People who don't or rarely drive: What do you do instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you guys scared to drive or just don’t like driving?

I have poor vision. I can drive legally but it gives me terrible eye strain.

I live in the suburbs but only a mile from work. I can walk. I almost never go to stores, I take Uber places I need to go and my husband drives whenever we go places together.
I probably drive 1000 miles a year at most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you guys scared to drive or just don’t like driving?

No not scared to drive but hate it.

I've been going into work a couple of days a week lately and since so few people are coming in the parking is currently free as they let the attendant go so I've been driving out to Rockville and even with the lighter traffic I find it is just soul crushing.

Even with the AC on you are just baking sitting out in the sun on these massive roads creating noise and pollution.

The suburbs are truly awful - I can't imagine living in a place where land use is so oriented around accommodating cars and so hostile to walking and public transit.

When things are normal our family gets by comfortably with a 15 year old car we put maybe 3-4000 miles a year on, most of that for weekend travel to the beach/soccer games/visiting family in exurban hell.

On a day to day basis DW and I take Metro to work and the kids walk to school and are able to get to most of their extra curricular stuff without driving too as most of it is nearby. We drive to Costco once a month but do most of the rest of our grocery shopping at a couple of stores we can walk to.

I have a nephew in Anne Arundel in Middle School who has to be at the bus stop at 7AM for a 45 minute ride to school. My eldest also in middle school leaves the house at 810 and has a 10 minute walk to school. But my brother in law loves his ridiculous SUV and yard so I guess it is worth all the suffering but even to go to a park on the weekend they have to get in the car and drive for 10 minutes.

So what are you scared of living addicted to your car - you already look like an idiot for wasting so much money on driving and are contributing to the destruction of our planet.

[Anonymous]

I didn't own a car for my first 8 years in DC. I walked or took the bus/metro everywhere. I had just finished grad school and with loans and the high cost of housing in DC, it was a financial choice to be car-free. I lived in a group house a couple of blocks from the metro, near bars, and restaurants and I seldom felt like I needed a car. It was a great way to save money.


I then got married, had a baby and bought a car. I drove to work every day and to cart the baby around and run errands and stuff. Then a few months before the quarantine, my office moved to a new location next to a metro station and I stopped driving to work. I would drive my car on the weekends, usually just to get groceries. Otherwise, we live in a walkable neighborhood. I really enjoy not sitting in rush hour traffic anymore.