Gasoline powered car ownership is not mandated by law and every country has cities where a car-free lifestyle is possible.
It appears you chose to move to a small town near Des Moines. North of you are the Twin Cities where you can live car free with public transit or a bicycle if you are physically capable.
So yes, you do have a choice. The privilege is the money for a car.
I grew up in a small town in the west country, UK. No car was due to financial necessity. If I wanted to go somewhere it was by bike or I just didn’t go. Yeah that probably did make it harder to find a job, though on the flip side it also meant literally any full time job pays enough to live comfortably.
There’s a reason the overwhelming majority of trips in Minneapolis happen by car. There’s like 3 cities in the US where not having a car or motorcycle doesn’t put you at a massive disadvantage, those are NYC, DC, and maybe Boston or Chicago.
Plenty of people in the Twin Cities live with only a bike and public transit. I was one of them and I never felt the massive disadvantage you write about. You just need to choose to live in an appropriate location.
My friend down in SC occasionally wants to kill themselves because they cant find work, dont have transportation, and the bike they got, is terrifying to ride on the roads around them.
I was born in the middle of no where new england. I did make it to a small city once, for one decade, (and never owned a car) until homelessness had me back in the sticks (they had a bed open).
I wanted to move to New Haven. I cant afford New Haven, and life dropped me back east again anyway.
Ive never had much choice in where I lived. Just the same as how I kinda just fell into emoloyment, not really chosing that either, but taking what you can get.
please stop telling everyone they have a choice. We have choices for a lot of things. Moving, just isnt one of them always, def not for everyone. Many like you get choice (maybe they waste it) but also many like me dont. I aint got moving money. Glad you got to have agency in your life, I really didnt, and I know I am not the only one.
Bikes are dope, trains, public transport, fuck I feel like my area could benefit from a trolly just the way the roads are. But, Ive got none of that here. If I drive up to the university, I could take a bus to the capital city that takes half the day for a 40min car ride. Thats- thats what I got access to. Gotta cross six lanes of stroad to get the the nearest grocery; gotta take a highway to the second closest. Its numbscull shit out here.
Someone being like, “you could move you have choice” is really like a slap in the face, and you said it not once (and I let it go) but twice. naw boo. My choice was New Haven, and I never made it.
You just need to choose to live in an appropriate location.
Again, it’s a choice.
You just need to relocate, find affordable housing (lol), find a new job at that new place, convince your partner, potentially rip away your kids from their environment, move far away from family and friends, find a completely new social circle and then you’ll finally be able to live car-free! Except all the times you’ll now have to rent one.
Like, seriously? It is not always just a choice, you’re just god damn privileged to be easily able to move. Let alone to a pricy place with quality infrastructure.
Depends massively on the car and your willingness to learn about them. My last car before I fled the US was a 2006 camery I inherited that only needed oil changes, tires/rotations, a battery, brakes, plugs, and a timing chain, and got ~28mpg. The timing chain, plugs, brakes, and tires were done by a mechanic friend, so not a whole lot given that I had it for like a decade, total cost was probably about what I sold it for.
My sister on the other hand insists on buying the least maintainable and fuel efficient cars possible on shit credit and I shutter to think what the monthly effective cost of ownership is, probably in the high hundreds.
My current mode of transportation when I’m not in China or Japan is a bike I paid 500 for and gets 100mpg. I put about 60 dollars into a new clutch, chain, sprockets, plug, and foot pegs. It could use a new bore, rings, piston, bearings, transmission, and something is causing a weak spark before its warmed up, and it’ll need new tires in a few thousand km, but it’s carried me across SEA twice, so none of it’s critical, its just the parts are showing signs of abuse.
Gasoline powered car ownership is not mandated by law and every country has cities where a car-free lifestyle is possible.
It appears you chose to move to a small town near Des Moines. North of you are the Twin Cities where you can live car free with public transit or a bicycle if you are physically capable.
So yes, you do have a choice. The privilege is the money for a car.
I grew up in a small town in the west country, UK. No car was due to financial necessity. If I wanted to go somewhere it was by bike or I just didn’t go. Yeah that probably did make it harder to find a job, though on the flip side it also meant literally any full time job pays enough to live comfortably.
There’s a reason the overwhelming majority of trips in Minneapolis happen by car. There’s like 3 cities in the US where not having a car or motorcycle doesn’t put you at a massive disadvantage, those are NYC, DC, and maybe Boston or Chicago.
Plenty of people in the Twin Cities live with only a bike and public transit. I was one of them and I never felt the massive disadvantage you write about. You just need to choose to live in an appropriate location.
Again, it’s a choice.
Again… aye dude
It is not a choice for many.
My friend down in SC occasionally wants to kill themselves because they cant find work, dont have transportation, and the bike they got, is terrifying to ride on the roads around them.
I was born in the middle of no where new england. I did make it to a small city once, for one decade, (and never owned a car) until homelessness had me back in the sticks (they had a bed open).
I wanted to move to New Haven. I cant afford New Haven, and life dropped me back east again anyway.
Ive never had much choice in where I lived. Just the same as how I kinda just fell into emoloyment, not really chosing that either, but taking what you can get.
please stop telling everyone they have a choice. We have choices for a lot of things. Moving, just isnt one of them always, def not for everyone. Many like you get choice (maybe they waste it) but also many like me dont. I aint got moving money. Glad you got to have agency in your life, I really didnt, and I know I am not the only one.
Bikes are dope, trains, public transport, fuck I feel like my area could benefit from a trolly just the way the roads are. But, Ive got none of that here. If I drive up to the university, I could take a bus to the capital city that takes half the day for a 40min car ride. Thats- thats what I got access to. Gotta cross six lanes of stroad to get the the nearest grocery; gotta take a highway to the second closest. Its numbscull shit out here.
Someone being like, “you could move you have choice” is really like a slap in the face, and you said it not once (and I let it go) but twice. naw boo. My choice was New Haven, and I never made it.
You just need to relocate, find affordable housing (lol), find a new job at that new place, convince your partner, potentially rip away your kids from their environment, move far away from family and friends, find a completely new social circle and then you’ll finally be able to live car-free! Except all the times you’ll now have to rent one.
Like, seriously? It is not always just a choice, you’re just god damn privileged to be easily able to move. Let alone to a pricy place with quality infrastructure.
No one said choices are easy. That doesn’t mean they aren’t choices.
How much is rent?
How much does it cost to buy, maintain, fuel, park, and insure a gasoline car?
Depends massively on the car and your willingness to learn about them. My last car before I fled the US was a 2006 camery I inherited that only needed oil changes, tires/rotations, a battery, brakes, plugs, and a timing chain, and got ~28mpg. The timing chain, plugs, brakes, and tires were done by a mechanic friend, so not a whole lot given that I had it for like a decade, total cost was probably about what I sold it for.
My sister on the other hand insists on buying the least maintainable and fuel efficient cars possible on shit credit and I shutter to think what the monthly effective cost of ownership is, probably in the high hundreds.
My current mode of transportation when I’m not in China or Japan is a bike I paid 500 for and gets 100mpg. I put about 60 dollars into a new clutch, chain, sprockets, plug, and foot pegs. It could use a new bore, rings, piston, bearings, transmission, and something is causing a weak spark before its warmed up, and it’ll need new tires in a few thousand km, but it’s carried me across SEA twice, so none of it’s critical, its just the parts are showing signs of abuse.