City Life

I've always been car-free. I have never had a license. I specifically organized my life to be car-free. I moved from my parents' place in a hellish suburb directly into a dense urban area on the east coast of the US after hours of diligent research into walkability scores, Google Maps, good old-fashioned in-person urban exploration, and spreadsheeting to verify that the things I need were within reach of walking / biking / public transit.

I was thoroughly orange-pilled 10 years before Not Just Bikes started.

I wish.

For most of my life I lived car-free in The Netherlands. It was never a problem to bike, walk, take buses or trains thanks to the excellent infrastructure. I never owned a car there.

Ever since I moved to the US 10 years ago I've been driving my car daily. Not because I want to, but because I have to. My kids school is only 2 miles away but I have to drive as there's just no pedestrian or cycling infrastructure between my house and the school...

Car-free since a year. Couldn't be happier. Had once to carry a computer case in a bus, but that was a direct line for 15 minutes.

Not anymore, I was for a couple years in Denver but that was over 10 years ago. Live in the burbs now but have a Brompton folding bike that I use for short trips to the grocery store and sometimes commuting to work. It’s so practical it’s amazing to take it into stores, use it as a shopping cart, and never have to leave it locked up. Just got back from the Netherlands and wow what a fairy tale society they have infrastructure-wise. The more I learn, travel, and see how some places in Europe are doing things the angrier I get with most of North America’s mentality/legislation.

I've never owned a car because of my disability. My relatives drive me around when needed, or I take a taxi. I struggle even getting on a small car.

I do wish cars could be replaced by smaller and slower EVs, at least within cities.

Hey I'm Seattle too! Unfortunately I'm not yet, but I'm working towards being. King County Metro has a pickup within the block, but it takes 45 minutes to take that bus to the light rail, so about 1:20 to get to the city one way. When the Lynnwood extension opens then that will be cut down significantly, and with East Link I may be able to go down to a 1-car household

I lived for 5 years car-free in Seattle. I'm still car-free, but I'm currently doing a bit of traveling so no longer in Seattle (although I may ultimately end up back there).

It's definitely challenging. I wish there was more train coverage and greater frequency in general of transit service in Seattle. Back when I first moved, car shares were plentiful which made it really easy to hop in a car if I really needed to — maybe 5 to 10 times a year — but that whole thing mostly fell apart. When I left a few months ago, Gig seemed to be doing pretty well.

I lived for 35 years in Knoxville, Tennessee, and it would have been near impossible there. Your world gets very small when you go car-free, and that's a problem in places where everything is spread out assuming everyone will have a car and can quickly traverse the miles between places you might want to be. There's a downtown in Knoxville, but until the last 10 years, almost no one lived there. There's a lot more housing now, but basic amenities like a grocery store and drug store are, so far as I'm aware, still missing. Downtown Knoxville is less a place to live and more a theme park.

I was sad to hear the only full-service grocery store in downtown Seattle closed during the pandemic, but there are still plenty of neighborhoods that are totally livable car-free. Could be better, but it could certainly be worse.

Living in NYC and it's amazing not having to drive. Going back to my parents place in NJ it feels inconvenient to have to drive everywhere. Much rather a quick walk, even when the weather isn't great and there's always the subway.

Only Car lite here. I only own an ebike, but my partner owns a car, that we use for trips out of the city, mostly. Props for going car free in Seattle! The infrastructure there, depending on where you're at, is pretty good from what I've seen. I've considered trying to take my bike up via amtrak next time I visit instead of driving. maybe someday.

I'm in Chicago and just take buses and trains everywhere if I have to go beyond walking distance. As someone with a young child it can be a bit difficult sometimes but it's mostly manageable. if I have to go somewhere weird in the city that that would take multiple lines to get to I just use an Uber, this is so rare.

This isn't an ideological thing for me or anything I just don't have car money

I myself have been car-free for about a year now. I own a Lectric XP ebike, and if you can learn to ride on the road and plan your route, it's not too hard to commute via ebike, even in the states. Also helps is that there is a long bike trail that run throughout the metro area. In addition, the bus service in my city is very underrated and actually goes to places that people care about. So yeah, if you can operate an ebike, you can live car free.