Where I live there is no transportation on the weekends and none after 8pm. It makes it a little hard to have any type of social life here. I work at home and only need to go out for appointments which is when I need a car and weekends.
Cars hands down! I hate having to rely on public transport its just so annoying having to plan your day round the bus times when with a car you can leave whenever and go wherever you want Unfortunately my car is off road at the mo and I'm having to rely on buses. Luckily the buses in my area are quite often so it's not all that bad but they can still be quite unreliable
We parked our vehicle before winter. It really wasn't a huge deal, just super inconvenient once in while if we needed something further out. My husband took public transportation, but I'm not as brave lol. I have a huge fear of all the germs from the countless people that use it. Ick. We've done really well, but we'll probably be driving again soon enough (well, not me.. still don't know how). Especially with there being more to do now that winter is over.
As a person who has two vehicles , I still would take the choice of public transportation since the cost of maintaining what you get is ridiculously high. Paying a simple few dollars a day is so much easier than shelling out 500 dollar car payments which don't even include insurance and gas and depreciation as well.
I always try to use the public transport whenever possible. Luckily I live downtown and all the services are nearby. Me and my wife use our car only when we go see relatives. I've been thinking about getting rid of the car, since we still have to pay insurance..
Having a wife and two kids I am at a point when sometimes it's cheaper to use the car than the public transportation. 4 subway tickets are way more expensive than what I am spending on gas!
I live in a fairly rural area, so a car is a necessity for me. I like the one I have, but I don’t exactly like the fact that I need it, if that makes any sense. Cars are so expensive to maintain. So if I lived in an area with better public transport, I would definitely take advantage of that.
That is the logic Leopard, but in my case it doesn't happens because it's more expensive to use the public transportation than to use the car. How ridiculous is that? I think they do need to review the prices for public transportation.
Yeah, my not having a family to transport would likely be an advantage. And it probably really depends on the area. Our public transport is fairly affordable but it doesn’t cover all areas, which always bummed me out.
I don't drive, but even if I did I would still choose public transport whenever I could. I had a car and sold it as I never passed my test, but for those people in rural areas it may be important to do so. It's expensive to keep a car with tax, insurance and running costs, so you need to weigh up how you use it. Most people in London use a zip car whenever they need to drive rather than have a car because of the parking permits and charges for parking. It's a luxury and drain on finances and most people who do have a car write t off on their tax expenses.
What do you mean Theo, never passed your test? Sure, a car is expensive to have. We used to have two, but we needed to sell one because it was a luxury we could not afford. But we do need one, I think it's cheaper than public transportation.
I don't mind using public transport, but for one of the places I need to get to twice a week there are no transport links, which means that the only option left open to me is to get a taxi, which costs about £32 a week if that is what I chose to do. So when I put it like that, it is much cheaper for me to run a car and be able to get myself to places without having to worry about getting a taxi. And then, of course, I can also use it for my other journeys as well, and the money that I save on getting the bus or train is much more than it costs in fuel, so that helps to recoup some of the costs of the car in the first place. Plus I get a little money from giving lifts to people, so running my car probably doesn't cost very much overall at all.
I don't mind them either, quite on the contrary, sometimes they would even be more practical than going to traffic with the car, but I refuse to pay more for public transportation than I do with the car, is something that doesn't make sense to me.
In a country where cars can be expensive, I think I can manage to just use public transportation. Owning a car has some hassles too regarding maintaining it, plus gas is expensive, so I'm content with just riding public vehicles.
Cars are a big expense, but once we have one we can well use it because if we are paying for insurance and inspection, we might as well use it often. Gas price is many times cheaper than bus tickets.
@Sunflogun, Do you own a car? I think using public transportation is indeed cheaper, plus no papers and driver's license and parking fees to take care of. The only advantage of having a car is that it's more comfortable to ride in.
I do own a car because I need to visit family outside my side and also take the kids here and there, so it's more convenient and cheaper. If we didn't have a car our life would be way more complicated, so it's a luxury we can afford.
I used to depend on a car when I lived in a remote area. There was no public transport available, which made it very difficult for me to get to my work place. I would have liked to ride my bike to work but it was too difficult. Now, that I live in a different place with plenty of public transport opportunities, I don't need a car anymore.
That is another interesting perspective Dora, according to where we live our life can change a lot and often enough we do need to make the choice: a better place or a better location? According to that choice we make the transports we use can take a U turn.
