I'm torn. I hate driving to work but, living in Colorado, I can't imagine not having a car to drive up to the mountains. Ideally, I could use public transit for getting around in town and just use my car when I need to either transport things or leave the city. Unfortunately, the closest light rail stations to my home and work are about 1 and 2 miles respectively--a long walk. I've recently considered the combination of riding a bike and taking the light rail though.
How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
91–100 of 226 posts
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Seattle with a 2 year old and one more on the way. I can't believe I ever considered leaving the city to have kids. I can walk to a coffee shop 3 blocks away without taking 15 minutes to strap my kid in a car seat and the amount of parks we have access to in a short walk in incredible. We take the bus to the zoo and aquarium and my son loves seeing all the people and looking out the window. Being out and ab…
I suspect when your kids become older, your life will become more dictated by your kids activities that you don’t control as much. Sports practices and games, school, etc. These will be unlikely be centered around walking distance from home. And, then, I will welcome you back to the fold of parent indenturedness. :)
Being forced onto a schedule dictated by your kids is a choice parents make, not a necessity.
I never said I didn't have a car when needed, just that my day to day is much more enriched by not needing one (and being forced to get out of the house).
I will always choose to spend my time exploring the mountains with my kids, but if they choose soccer/baseball/etc then its just medium walk or short bus ride away.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#93I personally love driving - but I work from home. Nothing makes me happier than remote starting my F150 and hearing its V8 roar from inside the house through several walls/doors.
Have kids? When your kid spikes a fever at 1am and you have no car and you need to go buy some children’s ibuprofen, what are you going to do? I can run to my local 24/7 grocer or Walmart and be back in 10 minutes flat.
My son had a bad reaction to a doctor prescribed medicine and had a seizure early one morning. We were at the hospital in 15 minutes thanks to the modern automobile. We don’t live in a city because we consciously chose the suburbs. I grew up in a walkable city and getting my first car was still one of the highlights of my youth.
Now my kids play soccer and they practice and play 4 days/week all over the local area. Good luck doing that without a car.
The freedom/flexibility a car provides us as individuals is unprecedented in human history. You can drive from NY to LA in 41 hours and you are on your own schedule.
For the folks that don’t like driving, you have plenty of cities to choose from where that’s doable. That’s the beauty of modern society - the choice is yours and we don’t have to judge/demonize one another’s choices.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#94I'm torn. I hate driving to work but, living in Colorado, I can't imagine not having a car to drive up to the mountains. Ideally, I could use public transit for getting around in town and just use my car when I need to either transport things or leave the city. Unfortunately, the closest light rail stations to my home and work are about 1 and 2 miles respectively--a long walk. I've recently considered the combination…
How often do you drive to the mountains though? Even if it’s once a week, there are cheaper options than owning a car - options which may also end up being more convenient if you take into account no longer needing a parking spot.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Seattle with a 2 year old and one more on the way. I can't believe I ever considered leaving the city to have kids. I can walk to a coffee shop 3 blocks away without taking 15 minutes to strap my kid in a car seat and the amount of parks we have access to in a short walk in incredible. We take the bus to the zoo and aquarium and my son loves seeing all the people and looking out the window. Being out and ab…
I’m surprised by this, we visited a friend in Seattle with my son and it felt like the least child friendly city that I’ve ever been to. After seeing people tieing off to shoot up midday in Freeway Park any thought of having my kid play in the park was gone, no need to risk a needle stick. I will say as far as cities go those effected with homelessness were not as aggressive towards me/us as I’ve experienced in other…
Seattle is a city of neighborhoods. Move a few block away and the experience would be completely different.
With that said, you visited what I would consider some of the worst places in the city to spend time with kids.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens if/when you have kids. I’ve seen many people biking around Amsterdam with their kids in protective bike high seats. But this is unheard of in many US cities. Minivans are the usual solution. Would you teach them to take public transport or try to live within walking distance of everything? Obvs doesn’t apply if u don’t plan on it, but curious if anyone has found a solution in US cities.
I'm a parent to a one-and-a-half year old in New York City, and I grew up in a mid-sized midwestern city. I'm obviously biased, but I think we've got it much better off here. A block and a half away is one of the best playgrounds in the city, and three blocks the other direction is another fine playground. Both of them are packed with kids at all hours of the day. When we go visit family in the midwest, we make a poi…
I grew up in manhattan, and I really just think this is a situation of people wanting something different than what they previously had. The ability to drive instead of being jam packed on highly congested trains was something that I enjoyed when living in other cities, traffic does suck, but at least you're in a temperature controlled place where you can control the radio and what not. Additionally, point to point transportation is nice as well.
Over time, what I've come to appreciate the most is the middle ground, something that is incredibly rare but does exist within pockets of larger cities and that's the ability to easily choose between walking, taking public transit, biking or driving to really any destination. All of the big cities in the pacific northwest (portland, seattle, vancouver) do this well, in addition to areas outside of the city centers in the north east as well as some of the first ring suburbs.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#97Anecdotally, I always loved having a car and the sense of independence and freedom that came with it. Then at the age of 25, I moved out of the country to a small, walkable town in Latin America where I either walked, drove my scooter, or took motorcycle taxis everywhere. After two years of living there, I moved back to the US, bought a Jeep, and was super excited to have the autonomy and ability to travel between ci…
Me right now. But for me I just moved from San Francisco to Southern California. The amount of time I have to spend just moving myself about is insane. People talk about how expensive SF is, but I didn’t have to spend 15 hours a week just moving myself around to work and back, grocery store, misc errands, etc. Between the cost of my time and the car I’m spending $3,000/mo just to be miserable. It sucks. Can’t wait to get rid of this thing.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens if/when you have kids. I’ve seen many people biking around Amsterdam with their kids in protective bike high seats. But this is unheard of in many US cities. Minivans are the usual solution. Would you teach them to take public transport or try to live within walking distance of everything? Obvs doesn’t apply if u don’t plan on it, but curious if anyone has found a solution in US cities.
It's precisely because I have kids that I prioritize a walkable place. Because kids can't drive! So in car-dependent places, they have no autonomy until they're nearly adults. I think it's much more healthy for them to slowly and steadily expand their autonomy, rather than a sudden discontinuous break when they learn to drive. The same argument applies in reverse to old people too. In places with good transit and wal…
> It's precisely because I have kids that I prioritize a walkable place. Because kids can't drive!
This point is tragically under-appreciated. Kids who live in car-dependent suburbs are in a very real sense alienated from the larger society. A twelve-year-old should be able to visit the library, stop by the park, grab a sandwich at a lunch counter, mail a letter, and wander back home all by themselves in an afternoon.
It's no wonder so many kids feel isolated and alone. They are!
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#99Americans want to be "apart"! Most people in America see high-density living as a negative. Most want a yard and a garage. The country is huge - you can fit three UKs into the state of Texas alone. We have the space, we have the roads, we like our yards. I have moved our family into progressively rural environments and will continue to do so until the distance to basic necessities is intolerable. In most rural enviro…
Have you lived the alternative? It's obvious people are raised to want large houses and large yards, its cultural, but given we'd know the true experience of both would we still feel that way? I've lived the big city, high density European lifestyle, I lived it in America too, and in Canada, and I've lived the American and Canadian small town life. They're both nice. The small town life is great if the community is h…
I'm not sure about Europe and America but where I live (Australia) living in the city is ridiculously expensive (Sydney routinely ranks as one of the highest cost of living cities in the world).
When I was growing up I lived in the suburbs, I hated it so far from everything, very infrequent public transport (lucky to get one bus an hour). Maybe worst of all as a young geek poor internet speed. I was stuck on dial up for years because it was all we had...
I vowed when I left my parent's home I'd live closer to the city. But it is just so expensive (especially rent) there is no way I can justify it. So I suffer through all the long commutes, traffic congestion hell etc.
Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart
#100I personally love driving - but I work from home. Nothing makes me happier than remote starting my F150 and hearing its V8 roar from inside the house through several walls/doors. Have kids? When your kid spikes a fever at 1am and you have no car and you need to go buy some children’s ibuprofen, what are you going to do? I can run to my local 24/7 grocer or Walmart and be back in 10 minutes flat. My son had a bad reac…
> When your kid spikes a fever at 1am and you have no car and you need to go buy some children’s ibuprofen, what are you going to do?
I could hit 3 bodegas from my front steps with a rock. I don't need to start a truck to get Ibuprofen.