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Having had a car and also having spent time without one, it creates a striking difference how much you see other people. If you travel by bike and public transp

Having had a car and also having spent time without one, it creates a striking difference how much you see other people. If you travel by bike and public transport, the places that are easiest to get to are geographically close or with large population densities (= good public transport). You never do "take away" or go to a drive in. At the tiny local hamburger joint between your workplace and home, you might see some people that you might otherwise avoid (you then realize why the drive in was invented) - and you reflect about your difference and are happy that you have a steady job. Or you can hang out with a laptop in a cafe in the city center, bump into an old friend and go somewhere together. With a car, you're insulated from all that. You drive alone, you order your hamburgers from the drive in and go home and eat it alone. You avoid city centers since there's too much traffic there. You try to get your errands and hobbies done in industrial areas and suburbs by the outer ring roads circling the city. Your car whisks you there effortlessly, covering tens of kilometers in a few minutes. You live in a totally different world. After a while you notice you haven't seen another person besides family and colleagues up close for a week. Your physical condition gets worse as well. On the other hand, you might get into deep personal talks with your friends while giving them a lift in the night. You don't drink anymore. In theory, you could start a hobby that requires traveling to hard to get places with large equipment, but that might just as well be a fantasy that justifies the convenience of owning a car. It's a striking contrast in life style. I wish the best sides from both could somehow easily be combined. (If I didn't live in a North European city, I could bicycle much more. California weather could be ideal for something like that, if only city planning supported it.) Nobody ever told me that this happens when you get a car?

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
Two years ago I drove 100miles a day to and from work, put on two stone and nearly broke my marriage For the past year I work twenty minutes walk from home, see my children for breakfast each day and actually recognise people in the local neighbourhood It's soooo much better without commuting - by car or not. The simplest rule of thumb is everything you need for life should be 20 minutes walk away. Schools, shops, doctors, work, parks. It is true of great cities (most of London is like that).

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

Two years ago I drove 100miles a day to and from work, put on two stone and nearly broke my marriage For the past year I work twenty minutes walk from home, see my children for breakfast each day and actually recognise people in the local neighbourhood It's soooo much better without commuting - by car or not. The simplest rule of thumb is everything you need for life should be 20 minutes walk away. Schools, shops, doctors, work, parks. It is true of great cities (most of London is like that).