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An interesting story about a quiet movement away from cars...........
" the shift is so gradual and widespread that it's clearly not a product of any “war on the car” or other ideological campaign. Rather, it's a byproduct of a stage of development that cities were probably destined to reach ever since the dawn of the automobile age: Finding themselves caught in an uncomfortable tangle of urban sprawl, population growth and plain individual inconvenience, people, one by one, are just quietly opting out."
Seems to me it has more to do with deteriorating economic conditions in North America than anything else. With high unemployment rate young people can't enter the job market, can't earn the money to afford a car.
Seems to me it has more to do with deteriorating economic conditions in North America than anything else. With high unemployment rate young people can't enter the job market, can't earn the money to afford a car.
I would second that.
Also the reason why young people may be holding off getting licenses may be due to the increased requirements/restrictions on those who drive at 16.
What has galvanized me, more than anything, to get away from the car is a recent visit to Traffic Court, seeing a room crammed with people and 17 tellers processing tickets and court appointments, partly due to shrinking revenue to our cities/counties, being more and more dependent on preying on motorists for increasing unaffordable fines as a form of tax.
While I was sitting that day in court, listening to this heart-less judge, and others going before me, that's when it clicked! Next year I retire with an electric bike in the most bike-friendly city I can find with a good mass transit system to boot! I'll have a car parked in my driveway, with no motor, keys left dangling in the door handle!
And how many others, one too many trips to Traffic Court, and paying some outrageous fine, grew a big smile on their face, and it all clicked: the disadvantages have now come to outweigh the advantages of car ownership!
Now and then, when I feel masochistic, I'll rent a car for a day or two!
My wife and I can both afford our cars. It would be nice to have our combined car loan expenditures to spend on an even better home, or on student loans though. While im trying to find a decent job close to home, for now, I commute about 60 miles to work, one way, because I actually make a livable wage there. When I think about the thousands and thousands of dollars I spend on my car payment, insurance, gas, tolls, and maintanance a year, it makes me sick.
Im one of those people who wishes he could part with his car, but complicated life circumstances wont allow it right now.
My wife and I can both afford our cars. It would be nice to have our combined car loan expenditures to spend on an even better home, or on student loans though. While im trying to find a decent job close to home, for now, I commute about 60 miles to work, one way, because I actually make a livable wage there. When I think about the thousands and thousands of dollars I spend on my car payment, insurance, gas, tolls, and maintanance a year, it makes me sick.
Im one of those people who wishes he could part with his car, but complicated life circumstances wont allow it right now.
It's hard to get outta the trap that all to many are in callled "the commute".
It's a brave person who says "enough!" and does whatever it takes to control "the commute" to remove the strain on their budget it causes.
Geez... then MOVE. A 60 mile commute is long. You have a lot of options. Work from home (depending on occupation). How economical is your car? (though in the grand scheme of things, fuel economy is not that large of a percentage of car ownership My car cas 180,000 miles on it, and the fuel cost over that distance is only 1/3 of the car's cost).
Look at all your other expenses; food, clothing, heat, property tax, mortgage (if you have one).... Add all those up, and look at the ratio of the car to everything else. In your current situation, you need a car just like you need all those other expenses.
Another option: go on welfare and food stamps. You won't need to drive anywhere, except to pick them up.
For me personally (19 with a DL but no car), cars seems useful for far travel but take a lot of money to manage. I've actually had to think about the pros and cons of owning a car. Unfortunately, I live in an area that doesn't have the options offered by an efficient mass transit system. So essentially most of my money will go to owning a car if I want to move around on my own timed schedule. I'd prefer, though, mass transit over owning a car even though I quite enjoy driving my own vehicle. I'm less concerned about commute time and more concerned about how much money I could be saving. I'm probably a minority in this type of thinking for my age group though (seeing as all my friends have their own cars already).
Over the past 2 months, I got a new job, mostly because I wanted to change my lifestyle. I have always owned a car, always drove more than 20 miles each way to work, etc. Now, I commute on the local bus route for 15 mins to downtown and have never been happier. My wife and I sold one of our cars and paid the other one off and now save about $800 / month between car payments, insurance and gas. My weekly commutes cost about $13 and I haven't had to drive in 3+ weeks.
People always talk about how you're not as autonomous or convenient without a car, but I disagree (depending on where you live). Where I work has every bank, store and service within walking distance, and I find that my days are no longer filled with fighting traffic to hurry from one place to the next. Despite the bus coming late or taking a little longer, I find that I get to socialize with people, read, listen to music, sleep, etc. and the commute is wonderful. I will never go back to what I had before unless I have absolutely no choice. Upon encouraging others to try it, my coworkers have adopted the same thing and have loved it (despite driving downtown before).
I've started to condition myself to my car-less lifestyle next year, by taking the bus to work one nite a week, which I may expand to 2 nites, as I work the graveyard shift. The big plus, as I love to read, is I get to read for a half hour coming and going! What a luxury from keeping my eye on the speedometer needle!
It's almost impossible to determine just how much, overall, it costs to operate a car every year, but I'd be curious to get a somewhat exact figure, then divide it, subtract it from my hourly wage, and I'd probably be shocked, as many others would.
Las Vegas is, by no means, a bike-friendly city, and with our 45MPH speed limits on major avenues, I'll postpone my electric bike purchase until I get to the city I've picked out to retire, which has won a Platinum award for being so bike-friendly.
Sitting in that traffic court Tuesday, I thought to myself, as all that work there are highly dependent on the issuing of traffic fines, what if even 1/4 of the people in this city stopped driving their cars, 1/4 less revenue for the city? What if half of the people did it? 1/2 less revenue.
A very scarey thought indeed, as then the police might turn their attention to finding some/new ways of fining bicyclists, or pedestrians!
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