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.
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.
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.
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.