3 ms·

Whether having a car is necessary or not depends on where you live. Here in Northern Europe we literally can't reach my or my partner's parents with public tran

Whether having a car is necessary or not depends on where you live. Here in Northern Europe we literally can't reach my or my partner's parents with public transport, because they happen to live in the countryside. For us having a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity if our kids ever want to see their grandparents. So yeah, making car ownership generally expensive is a bad idea, and would only make Europe's already expensive housing market worse. There are more fair and effective ways to make city centres car-free, and suburb-dwellers to pay their fair share for infrastructure.

rglullis 1y ago
> For us having a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity if our kids ever want to see their grandparents. This is absolutely no reason to justify owning a car. People can still rent a car, people can still do car pools, people can still can have intercity buses.
- rwyinuse 1y ago
  Intercity buses would be nice, and perhaps a car pool among few friends could work. Renting a car however remains very impractical for any longer trip. Still, I'm not sure what is so bad about owning a car in a small or medium-sized city like mine. Average age of a car in my country is almost 14 years, and rising. Very few people are buying new cars, and keeping the old ones around, using infrastructure already built isn't so bad. The population is barely growing and will soon fall, further reducing need for new car-centric infrastructure. I drive less than 8k kilometers a year.
- XorNot 1y ago
  People who say "just rent a car" don't do that. I just rented a car for a holiday. It was much more expensive then the cost of keeping my own car on the road, and took a whole lot of time to book including avoiding a number of ways any minor damage would cost thousands more.
  - CalRobert 1y ago
    I used gocar extensively when I lived in Ireland..
- bombcar 1y ago
  It’s mind-boggling how quickly the “rent or buy” switches toward buying, especially if you’re willing to compare “rent car” with “buy a cheap used car.” And once you have it …

rglullis 1y ago

> For us having a car is not a luxury, it's a necessity if our kids ever want to see their grandparents. This is absolutely no reason to justify owning a car. People can still rent a car, people can still do car pools, people can still can have intercity buses.

rwyinuse 1y ago
Intercity buses would be nice, and perhaps a car pool among few friends could work. Renting a car however remains very impractical for any longer trip. Still, I'm not sure what is so bad about owning a car in a small or medium-sized city like mine. Average age of a car in my country is almost 14 years, and rising. Very few people are buying new cars, and keeping the old ones around, using infrastructure already built isn't so bad. The population is barely growing and will soon fall, further reducing need for new car-centric infrastructure. I drive less than 8k kilometers a year.
XorNot 1y ago
People who say "just rent a car" don't do that. I just rented a car for a holiday. It was much more expensive then the cost of keeping my own car on the road, and took a whole lot of time to book including avoiding a number of ways any minor damage would cost thousands more.
- CalRobert 1y ago
  I used gocar extensively when I lived in Ireland..
bombcar 1y ago
It’s mind-boggling how quickly the “rent or buy” switches toward buying, especially if you’re willing to compare “rent car” with “buy a cheap used car.” And once you have it …