We are a one car family

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

[Anonymous]

People who live the car free life:

--Expect their friends with cars to come visit them instead of vice versa ("there isn't a metro station near your house...")
--Complains that Uber, metro, etc are too expensive and the Europe does transportation so so much better
--Either work minumum wage jobs so is not limited by location to find work OR is affluent and works from home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

It's way cheaper to live someplace further from metro, and once you mix in transfers and the bus system, any commute will be absolute misery. Sure if you time is cheap and you enjoy sitting on a rolling homeless shelter it can make sense. It sounds like OP have limited the choices for their kids solely to support having one car -- even though sometimes because of having to do a couple of round-robins you will actually have more car-miles driven then with 2 cars (not to mention you can have a smaller commuter car which reduces impact of your aggregate mileage).

Cargo bikes and the like are sideshows in America -- we do not have the cooler European climate where that makes sense -- half the year anyone biking is going to arrive at destination a sopping stinky mess.

I'm all for high density living (well I was until they legalized marijuana and now every condo and apt stinks of weed), but for families it really is a hard sell unless you live in Manhattan and have TONS of money for taxis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who live the car free life:

--Expect their friends with cars to come visit them instead of vice versa ("there isn't a metro station near your house...")
--Complains that Uber, metro, etc are too expensive and the Europe does transportation so so much better
--Either work minumum wage jobs so is not limited by location to find work OR is affluent and works from home

100% THIS


We have “car-free” friends and we ALWAYS have to accommodate them when we have get togethers, to the point that it causes us significant expense and trouble just to have routine activities. They have no clue how much of an imposition they are with their voluntarily travel-restricting themselves and expecting everyone else to either come to them or meet at some destination near transit. Suggesting to them that they get an Uber and come to our suburban home for grilling out and sitting by the pool is nonstarter, but we have to hire a sitter and pay $30 garage parking every time we visit the human filing cabinet they live in in NoMA is just fine.

[Anonymous]

I have five drivers on my house. We share three cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH works from home and I work from home. We do not need two cars. We share one small SUV.

I am surprised this is not more common.

Good for you.

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised more people aren’t moving to this model. Cars are like 50k! Even if you paid 25k, that’s a lot of a working class/middle class paycheck. It’s much more efficient to just Uber if needed than pay for a 2nd car that just sits there.

and I’m surprised that one person up thread doesn’t have a license. What would happen in an emergency? Does your Dh have to drive every road-trip? It doesn’t seem safe but maybe I rely too much on my car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH works from home and I work from home. We do not need two cars. We share one small SUV.

I am surprised this is not more common.

It’s not the norm- still not uncommon in the DC area. We have one car.

[Anonymous]

We have friend show only had one car and “carpooling” was a one way transaction. Other people drove their kids. So they made one car work by depending on people who had two cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

What?? That's my point. The extra car is not a major expense compared to our mortgage and daycare for two young kids. We paid for it from savings and the ongoing expense of insurance, gas is minimal in light of our overall budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have friend show only had one car and “carpooling” was a one way transaction. Other people drove their kids. So they made one car work by depending on people who had two cars.

This or the multiple-kid families. I have learned to say no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you live near public transportation? Do you have K-12 kids?

It is not common to be a one-car family because of typical US driving distances, conflicting itineraries, and US interest in purchasing luxury goods that increase personal convenience.

Sharing a car reduces personal freedom and requires some logistical sacrifices. People who make it work often have expensive supporting infrastructure that makes it possible. For example, my husband and I only had one car when we lived in a studio condo at a metro stop. That apartment is somewhere between $200K and $300K now. Not far off from the cost of my 3 BR house in flyover country.

Working from home is a small portion of the economy. And I think it is more prevalent among the affluent. New-car buying is also mainly for the affluent.
Historically, affluent Americans are not very prone to accepting underconsumption and less personal convenience. Think about how house sizes have grown and the rise of air conditioning as other relevant examples.

Your positive experience, if politely shared, might intrigue a friend or young couple just getting started, but don't expect a lot of converts.

This.

Do you want an award, OP? I had no car for 10 years after moving to DC. Then we had one car for awhile - one kid and lived near metro. Now we have two cars as it's more convenient. It's also just not that big of an expense compared to everything else.

Car payments, gas, and insurance are expensive. So is the car tax if you live in VA. Unless you live in a place where housing is dirt cheap, how is having an extra car not that big of an expense compared to everything else?

What?? That's my point. The extra car is not a major expense compared to our mortgage and daycare for two young kids. We paid for it from savings and the ongoing expense of insurance, gas is minimal in light of our overall budget.

Well, it wouldn’t be minimal for mine. DH takes metro to work (fed employee, so he doesn’t pay for it) and I stay home with 2 kids. Our rule, due to car seats, is whoever has the kids has the car. 95% of the time that’s me. Why should we incur the expense of an extra car, plus pay $250 a month for him to park in the garage at his office, when he can commute for free? Your monthly outflow is probably much higher than mine, even though we have a big (for us) mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH works from home and I work from home. We do not need two cars. We share one small SUV.

I am surprised this is not more common.

I'm surprised that you don't realize we all have different needs. Some people need two cars because they work where public transportaion is not available and they have jobs that require to be in person...teacher, fire fighter, plumber etc

Try to get oit of your bubble Ypu are not superior because you have one car..lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who live the car free life:

--Expect their friends with cars to come visit them instead of vice versa ("there isn't a metro station near your house...")
--Complains that Uber, metro, etc are too expensive and the Europe does transportation so so much better
--Either work minumum wage jobs so is not limited by location to find work OR is affluent and works from home

100% THIS


We have “car-free” friends and we ALWAYS have to accommodate them when we have get togethers, to the point that it causes us significant expense and trouble just to have routine activities. They have no clue how much of an imposition they are with their voluntarily travel-restricting themselves and expecting everyone else to either come to them or meet at some destination near transit. Suggesting to them that they get an Uber and come to our suburban home for grilling out and sitting by the pool is nonstarter, but we have to hire a sitter and pay $30 garage parking every time we visit the human filing cabinet they live in in NoMA is just fine.

Sounds like your friends just don't really like you or don't want to spend time grilling by your pool. It sounds like it isn't worth the $80 uber ride out to BFE to visit you.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 drivers who share 1 car.

One driver uses his bike sometimes.