this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Do you drive? If you live, work, and buy groceries within five miles distance, consider ditching your car and cycling instead. If you're nervous about how feasible this is, you can save on gas by keeping the car while you get used to riding. But the full savings come when you're not paying for insurance, parking, and maintenance of the vehicle.
Yep, owning a car costs thousands a year
~~Big talk~~ Unfortunately, that's a huge ask if you've never crossed a six lane stroad on foot. The American transit system is often downright hostile to anyone not in a car. It can be goddamn terrifying. Adding: If OP can get around safely and feasibly on a bike, this is great advice.
Otherwise, there are ways to cut down on car costs if you need one. What car you own matters. Get something extremely common that never breaks. A 1998 Camry or Corolla are probably two of the most solid cars money can buy and junkyards are full of them. Parts are cheap and available.
Learning to do your own basic maintenance will also save you lots of money.
Learning how to replace some parts is also a big plus and parts stores will often lend you small tools for some jobs free of charge.
Many states also offer discounted rates on yearly registration for older cars. In Oklahoma, it costs me $26 a year to tag my '97 Honda.
Finally, get a dash cam and the cheapest insurance you can, and drive like you're on probation and on thin ice with your parole officer.
I've crossed a six lane highway on foot twice this year. That had little to do with my suggestion to consider cycling if OP lives in a denser area.
Your suggestions on reducing car costs are good ones and I'm upvoting your comment because of them. But chill out, dude. We're here to offer OP advice, not take potshots at each other.
Sorry about that. I didn't mean to come across aggressively. I get a little fired up at the thought of crossing a huge, fast road, and it doesn't help that cars are way bigger and drivers seem way worse these days.
No question bikes are the best way to get around in a densely populated area. My wife and I stayed in a condo in a building that housed a Target (Newmark Tower) when we vacationed in Seattle a couple months ago. If I could afford it, I'd buy that condo and live that way. We rented a car while we were there, but we barely drove it. It was genuinely liberating not needing it. We rode the monorail. We took the bus from time to time. We climbed a stupidly steep hill to get dinner one night. It was awesome.
But man, I live about a mile and a half from the grocery store and I refuse to bike there for the simple fact that there are way too many fast, wide roads to have to cross to get there, and there are zero bike lanes along the way. Unless you're on the college campus, everything here is built for the convenience of the car at the detriment of literally everyone else.
And if OP also lives in the burbs, I reckon their situation is pretty similar.
Again, sorry that I came across aggressively. I didn't intend to get so riled up about it.
Unfortunately you're right, I remember needing to take the car between the hotel and the Starbucks 500m away because there was a flicking big road on the way(which is insane for a European) .
I don't get how American Karen don't get mad at their mayor for the lack of way to cross the street
I haven't owned a personal auto in a decade, and doubt I ever will again. The more you eschew our auto centric way of being, the more ridiculous it will look. When I see people in traffic now all I can think of is how fat, angry, miserable and lazy your passing motorists will look.
Everyone's got reasons they can't give up their cars, and unless you're a farmer they're almost all bs.
I'm not going to put my wife's wheelchair on my bike as we travel, especially when it would be 5-6 hours by car to go to her dad's place.
Right there. You've normalized driving 5 hr, roughly 200 miles? It's a crazy way to be. No one's proposing you strap your wife to your handlebars
I don't have to be a farmer... About 330 miles, actually. I don't have to worry about doing that anymore (he recently died). However, my wife and I went to a major city twice last month, an hour and a half one way, for medical reasons. We go at least once a month.
I also have to take an obese person to another city 45-60 minutes away multiple times a month. I did so today and will again Friday. He can hardly see me. No way would he be able to ride a bike.
You don't seem to realize that there are people with health conditions that preclude them from riding a bike. I actually used to walk everywhere when I was in college. It's not really feasible now even if it's not about 120 degrees outside.
In good cities (countries) you take a train, and take the bus to the train station, where the bus lowers itself to the pavement so you can wheel right in. I'm guessing you live in USA though.
Yeah. I should have provided more context. I have heard that one can visit multiple countries in Europe in one day. It takes two days to cross Texas. The country, especially in the west, has lots of smaller towns and cities that are spread out.
In Utah, almost of the population is in the Salt Lake City Metropolitan area near the top of the state. The middle of the state is practically barren and the southern area only has St. George (~100K population).
In Nevada, it's Las Vegas (642K) in the south and Reno (264K) in the west. Almost all of the state is federal land.
When I was in Tucson, Arizona, (542K) I used the bus system a lot. The wait times were between 10 minutes and an hour.
The city I went to for my first college had a population of less than 5K at the time (now about 5.5K), the next city is 10K, and the county now has about 39.5K.
My city has about 20K and we have to travel to see any specialists.