You don't have to live in the deepest countryside to need a car!

mum2twinsx2

I choose to have a car. I could quite easily get a train then bus to work would add extra 40minutes to my journey. Works out i would have to get up at 4am instead 6am if i didn`t drive. Mornings are stressful enough on days that i work without car, i would be close to being sectioned.

Give today for example, im taking my children to the beach which is about twenty min drive, on a sunday it wouldn`t be possible to take them. The world shuts down in part of cornwall i am in on a Sunday.
It`s bad enough that the buses only come every ninty minutes.

We have those buses where you have to fold down the pushchair to get on that dont fancy that with two babies, a double pushchairs, bags and two four years olds.

Hats off to those who can do it though.

Plans_all_plans

I don't NEED a car at the moment, but in order for me to live my life the way I choose, I have one. This is probably the crux of the matter for most people (aside from nurses and the like)

I did without one while I was a SAHM, but since I've gone part time, we got a car. This is to enable me to get my DD to nursery on time, get to work and back in time to pick her up from nursery. If I was happy for a childminder to pick her up, I could walk to all these places no problem, but I don't want her to have a childminder.

Sunnyday

When we moved house it was to a place with a regular bus service to work for both DH and myself.

Two years down the line and he is no longer in the same job and needs the car for work, the regular bus service is now a joke and i was forced to learn to drive to get to work and back. I work shifts and it was never an easy journey by bus but it did work when the busses were reliable.

If we could afford to move nearer to work then we would again be stuck as DH goes in one direction and i another so we now have to rely on the car as we don`t have any other option.

SD

GlasweJen

I should add that I don't drive because of medical issues so it's crappy last bus for me unless dad is in a good mood and wants to drive me about.

Norma_Desmond

You lot don't know you're born

We get one bus a day - two during the summer months (!) and it's still a fair hike to the village to catch it.
It's essential that we have a car although only DH drives.

Good job we like isolation!

nickyhutch

For me to use public transport to get to work would mean either a 2 mile walk to the train station to catch a train that comes every 30 mins, a 15 minute train journey and a 2 mile walk the other end OR a bus (every 30 mins) from outside my house into town, a wait for a bus to the next town, a 30 minute trip on the bus and a 1 mile walk to my clinic. Quite apart from that, I'm an "essential car user" for my job, so have to use one.

OH needs one too - he'd have the same options but in a different direction.

System

Humphrey10 wrote: »

No-one needs a car.

That must have been said by somebody who lives in an area that has public transport more often than every 2 hours and only between 9AM and 6PM.

I would love to be in a position where I didn't need a car. I suppose that I could give up my job and live on benefit

ceridwen

Barneysmom wrote: »

Whether anyone needs a car or not, it should be a personal choice to make someone's life easier?

I don't think that there's a choice for some people if they drive for a living then they need a car.


Eg. How else does a district nurse do his/her rounds?

I can understand some of the previous points (though I dont personally believe in organising ones life around having to have a car) - but I believe the answer to the question re the district nurse getting around would be "The same way she always used to - ie on a pushbike". From memory - I think that is what used to happen in the past.

Re the point by another poster above about people without cars blagging lifts from people with cars - that may be the case with people that this poster knows. I rarely have lifts with carowners (apart from my parents that is) - but I would have to think hard to come up with many occasions where I have had lifts with carowners otherwise. In my "circle" - carsharing is regarded as virtuous and its the norm for carowners specifically to offer lifts to those without cars and for the non-owners to then pay a contribution towards petrol. In one group I'm in we quite specifically (at my suggestion in fact) came up with a "fixed fee" contribution towards petrol costs - to cover for the fact that some carowners don't like asking at all and there are one or two carowners who were asking too much (ie making a profit from it).

(this fixed fee has been set at a level to allow for 2/3 people including the carowner sharing the cost of the petrol equally between them).

FBaby

Usually the advantage of living in areas where public transport is not so well catered for is that properties are cheaper, which in essence means you can afford a car with what you save in lower mortgages/rent.

Plans_all_plans

A district nurse might have used a bike in the past, but with my sister's shifts at the hospital, she needs a car as it is really not safe for her to be wandering around where she lives early in the morn/late at night. I think safety, rather than convenience motivates her.