Is it possible to live in America without a car?

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:36:29 GMT, "Cathy Kearns"
wrote:


"Matthew Russotto" wrote in message
et...
In other words, to live in America without a car, you must structure
your life around not having a car.

I think America is a big place. It depends on where in America you are
talking about. There are many people that ended up in NYC. They weren't
planning on living life without a car, but if they want a car in NYC (or San
Francisco, or probably many other big cities) they need to structure their
life around having a car. It is not the default that living arrangements or
places of employment come with parking, so they need to plan around that.

This is to true in New York City -- many parts of it. People have to
park their cars on the street or try to find a garage or other parking
spot to rent at $200 a month and on up. Cars must be moved from
their street parking to allow for street cleaning or be ticketed.
People do plan their lives around parking their cars. I have known
quite a few who bought a car, enjoyed it for a time and then found
the daily logistics were simply daunting and tiresome -- that car was
controlling their lives -- and got rid of it. It is no fun to drive
home and find no place to park and have to circle adjacent blocks
over and over to find someone who is leaving a spot open. Few
drive to work -- certainly not to work in Manhattan -- and so they
have the expense of a car and also of pubic transportation. We rented
cars sometimes for a weekend or longer for out of town jaunts. And
that was a lot cheaper and more sensible than nursemaiding a car
year round.

Rita wrote:

This is to true in New York City -- many parts of it. People have to
park their cars on the street or try to find a garage or other parking
spot to rent at $200 a month and on up. Cars must be moved from
their street parking to allow for street cleaning or be ticketed.
People do plan their lives around parking their cars. I have known
quite a few who bought a car, enjoyed it for a time and then found
the daily logistics were simply daunting and tiresome -- that car was
controlling their lives -- and got rid of it.

Another "interesting aspect" of car ownership in NYC... the front and
rear bumpers all look like they've been worked over with a meat
cleaver. NY state requires a front license plate, which are almost
always mounted flush on the front bumper, and for some reason everyone
mounts them with cheap, square-cornered bolts.

And of course, in NYC, one parks not by sight, but by touch - you
don't attempt to parallel park by artfully pulling into a spot by the
sidewalk, but simply drive into the car ahead of you (scratching the
bumper of that car with YOUR screws), then you back into the car
behind you so it can return the favor to YOUR car. I had to laugh at
all the otherwise nice cars with their totally trashed bumpers.

And just another reason why I don't live in NYC. ;-)

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame