HACKER Q&A
📣 burlesona

Would you prefer to live without cars?


For a long time I’ve preferred places where you don’t need to drive much. As I’ve gotten older, and especially since having kids, this preference has gotten a lot stronger. Even though we live in a very walkable place, I feel my children are greatly limited by the danger of cars all around. And loading / unloading our car with the kids is a huge PITA, so much that it causes my wife and I not to bother with the kind of short driving trips we used to commonly take.

I find that I very much wish there was a place I could live in the western / southwestern US where cars were entirely banned, so that it would be safe for me and my kids to get around everywhere via waking or biking. Crucially I would like my kids to be able to run / scoot / bike / whatever safely without adult supervision.

I find myself thinking about this more and more, and I ask this question because I’m curious to get an anecdotal “sniff test” from the HN crowd. Am I alone in this? Are there a few of you who think similarly, or a lot? Is there and unserved market out there of people who’d like to live in a totally different kind of development, or am I the crazy outlier?

Cheers :)

  👤 NeedMoreTea Accepted Answer ✓
You're only the crazy outlier because our entire infrastructure has been re-designed around having a car first and foremost. Except The Netherlands. That affects everything else - how things are built, spaced, run down of public transport, footpaths get the long way round, road gets the direct route to shop door, housing areas no longer have many (or any) local shops, services or expectation to add a rail station or bus route to the new houses.

Look back to history and most shops and milk used to deliver, or have a round that brought the green grocery, or whatever to you in a suitably kitted out van. Losing those means yet another push to individualise delivery to you in the car.

I can only hope we find a middle ground that's people first, but I suspect vested interests and big business will win, as always. FWIW We mostly do live without the car, but once every week or two there's a trip that's unavoidable. My ideal commute is 30 mins or so each way, on foot or bicycle.

👤 simonblack
Some places in the world are set up in such way that you are much better off without having to drive or park a car.

Paris is such a place, pretty much nowhere in central Paris is more than one or two hundred metres/yards from a Metro. Also most apartments have no provision for garages, and many streets are too narrow for parking.

Several times I have rented an apartment in Paris, and deliberately not rented/leased a car. It's just more convenient to walk a few hundred metres or take the Metro.

👤 gshdg
Yes, absolutely, 100% I'd prefer that. I live in a pedestrian city, without a car (which is inconvenient maybe once a year, tops), and the behavior of people in cars is one of my biggest gripes.
👤 DoreenMichele
I've lived without a car for more than a decade. I'm not specifically looking for a place that bans cars, but I would certainly like to see a more people-centric, less car-centric US.
👤 m463
In the majority of present society, a car is literally time.

Yes you can have modern integrated cities with jobs and housing within walking distance, but how many people can take advantage of them?

Maybe the rise of telecommuting / telepresence will increase the number of people.

👤 eucryphia
Deregulate residential development so developers can impose non car ownership by contract. I assume bulky goods and garbage will be moved by trucks?