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Honestly I think this is an issue with your friends and possibly with where y'all live, not with living without a car. Do you live on opposite ends of town? The

by jarek 15y ago

Honestly I think this is an issue with your friends and possibly with where y'all live, not with living without a car. Do you live on opposite ends of town? The only trip I can imagine taking two hours one way is Ballard to West Seattle or something similarly silly. Going to movies? Going to a show? Even the Showbox in the middle of industrial wasteland is a 10 minute walk to the light rail. Hiking, snowboarding, sure, that requires going out of town. (Zipcar or rent.) Staying in town doesn't need a car. (And try parking in Capitol Hill and let me know about preferable.)

sukuriant 15y ago
Don't forget going between towns. Getting to Redmond from Renton is a 2 hour ride because there isn't a direct route.
- jarek 15y ago
  Unless I'm missing something neither of them are Seattle. I agree that if you need to go to Renton regularly you do need a car.
forrestthewoods 15y ago
Of course we live on opposite ends of town. If you live in Capital Hill without a car then you live in a teeny tiny bubble. Getting out of that bubble requires a long bus ride or a ride from a friend. It's 50 minutes from Capital Hill to Green Lake. Over an hour when you factor walking to the stop and waiting for the bus. That's over two hours round trip. Makes getting together for board games or dinner a huge pain in the ass. Getting to Kirkland is 90 minutes one way. People and jobs are scattered all over the greater Seattle area. The vast majority of people I know have cars. The few who don't are rarely seen outside of their tiny bubble because it takes so long to get around.
- jarek 15y ago
  I had interpreted your initial post as 2 hours one way for that bus trip, my apologies. Other than that... I'm really at a loss, I don't know what I can say. Again, this isn't a problem with living carless or even living carless in Seattle, it's a problem with your special case with your specific social group. If your bubble induces you to make a 25 mile round trip to Kirkland with any regularity, yeah, you should probably find a way of getting there that doesn't involve bumming rides all the time. But everyone lives in a bubble, there's different kinds, sizes, and geographical dispersion levels of bubbles, and there's nothing wrong with living in a geographically concentrated one. Capitol Hill gets you to either U District or Lower Queen Anne with an easy 20 minutes transfer-less bus trip, it's 15 minutes to Belltown, and so on - it's really far from a teeny tiny bubble. (Not to claim Cap Hill as centre of the universe, I'm merely using it as an example I'm familiar with, not living in Seattle.) You don't need a car unless your social group dictates that you do.

by jarek 15y ago

sukuriant 15y ago

Don't forget going between towns. Getting to Redmond from Renton is a 2 hour ride because there isn't a direct route.

jarek 15y ago
Unless I'm missing something neither of them are Seattle. I agree that if you need to go to Renton regularly you do need a car.

forrestthewoods 15y ago

Of course we live on opposite ends of town. If you live in Capital Hill without a car then you live in a teeny tiny bubble. Getting out of that bubble requires a long bus ride or a ride from a friend. It's 50 minutes from Capital Hill to Green Lake. Over an hour when you factor walking to the stop and waiting for the bus. That's over two hours round trip. Makes getting together for board games or dinner a huge pain in the ass. Getting to Kirkland is 90 minutes one way. People and jobs are scattered all over the greater Seattle area. The vast majority of people I know have cars. The few who don't are rarely seen outside of their tiny bubble because it takes so long to get around.

jarek 15y ago
I had interpreted your initial post as 2 hours one way for that bus trip, my apologies. Other than that... I'm really at a loss, I don't know what I can say. Again, this isn't a problem with living carless or even living carless in Seattle, it's a problem with your special case with your specific social group. If your bubble induces you to make a 25 mile round trip to Kirkland with any regularity, yeah, you should probably find a way of getting there that doesn't involve bumming rides all the time. But everyone lives in a bubble, there's different kinds, sizes, and geographical dispersion levels of bubbles, and there's nothing wrong with living in a geographically concentrated one. Capitol Hill gets you to either U District or Lower Queen Anne with an easy 20 minutes transfer-less bus trip, it's 15 minutes to Belltown, and so on - it's really far from a teeny tiny bubble. (Not to claim Cap Hill as centre of the universe, I'm merely using it as an example I'm familiar with, not living in Seattle.) You don't need a car unless your social group dictates that you do.