Is it possible to livein San Diego without a car? (Solana Beach: car rental, rental)

[tallahasseehero1]

I am thinking of moving out there after college to go to law school. How is the public transportation system? Could I get around the city effectively without a car?

[moved]

There is another thread on this same subject. If you search for it, you'll find it.

[Clevelandgal]

yeah. talked about ad naseum in another thread. but in a nutshell- you can do it if you live and/or work central OR live/work in the same community AND you are chill and flexible, can tolerate some hassle, and/or willing ride a bike or scooter,and/or are willing to give your friends or neighbor gas money or buy them a cocktail here and there for running you are around. If not- no, you can't live without a car.

more info: spouse and I are grown up professionals with one paid for car for rare use, but ride scooters. We only put 2500 miles on the car in a year and most of it was work trips for either of us (our employers would have rented us a car but we declined). If not for work travel, the miles would be around 1000-1500. So do you need a car? I think not.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Clevelandgal

yeah. talked about ad naseum in another thread. but in a nutshell- you can do it if you live and/or work central OR live/work in the same community AND you are chill and flexible, can tolerate some hassle, and/or willing ride a bike or scooter,and/or are willing to give your friends or neighbor gas money or buy them a cocktail here and there for running you are around. If not- no, you can't live without a car.

more info: spouse and I are grown up professionals with one paid for car for rare use, but ride scooters. We only put 2500 miles on the car in a year and most of it was work trips for either of us (our employers would have rented us a car but we declined). If not for work travel, the miles would be around 1000-1500. So do you need a car? I think not.

If you're not going to have a car, I'd emphasize Clevelandgal's point about being "chill and flexible and being able to tolerate some hassle". I could never imagine not having a car in a city like San Diego. There are so many great things to see and do all over the area.

I guess if you are living downtown or Central but even then I'd have a car. And if you have kids, it's obviously essential and I can't see any way to avoid a car.

Maybe a scooter is the best option due to high cost of fuel and ability to get around. Also, if you're in law school your amount of free time will most likely be severely limited to go out and about. But even then I know if I were in your shoes, I'd need a car.... Part of the best thing about San Diego is going to the beach and when I go I have umbrella, beach chair, etc. and those kinds of things you can't take with you on a scooter.

Lots of great things spread out. Heck, just yesterday alone we had lunch in Cardiff by the Sea, a smoothie in Solana Beach, went to the Del Mar Farmers Market and bought a ton of stuff then later we had dinner in La Jolla.

[Clevelandgal]

we go to the beach all the time on scooters. The only time we take the car is if we have guests, and I hate it-looking for parking, being stuck in traffic jams etc. I am not really a chair person (lay out on mats) but you could get a smaller chair on there. Heck people carry surf boards on scooters. Farmers market-same deal-I can load several dozen eggs, pounds of meats and veggies on my scooter. I never take the car to the store. Last time we took it shopping was to get some large plants for the patio. We also sometimes take it if we are out later at night (does not happen often) b/c it is safer-too many drunks on the road. If we did not already have our paid for car, we would just rent one as needed. It would not make good financial sense to buy a car to only drive a couple thousand miles a year.

I do admit, if we did not have scooters, I would get pretty frustrated taking the bus everywhere, especially now that I am working. The law school downtown (California Western?) has free scooter/motorcycle parking-and people take full advantage of it.

I agree about kids though. That would not work on a scooter!

[Jehjeh]

I currently don't have a car and it's very restricting. Any bus rides that take me across the 8 or into areas like downtown La Jolla or Ocean Beach are an automatic hour and 15 minutes, if not an hour and a half -- that's 3 hours of travel to go maybe 10 or 12 miles.

Unless you have a lot of money to take cabs or rent cars on a whim, not having a car will stop you from doing a lot here.

[jarfykk]

Yes if your commute is short/walk-able/bike-able. Yes if you don't mind some amenities of such a large city being less accessible (e.g. zoo, theaters, etc.) Yes if the neighborhood you decide on has the things your lifestyle requires, whatever that may be, within walking or biking distance.

Past that, no. Maybe if Zipcar or similar is in your neighborhood it might work out well, too.

Zipcar University of California, San Diego - Zipcar is easier than University of California, San Diego car rental and car ownership

[Clevelandgal]

I think people mistake "living without a car" to mean you must never (ever!) sit behind the wheel of a car. Its as if you do not OWN a car you are not allowed to drive. You can go with owning a car in San Diego if you are what I described in my first response . and then use zip car or rent a car occasionally to see the area and do some heavy shopping. Unless our cicumstances change it would be ABSURD (stupid actually)for my spouse and I to sink money into another (or new) car. I rather spend my transportation money going to Europe, S.America, Hawaii, and so on than sitting in traffic in my pricey metal cage.

[Jeremy1985]

I have just recently moved to San Diego (2months ago) from Australia, my home city had decent public transport and I owned a car back home. My first week in San Diego without a car was horrible. I had a 1hr20m commute to work on public transport, once I got a car it was a 12m drive, getting groceries was very difficult, and forget buying any furniture, let alone getting to the actual shops. In my opinion the public transport in SD is terrible, very restrictive in where you can go, how often the bus/trains arrive, and to some extent how safe I felt at night. If you were living and working right next to a trolley stop this might be a bit better, but public transport is not that great here.

If you are planning on living and working in the same suburb, you could get by without a car. However, SD is so big and there is so much to see that you are really going to be missing out on a lot. I can go to 3-4 different beaches and go every weekend, it would be very difficult to do this without a car (again exception being living locally). SD is full of heaps of awesome little bars and pubs, which are scattered all through the city, you are not going to be able to see a lot of these easily without a car. There is also a lot of mountains, towns, parks around (a lot of which I have yet to see) which again would not be do-able without a car. If you know or live with someone who does have a car, then yeah you can get by, but you are going to be limited to their schedule. Also if you need to buy things for your move, finding shops and buying the things you need without transport (here is where scooters wont cut it), is next to impossible.

If you are moving over here by yourself, not knowing anyone like I did, then I would absolutely say a car is essential. I would also strongly recommend getting a gps unit, I would not have survived my first 2 months without it.
My opinion.

[Clevelandgal]

I saw 2 little electric smart cars with "car2go" logo parked in one spot in front of my condo, so I had to check it out. Nice to see SD on the cutting edge with regard to transportation.
Car2go, Daimler-Backed Sharing Program, to Go Electric in San Diego - NYTimes.com

car2go San Diego | San Diego Car Sharing | Rideshare In San Diego

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