Despite saving hundreds of dollars and even making new friends, none of the people who agreed to ditch their car for this Brisbane experiment wanted to go car-free permanently. This is why.
Article about an experiment from Brisbane, Australia.
I lived without a car for about 5 years and never missed it, since I could consistently bum rides with friends who had cars.
To your point about the convenience of having a car and being able to travel - with better infrastructure and built environments, these things would not be issues. Daily necessities within walking distance + transit frequent enough that you don’t need to plan for it + high speed intercity rail covers about the same use case. More pleasant to run daily errands, since no traffic. High speed rail is faster than driving, plus you can get up and walk around whenever you feel like it, and even get a bunk in a sleeper car to travel while you sleep. Of course, it is still less private, and you are on the train’s schedule - but you also never have to change the oil or stop for gas.
I currently can’t imagine living my life the way I want to live it without a car. For example, today I am returning home from a weekend trip climbing in the desert. To do this, I wrapped up the work I was doing (late), threw all my shit in my car, and drove for several hours into the night before sleeping in my car at a highway pull off. Then I finished the drive early in the morning, going from interstate to rural highway to rural desert road to dirt road to get to the random patch of dirt my friends were camped at. And doing this, I had a car full of water, food, camping gear, and climbing gear. Making this trip without a car would be literally impossible with our current transit infrastructure. And even with some futuristic infrastructure, the trip would take significantly longer since any transit to remote areas will always be less frequent than you want it to be.
At the same time - maybe I could catch a night train to the desert. Wake in the morning in a small desert town, and strap my haul bag onto my back and mosey over to a sunblasted diner, drinking a cup or two of cheap, weak coffee (the kind that makes Mormon Jesus cry as little as possible), before catching the twice daily NP shuttle to a remote desert outpost. Watching the barren scrub plains roll by until I’m just about there, then tapping the driver on the shoulder and asking to be let off at the unmarked dirt road so I can hump my 100lb load a 1/4 mile to camp. Certainly, the trip would be less convenient and a bit longer. But at the same time, being without a car could enhance the quality of the adventure - which is kind of the point in the first place
You must live in Utah based on your description of things. I do pretty much the same. Get done with work, or often times I’ll take a job in say Moab, cruise down there, work, then spend the weekend in the desert climbing, 4x4ing, just sitting under the stars watching the world go by. No train goes there, very few public transport options that don’t cost a bunch. And no way to work the way I do.
Yes and no.
I lived without a car for about 5 years and never missed it, since I could consistently bum rides with friends who had cars.
To your point about the convenience of having a car and being able to travel - with better infrastructure and built environments, these things would not be issues. Daily necessities within walking distance + transit frequent enough that you don’t need to plan for it + high speed intercity rail covers about the same use case. More pleasant to run daily errands, since no traffic. High speed rail is faster than driving, plus you can get up and walk around whenever you feel like it, and even get a bunk in a sleeper car to travel while you sleep. Of course, it is still less private, and you are on the train’s schedule - but you also never have to change the oil or stop for gas.
I currently can’t imagine living my life the way I want to live it without a car. For example, today I am returning home from a weekend trip climbing in the desert. To do this, I wrapped up the work I was doing (late), threw all my shit in my car, and drove for several hours into the night before sleeping in my car at a highway pull off. Then I finished the drive early in the morning, going from interstate to rural highway to rural desert road to dirt road to get to the random patch of dirt my friends were camped at. And doing this, I had a car full of water, food, camping gear, and climbing gear. Making this trip without a car would be literally impossible with our current transit infrastructure. And even with some futuristic infrastructure, the trip would take significantly longer since any transit to remote areas will always be less frequent than you want it to be.
At the same time - maybe I could catch a night train to the desert. Wake in the morning in a small desert town, and strap my haul bag onto my back and mosey over to a sunblasted diner, drinking a cup or two of cheap, weak coffee (the kind that makes Mormon Jesus cry as little as possible), before catching the twice daily NP shuttle to a remote desert outpost. Watching the barren scrub plains roll by until I’m just about there, then tapping the driver on the shoulder and asking to be let off at the unmarked dirt road so I can hump my 100lb load a 1/4 mile to camp. Certainly, the trip would be less convenient and a bit longer. But at the same time, being without a car could enhance the quality of the adventure - which is kind of the point in the first place
You must live in Utah based on your description of things. I do pretty much the same. Get done with work, or often times I’ll take a job in say Moab, cruise down there, work, then spend the weekend in the desert climbing, 4x4ing, just sitting under the stars watching the world go by. No train goes there, very few public transport options that don’t cost a bunch. And no way to work the way I do.