moving to st Louis without a car. (St. Louis, Maplewood: car insurance, neighborhoods)

[Tatiana_natt]

I plan on moving to st louis and make it my home. But I will not have a car for a while. I have a baby and by that time he will be 8 or 9 months. I want to know about the transportation. Also I n know here in vegas car insurance is expensive. What about there.

[glamatomic]

Missouri isn't the most expensive state for car insurance, but it's not the cheapest either. I think it falls somewhere in the middle. DH & I pay about $50/month for two vehicles (liability only), and DH has a couple of accidents and some speeding tickets on his record, so with that considered it's not bad!

Metro Bus and MetroLink (light rail) serve all of St. Louis County and some of the Illinois side of the metro. There website is here: Metro Transit. While MetroLink's area served is kind of limited at the moment, buses fill in the majority of the area that they don't reach.

Here is a map of all of the major bus routes in St. Louis County: http://www.metrostlouis.org/Librarie...System_Map.pdf

One of the other posters here on the St. Louis Forum, Hazel_W I believe lives in St. Louis County without a car, so she is probably the best person to respond about how adequate the system really is

[KarenElissa]

Living here without a car is certainly doable. I would say St. Louis has decent public transportation, it isn't as good as places like NYC or Chicago, but it is lots better than where I used to live (Tucson). Your best bet is to live either in the city proper or the inner ring suburbs. The outer suburbs have some buses, but getting from place to place will be a lot harder. There are certainly places that are hard and/or impossible to get to, but getting to the necessities isn't bad if you pick the right place to live.

[ohnonothimagain]

You didn't say where you live, or will live. Some of St. Louis County is harder to get around than in the city. And as far as Tucson, KarenElissa, I lived there for almost 10 years and found the public transportation MUCH more user friendly than the bus system in St. Louis. Now that could have changed by now, so that's just my two cents worth of opinion. Any buses in St. Louis city will still take you a while to get places depending on how far you need to travel. If you have to make it without a car Tatiana_Natt just be patient. What hasn't been mentioned is that traveling with a baby on a bus isn't the easiest exercise in patience. I wish you the best. The Metro system in St. Louis also has what's called Call-A-Ride which picks you up at your door to go places. I don't know all the in's or out's of it, but it used to be a pretty good alternative to bus rides. Here's a brochure of the service. http://www.metrostlouis.org/Librarie...ARbrochure.pdf

[chicagobear]

I wouldn't try to live in St. Louis without a car. It's possible, I suppose, but you would miss out on a lot of things.

[NewStLouisan]

I lived in the CWE for almost a year without a car. I was lucky enough that I could walk to work and to the grocery store. I like the MetroLink a lot, but if you need to go to neighborhoods not close to any Metrolink station, be ready to spend a lot of time at bus stops. Very doable, but if you're used to a car, I can see why it might seem quite inconvenient to not have one in St. Louis.

[opendorz]

Certain city neighborhoods and inner ring suburbs ae conducive to living without a car: Central West End, South Grand, U-City, and Maplewood to name a few. Beyond these, it's hard to be without a car because unlike Chicago, NYC, Boston, SF, we do not have a robust cab/taxi base to help with those interim outings beyond walkable or public transit.

Very few places outside of downtown could you even think of hailing a cab.

[Dr_Pepper]

I have lived in STL for two years now without a car. It's doable, absolutely, but be prepared to make sacrifices. If you already don't have a car, you probably know all about it. That being said, here's a few things to keep in mind:

Generally, the buses stop running at midnight and don't start running again until 6am or so. Metrolink starts at about 5am, last trains are around 12:30.

It is a pain in the azzzzzzzzzz having to fold up a stroller for the bus and meanwhile carry your kid. See women do it all the time. It has to be done to avoid being a pain and being in everyone's way, of course, but it's a huge hassle.

Many locations are only serviced by 1-3 bus lines (and by serviced, I mean, less than a 1/2 mile walk to a bus stop). Unless you live right downtown or near a Metrolink station, you are looking at LLLOOOONNNNNGGGGGG connections. Keep in mind, most buses run on a 40 minute schedule. A few routes run on 10 or 20. Combine that with having to catch two or three buses to get to your destination, and you're looking at a long wait.

Going rates for cabs here are 20 cents/mile, $2.50 or $3.50 starting fare (depending on company), plus $1/passenger.

If you're living outside city limits, FORGET IT.