Driving Less in the United States

I was 17 when I first got my license, the school bus was an option until then but having the freedom of driving myself to school was quite nice as I recall.
Never have experienced the public transit in Portland, living in Woodburn meant I was right in the middle between Salem and Portland on I-5 corridor but was driving to either point.

 

I learned to drive when I was 14 through older friends. I got my first car when I was 15 (to rebuild). I got my driver's license on my 16th birthday at 8am when the DMV opened.

I consider cars and trucks to be an appliance. They get me and mine to where we need to go. Motorcycles are a different matter.

 

Whoa, that stuff wasn't around in the early-mid 90's at all. I do not think that the MAX was even near Wilsonville for that matter. Of course I also remember when the 541 area code was first introduced and current high school kids were probably not even born when that happened.

 

I went 3+ years in Chicago without a car until last summer.

Even now.. I could bike the 6 miles to the train station that I commute downtown to every day, but I prefer to spend quality time with my family.

 

I got my license at age almost 17 (late 1970's).
There was no public transportation in my small town, nor was there any to speak of in the big town I moved to at age 18. I rode my bike a lot there because at the time, gasoline in the US 48 first went over costing $1.00 per gallon and that was breaking people--plus I like(d) riding my bike (don't have one at the moment).

I live in a big suburb now and the public trans is awful. Despite that, they are eliminating bus routes with the nearest bus stop (with very limited service) a half-mile away.
The only time I've been into cars was when I had access to, or owned a convertible car with a stick-shift. I don't have that now so driving is not fun.

As a family, we drive very little as we put a premium on living close to where we need to be. Most of the necessities--work, school, groceries, doctor, vet are within a 5-mile radius. Fun stuff including great cuisine, movies, live performances--theatre and music, any non-credit class you wish to take--all that stuff is within a 7-10 mile radius. The major airport is 20 minutes away. The big city is 25 minutes away. We walk or drive where we need to go. We have walking trails and forest preserves all around us. We are lucky but we (I) also long-ago planned this out.

We deliberately bought the place in which we live because it is close to everything* (I watched for a 2-story condo unit to go up for sale here for 5 years) thus, even with our jaunts to Ontario and/or Maryland our annual mileage on the one car we own is less than 10,000 miles a year (sometimes far less) and has been for the last 15 years. *also the property taxes are low and the school system, which we have 'outgrown' is excellent.

My spouse has a very short fuse being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. He internalizes it but it's still there. It's best for his all-round health to either cycle or walk to work, which he does more often than drive.

I do find it annoying that much of my spouse's large extended family opted to live in remote, ugly exurbs because they could buy cheap, relatively large abodes. I'm most annoyed at having to drive 'way-out-there' because it eats up our time and gas. I just declined a 50-year-old birthday celebration because eff it, I'm sick of the driving and the lack of concern that it's our time that gets pissed away so you can live in a huge house (and geez, wouldn't it be nice to have a celebration at a centrally located venue?)

The car culture isn't dead but it is changing. I think 'loving' your car is more of a niche thing. The rest of us just need to get from point A to point B.

 

my biggest complaint with my current vehicle is the automatic transmission. Don't care much about the cracked windscreen that needs to be replaced, the right turn light that is missing entirely now (but will replace soon rather than get a ticket), or the engine work it no doubt needs. It is missing a damn clutch.
Most any vehicle I am considering buying will get an instant "no" if it is not a manual transmission.

 

I don't have my license. I was in a few accidents as a kid, and the last one was when I was driving some dirt roads at age 12 with me and my sister.
Freaked me out, so I never went through the driving portion of the driver's ed. test.

Anyway, here in East Texas, cars and trucks are a way of life. Things are too widespread to rely on public transit, and the heat is a deterrent for everyday biking.
It's probably different in the city.

 

I live in Orlando, FL where public transportation has been officially declared socialist. I drive a Hyundai Elantra that is 8 years old and reliable. If I could travel by, say, high-speed rail, I would.

 

I live out in the country so a car is a necessary evil.
I still ride my bike to work most days.
I would LOVE to have access to a transit system like Toronto's and be able to live car free.

 

I got my temps on my 16th birthday. Because of sports obligations, I wasn't able to take Driver's Ed until the summer after my birthday (which is in April.) I believe I got my license in August, a couple weeks before school started. (side note: I wasn't allowed to have anyone else in my car for something like 8 months. Which was probably a good call, but it made me feel a little silly to drive to my then-boyfriend's house so that his parents could then drive us to the movies )

Anyway. I grew up in the sticks. The city bus didn't come anywhere near my house, so a car was kind of necessary to get to work (especially considering the roads I had to take to get there and back--biking probably would've gotten me killed.)

I've used the buses here in NC a bit, and they're okay. They stop running at 6:00 pm, though, so you have to plan carefully. Eden and I have been using one car for...almost a year now, I think. It's not too bad, since we work together, but it is a bit of a pain when we want to do separate non-work things. (my truck should be fixed soon, though, so that's good.)

I've never lived in a city big enough to have a really good public transit system, and to be honest, I probably never will. I would like to live in a community that's a bit more bike-friendly, though.


Edit: Oh, about gas prices-- I used to just drive for the sake of driving, every chance I got. It was nothing for me to hit the backroads at home and drive around for a few hours. I often ended up in Indiana or Kentucky on those little jaunts. That's definitely not something I do anymore.

 

I have an old car, but I only drive it once or twice a week. I pay $149/6 months of insurance and if I didn't have to drive to the next state (300 miles) every other month...I wish I could live without a car now. However, back in college, it was the opposite. I wanted a car, but didn't have one.

When I travel to big cities with good public transit and bike paths, it would be easy for me to not have a car in a big city.

Now, the reason I haven't purchased a new car is because they aren't making the cars I want. Make something that gets 150-200 mpg or like Tesla and doesn't need gasoline, is aerodynamic, and high tech.