on whether you have kids or other dependents, too. Very often there isn't any real choice in owning a car. Yes, it's possible to go without, but it's so difficult, or requires such a different lifestyle that it's just not practical. The choices have already been made, and there is no going back. I was raised by a single mom, and there is no way she could have provided for us as well as she did without a car. And she went through some real difficulties to have a working car. [edit: I should have added that this is in the US. It may be different in different places]
SoftTalker 4y ago
If you can make it work, that's great. No car payments, no insurance payments, no maintenance expense, no fuel expense. I need a car, but I don't buy them new. I buy used cars that may have some cosmetic flaws but are fundamentally sound. I pay cash so I don't have a car payment or interest expense. Insurance is lower, and if it gets dinged or scratched in a parking lot I don't care.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
vanilla_nut 4y ago
As an American, I envy you. I've spent much of my adult life trying to life car-free but it's really, really hard in the USA. The infrastructure is simply nonexistent or needlessly dangerous, and the few places you can live car-free have become ludicrously expensive.
- ActorNightly 4y ago
  Eh, with decent income, you can definitely uber/ebike in developed places. Generally though, one thing of public transport that gets overlooked is that a) you schedule becomes tied to public transport, and b) you have to deal with people. Because of noise and labor regulations, public transport for short trips does not run at night. Also you can get delays due to passengers causing holdups, and so on. I honestly personally much prefer driving over public transport.
  - earthling8118 4y ago
    Having to tie a schedule to public transit would indicate to me that the transit is not properly set up. It should be traveling frequently enough that this is not an issue. One of my biggest reasons for enjoying flexible working hours is that I can go out during the day when transit is most frequent and I don't have to think about the timing since it is much much more frequent then. And another major plus is not having to deal with traffic. I get delayed far more by people in cars than I ever have with transit. This is a big problem with a lot of systems, especially the north American ones, but it isn't an inherent flaw in public transit. The more it is used and the more it makes itself available and frequent the better it works overall.
aidenn0 4y ago
In the US, this is common, particularly among those who would need subprime car loans: 1 A job where WFH is not an option (either because it's physically impossible (e.g. service industry), or because even if it is physically possible they are at the whims of their boss) 2 A long commute 3 Poor mass transit; even if there is "okay" mass transit both where they live and where they work (already unlikely) there is unlikely to be mass transit connecting the two. 4 Multiple jobs, at least one of which doesn't fit any available mass transit designed around 9-5 commuters.
Adraghast 4y ago
You live in a very particular bubble, friend.
throwaway22032 4y ago
I live in the UK. I own a car that cost me 700 pounds. My annual insurance and tax are 500 pounds. The car basically requires 0 maintenance. It will break in approx. 5 years and I'll buy another one. I can go to the countryside, visit friends and family that do not live near train stations, go to large supermarkets and buy in bulk, and generally just go everywhere more quickly. I like this. It's nice. I'd pay 500k over a lifetime for it. It allows me to do many things I couldn't otherwise. Thankfully it only costs me something like 50-100k.

nerdponx 4y ago

> I think you can get by and do very well without a car in the modern world It very very heavily depends on the part of the modern world that you live in. A lot of ostensibly well-off, relatively dense areas in North America are completely unlivable without a car. Public transit isn't reliable enough, distances between your house and various amenities (parks, shops, transit) are too far, and roads are too narrow for walking (no sidewalk or shoulder and travel speeds of 60+ km/h in many places).

webnrrd2k 4y ago
To add to your point, it also depends on whether you have kids or other dependents, too. Very often there isn't any real choice in owning a car. Yes, it's possible to go without, but it's so difficult, or requires such a different lifestyle that it's just not practical. The choices have already been made, and there is no going back. I was raised by a single mom, and there is no way she could have provided for us as well as she did without a car. And she went through some real difficulties to have a working car. [edit: I should have added that this is in the US. It may be different in different places]

SoftTalker 4y ago

If you can make it work, that's great. No car payments, no insurance payments, no maintenance expense, no fuel expense. I need a car, but I don't buy them new. I buy used cars that may have some cosmetic flaws but are fundamentally sound. I pay cash so I don't have a car payment or interest expense. Insurance is lower, and if it gets dinged or scratched in a parking lot I don't care.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

vanilla_nut 4y ago

As an American, I envy you. I've spent much of my adult life trying to life car-free but it's really, really hard in the USA. The infrastructure is simply nonexistent or needlessly dangerous, and the few places you can live car-free have become ludicrously expensive.

ActorNightly 4y ago
Eh, with decent income, you can definitely uber/ebike in developed places. Generally though, one thing of public transport that gets overlooked is that a) you schedule becomes tied to public transport, and b) you have to deal with people. Because of noise and labor regulations, public transport for short trips does not run at night. Also you can get delays due to passengers causing holdups, and so on. I honestly personally much prefer driving over public transport.
- earthling8118 4y ago
  Having to tie a schedule to public transit would indicate to me that the transit is not properly set up. It should be traveling frequently enough that this is not an issue. One of my biggest reasons for enjoying flexible working hours is that I can go out during the day when transit is most frequent and I don't have to think about the timing since it is much much more frequent then. And another major plus is not having to deal with traffic. I get delayed far more by people in cars than I ever have with transit. This is a big problem with a lot of systems, especially the north American ones, but it isn't an inherent flaw in public transit. The more it is used and the more it makes itself available and frequent the better it works overall.

aidenn0 4y ago

In the US, this is common, particularly among those who would need subprime car loans: 1 A job where WFH is not an option (either because it's physically impossible (e.g. service industry), or because even if it is physically possible they are at the whims of their boss) 2 A long commute 3 Poor mass transit; even if there is "okay" mass transit both where they live and where they work (already unlikely) there is unlikely to be mass transit connecting the two. 4 Multiple jobs, at least one of which doesn't fit any available mass transit designed around 9-5 commuters.

Adraghast 4y ago

You live in a very particular bubble, friend.

throwaway22032 4y ago

I live in the UK. I own a car that cost me 700 pounds. My annual insurance and tax are 500 pounds. The car basically requires 0 maintenance. It will break in approx. 5 years and I'll buy another one. I can go to the countryside, visit friends and family that do not live near train stations, go to large supermarkets and buy in bulk, and generally just go everywhere more quickly. I like this. It's nice. I'd pay 500k over a lifetime for it. It allows me to do many things I couldn't otherwise. Thankfully it only costs me something like 50-100k.