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I prefer it, and cost isn’t a factor. I like having a large yard where I can garden and do other things. I can walk out onto my back patio butt naked and dip into my hot tub without anybody seeing me.
I also own three trucks, one car, and two bikes. In a city I’d have nowhere to put them. I like my cars.
You could have all that in a large city, too. But you would have to be fairly or very wealthy, depending on the city - hence cost is a factor.
Suppose you lived in a big city like NYC, London, Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona where the publication transportation is pretty reliable, would you still choose to be a car owner?
I think I wouldn't. Actually I hardly needed to drive when I lived in Shanghai.
In other words, I am a car owner because the lack of public transportation where I live forces me to.
I've never met someone my age (30s) or younger who enjoys driving. I pay a large premium to live in a walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood to avoid spending hours a week stuck behind a wheel. Worst case, I Uber/Lyft and have someone else deal with the headache while I catch up on emails or take a nap.
I remember many years ago when I went to jury duty and I didn't have a license at the time. The case they were trying to select jurors for was related to a car accident and they asked how many people didn't have a license and I remember being surprised that almost half of the room raised their hands.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodHombre
Yes, I agree that NYC isn't always 100% convenient without a car. But at least there's no need for one household to own multiple vehicles. Actually, the reason many New Yorkers need a car isn't that public transit is bad in NYC, but public transportation is awful as the rest of the country once you leave the city. For instance, I was very disappointed with NJ transit.
If I could afford it, I would buy an apartment near central park and stay in Manhattan most of my time.
I think people forget about the areas of NYC that do not have good transit. Many areas do not have trains, which means a bus ride to the train. And from my experience, bus service sucks. I know, because I live almost a mile from the train (it is in my neighborhood, but I live far from it) and usually 3-4/5 nights I am coming home from work at night, I am walking, because either a bus isn't coming or I can beat the bus home. But there are many areas in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and SI (which is more of an exception) without train service.
Many people have cars in NYC. If that wasn't the case, I'd be able to find a spot easily.
My husband and I commute to work. I actually left a job where I HAD to drive because I couldn't do the traffic anymore. But commuting has been pretty brutal lately. And besides the fact that a trip that should be fifty-five minutes can take an hour and a half on the way home, the constant construction delays and the homeless stinking up the trains makes public transit less appealing. If I didn't work in the city (Manhattan), I would probably drive. I do drive to things when I have to---I drive to my second job, which is in the middle of no where in NYC (no train!) and we love leaving the area when it's the weekend. We like to go outside of the city as much as possible!
I've never met someone my age (30s) or younger who enjoys driving.
Thankfully I have, including my son, who has a hot rod pickup he and I built together, and a BMW 330i ZHP sedan as a performance driving car. He'd rather pay less to live away from the city so that he can spend more on fun cars and driving. And I personally know dozens of other car enthusiasts who are millennials and who drive fun cars. Meet them at Cars and Coffee events year round.
I live in New York City, Brooklyn to be exact, and I drive daily both out of necessity and convenience. Yes, we have an extensive subway/bus system here, which can allow you to get from almost any two points in the city, but the ride can be prohibitively long depending on the two points. Most bus routes are designed to run within a single borough, and most trains are designed to run from a given borough into Manhattan. If you have need to travel from Brooklyn to Queens, or from the Bronx to Brooklyn, you're looking at an over two hour ride. If you work just outside the city like I do, you're looking at an especially long ride because you have to add a commuter train line (Long Island Rail Road or Metro North) into the mix, so a car can be totally necessary. My morning commute via Subway and Commuter rail is 2 hours and 14 minutes....by car it's a mere 35 minutes.
Also...I'm in my 30s and I enjoy driving. As do just about all of my friends....we always talk about cars, and care about performance over efficiency most of the time. It's saddens me that people assume millennials (hate that term, not sure why an 18 year old and a 34 year old would be lumped in the same cohort, really) are all a bunch of vegan hippy weirdos with no conventional interests.
Again NYC, I worked in Manhattan so that is convenient to mass transit, if I worked in the outer boroughs not near subways/buses it could be different. I also chose to buy my home (apt) near a subway that would deliver me to work easily, this was a primary imperative second only to cost. Not owning a car for so many years allowed me to save thousands of dollars & retire a bit earlier than I imagined & be comfortable.
I lived in a number of other cities in my working life & needed a car for all of them, American cities are designed for auto use & it's mostly the older cities in the Northeast that one could live on mass transit alone. I'm considering a move in retirement & don't want to need a car & realized how limited my options are, I'm looking at perhaps relocating to another country with a more defined downtown life in a city where autos came along later after the city was already designed.
So I enjoyed driving when I was young & enjoyed mass transit & saving $$$ when older & have a pedestrian friendly city as a goal as I age. It's very important now & later that I be able to walk to the market, cafe, restaurants, etc.
What city has heated bus stations? I've never seen one and I've lived in the Northeast for over 40 years! I've never seen one air conditioned in the South either.
Not bus stations, but, the downtown Metro stops have some heat in Moscow (Russia). In any case, in normal travel hours, the next train will come in something like 5 to 10 minutes max.
Out in the "burbs", yeah, the Metro stop is just open air. You dress for the outside weather and you are fine.
I've never met someone my age (30s) or younger who enjoys driving. I pay a large premium to live in a walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood to avoid spending hours a week stuck behind a wheel. Worst case, I Uber/Lyft and have someone else deal with the headache while I catch up on emails or take a nap.
At least I don't find city driving or highway driving very pleasant.
I do enjoy scenic drives though. But unless you happen to live in a very beautiful city(like Seattle) or on vacation, it won't be common.
At least I don't find city driving or highway driving very pleasant.
I do enjoy scenic drives though. But unless you happen to live in a very beautiful city(like Seattle) or on vacation, it won't be common.
Disagree. Much of the US is scenic. Hell, even here in the midatlantic, once you get out of Baltimore or DC, much of the countryside is like this:
I can drive all over MD, PA, VA, WV and spend most of the time on roads like that. So far there has been no compelling reason brought up to live in the heart of a big city. Costs more to live in a smaller space, put up with more crime, overpriced transportation and food and make do with worse public transportation that is miserable. All just to say you don't have a car? Not me. I'm close enough to town for nightlife, major sports, shopping, fine dining, and far enough out that I don't deal with commute traffic and get to drive on the more scenic and fun roads in the country. I can have a larger house on land so I don't have to pay to park my cars. And because I pay less to live, I can spend more on fun cars and things like a travel trailer to go RVing with when I feel like it.
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