How many of you refuse to have a car?

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I have a valid driver's license and I am a good driver, and I could buy a car if I wanted to, a decent car, and I wouldn't need to get a loan from my bank in order to pay for the car, I could simply pay it in cash, and I wouldn't be left indebted. Still, I choose not to have a car, for the following reasons:

I don't want to bother with repairs.
I don't want to bother with gasoline.
I don't want to bother with flat tires.
I don't want to bother with oil changes.
I don't want to bother with car insurance.
I don't want to bother with yearly inspections.
I don't want to bother with the thought that my car could be stolen.
I don't want to bother with registering my car at the department of motor vehicles.
I don't want to bother with entering car related information in my tax return forms.
I don't want to bother with dishonest car mechanics (car enters the repair shop with a problem, leaves the shop with a new problem).


Etc.

All smart reasons to not own a car. I have one, luckily all I have to pay for is the petrol, my dad sorts out the rest To be honest though, I'm surprised anyone owns a car nowadays. There is nothing wrong with public transport and i can imagine it would take such a burden off your mind!

Public transportation is not an option in the small town that I live in, so I find it nearly debilitating when my car is broken down. I have to get rides from my parents to wherever I need to go, and walking is not much of an option, considering that temperatures are regularly in the negatives (degrees Fahrenheit) and all of the sidewalks and streets are icy and dangerous.

I do agree with your decision of taking public transportation - honestly I do try to cut down on my own CO2 emission in the warmer months (and get some exercise).

~S_O_S

My first vehicle, my dad did all of the necessities to owning and insurance for it. He even paid for the gas if I didn't have the money(rather, he made me earn it ). That was when i was 18. Then, once my dad was gone(died when I was 20), my mom had me under her insurance and I drove her car. Then at 25, my fiance, at the time, and i bought a small car(Ford Festiva, as i said SMALL), I took care of all of the paper work, insurance stuff, etc. My mom helped out every now and then when I needed help with repairs and things. My mom died when I was 30, so I am all on my own with auto care, etc. I just purchased (with 5 year loan)a used 2003 Chrysler Town and Country last July. I bought the dealers extended warenty. I'm glad I did becasue this van is a big head ache. The main issue is the transmission. So far all they have given me is cra* about why it is lunging , heistating, studdering, etc. at first gear. Well, next Tuesday, i have our 3rd appt. to try to get them to fix it. (it needs either rebuilt transmission or a new one). This time I am taking my husband, so they don't keep giving me a bunch of bs.

At one time most medium to large sized cities actually had a very good electrical mass transportation system.
Then the government got involved with General Motors and all of a sudden the electrical system was scraped for diesel powered pollution machines.
We would of had reliable electric cars 30 years ago if it were not for the government.
Just a rant about the pollution problem we have today.

that's quite an elitist position to take. hats off to you, mr. i-live-in-such-an-upscale-amazing-place-that-public-transportation-satisfies-all-my-needs.

i'd love to not have to bother with car ownership. but it's worth it to not have to walk 4 miles to the bus stop, then take a 2 hour ride to anywhere i'd need to go, so long as i start that ride after 6am and end before 11pm, because people without cars here don't deserve to go anywhere at night.

i got my first car at 16, mostly because it was 13 miles to my high school, there was no bus service, and my parents were sick of driving me. i grew up in several towns and there was no bus service in most of them.

in the center of what metropolis do you carless people live?

I'm carfree by choice, too. I got my license at 16, but I haven't driven in over a decade.

I don't drive because:

I have a poor sense of direction
Walking keeps me fit
I think they're too expensive to own
Petrol prices leap up every now and then.

Depends on the quality of public transit... Public transit in the Boston area is a disgrace. Public transit in the Portland OR area is a dream (or close to). Personally however, all the things that you listed as reasons for not owning one only affect me rarely. Not owning one affects me daily if I work away from home or near daily if I'm working from home. Shuttling groceries on a bus is a massive pain in the ass -- so we generally get cabs when we need groceries... which is also a pain in the ass, but for different reasons, primarily that the cab drivers hate taking people to the grocery.

And now Tiff and I are moving back to the Dallas area and specifically will be in an apartment in Arlington, a city that has for many years refused to create a bus system in spite of the fact that the federal government mandated that they have one. They now finally roughly ten years later have A buss (that's singular) that enters the city and then immediately leaves again, to shuttle people through, but not within the city of Arlington. The reason Arlington has been and continues to be this way is because the residents are rich jerks who are afraid that a bus system is going to bring homeless people into their community. So public transit there is just not an option, no matter how much we might like to. (Although Tiff doesn't drive due to a phobia.)

If I were living on Portland again, public transit would be fine for my daily commute.

On average though, in my experience not having a car has been far more of a hassle than having one.

I've also done a lot of my own automotive repairs... When I was much younger a friend of mine helped me replace a clutch. That's the biggest repair I've ever made and I doubt I'll ever do it again... But there's all sorts of other stuff I have no problem fixing myself. A repair manual is always one of my first purchases after I get a new car. And I keep a hydraulic jack in the trunk in case I need to change a tire (which is pretty rarely, I think in the last 10 years I've had to change like 3 tires). The jack that comes with the car is a pain in the ass -- so a good hydraulic jack is a decent investment.

I just can't drive. Period. I can handle a bicycle, but a push-scooter or a skateboard? Hah!

not me, I love my car. However, I can understand why some would not want the hassle. In some cities, like Atlanta, it is an absolute necessity, but in other places, like NY or london, it can be a liability.

It's not that I don't love/need the freedom to drive from A to B ... or across the country if I feel like it. It's because over a decade ago I discovered a car was an unnecessary expense.

- Lived within walking distance of 95% of the shopping I'll ever need to do.
- Bicycling distance of everything else (and like Pensive, bicycling and walking keeps me fit, plus helps my Aspie brain think)
- On a bus line.
- In a real pinch, can take a cab (3 or 4 cab fares a year don't add up to the thousands of dollars for cost/upkeep of a car)

Upon moving somewhere I needed motor transport but nasty weather wasn't much of an issue (Central AZ), I got a motorcycle.

- Vs. a car, motorcycles are way cheaper on upkeep, insurance, gas.
- By then, had learned to do all my shopping on a bicycle, so the cargo space on a motorcycle was an upgrade for me.
- Exponentially more fun!

Jo

I'm just not intrested in getting a car AT ALL...although the speediness DOES sound like FUN.

But...it's too much work and responcablity...xP And it's bad for the envirement, anyways. And I wouldn't wanna end up running over ANY cute animals/children anyways...soo yeah.