In the core downtown of a major metro area, totally feasible.
Anywhere besides that outside of a handful of metros like NY/NJ, Philly, DC, San Fran, Chicago? Probably not gonna be fun.
Nearly impossible. Even in most cities you’d still need a car. Only 4 or 5 metropolitan areas in America are walkable, well-served by public transit, or otherwise non-car dependent.
i'm currently doing this, and it sucks. if i don't have a ride to work it's over a mile away, and i can get there either through a field that has a sinkhole problem or the longer route on the side of the road with no sidewalk. miserable.
For a rural or semi-rural area, I suppose if you were rich and agoraphobic and you never left home, we are in an era where you could get broadband and order pretty much anything delivery eventually, barring poor weather.
The suburbs of major cities usually have some busses, but they are not well funded or reliable. I have family who depended on them out of necessity in the deep south and it was a pretty terrible life.
Depends. Where im at, without a car, you'd have a damn hard time. You could bike, but theres nothing super close, itd definitely be over an hour bike ride to get to the nearest grocery store, and you'd have to bike along the highway, which has no bike lanes.
Extremely difficult. How would you get to work? How would you buy food? How would you get to a pharmacy or a doctor? And if you want to see people they're going to have to come get you.
I've known people without a car in rural areas. You know how there are outdoor dogs? These are my uncle's outdoor friends. They're unemployed, desperately poor, and living with other people in bad situations. They walk miles to visit. They know he'll at least give them a ride back home or drop them somewhere they want to go.
Depends on where you are and how much you get out. For example, I live in a town of 23,000 surrounded by countryside. My apartment is in a residential area about a mile from downtown and there's a small local bus service. Between the bus, my bike, and my feet, I could get to all the places that I visit on a regular basis. Stores, services, medical, entertainment, etc. I would be limited in how much I could get at the grocery store and bulky purchases would be difficult, but you can have something like a bike trailer that increases your capacity.
You would be limited in the places you could work. My job is 10 mi outside town in a very rural area with no bus service and roads that are too dangerous to ride a bike on. If you worked in or near the central business district, you could walk, bike, or bus there.
You would also be limited in your ability to leave the town. We have a regional bus that connects my town with another similar sized town and a city of about 50,000 that's about 30 miles away. From that city you could catch a train or a plane. They also used to have a Greyhound station, but I don't think it's active now. So you could get around, but you would be beholden to the transportation schedules. That regional bus, for example, only runs maybe six times a day and not on Sundays. In addition to the planning required, it's also more expensive compared to a fairly reliable vehicle that only needs gas and regular maintenance most of the time.
Just using my town as an example, you could definitely live here without a car, but you would have to not get out very much or be okay with limiting your travel outside the town to factors that are outside of your control.
Aside from my job requiring it, the flexibility of having a personal vehicle is a big part of why I have one. I don't use my car for everything. I do as much walking and biking as possible, both for my own health, environmental reasons, and enjoyment, but I would absolutely feel restricted and a bit suffocated if I didn't have the option of a vehicle to go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
A. You don't have to live in one of those places to be outside of a city.
B. It won't be as inexpensive, but you can absolutely get food delivered anywhere in the US.
Where I live, only about 20 miles outside of a small city, the only possible way would be if you have someone who does all of your shopping for you. Food delivery isn't possible. But then you'd essentially be on home confinement like you were in trouble with the law. Walking anywhere simply isn't viable.
depends on how good you are at farming, gardening, hunting, and canning food. and whether you like solitude or not. Assuming you are already setup with the necessities (jars, tools, seeds, starter herd/flock, etc) its quite easy and many people do it willingly. they have a car but only go i to town a handful of times a year. monthly at most. a ride share or good neighbors could replace a car used that infrequently.
Very difficult. I grew up in the country and there were some pockets of extreme poverty that I dont know how anyone overcomes. These houses were at least 6-7 miles to a grocery store and work would be inaccessible without a car. There was a church near this community that I imagine was a lifeline to many of its members. I know on occasion my dad would give someone a ride who was walking into town.
I’m rolling my eyes so hard at the comments that say it’s impossible.
I’m a single adult, living alone, big in a large metropolitan area, and it’s not that hard or that big a deal—and I’ve done it for a good long while, in multiple states!
You make friends, you use ride shares, you walk if possible, and order groceries to be delivered.
I was without a car for about 5 years in a smallish area. I would rent a car for a day twice a month. Just coordinate all your shopping. Dr appt. Pharmacy runs. Grocery trips. Depending on size of area there may be li tied bus service but I’ve found for time sensitive things you just need a car. If you go with option meal planning is a must bc you can’t just run out to pu something. In terms of cost of you get a smaller car the price runs about the same as car insurance for a month. Check to see if rental co does pu and drop off at your house. It sounds a little complicated but it worked for me for years.
I had a problem even in Gettysburg, PA after a certain hour at night.
Popped open my app and there were zero. On to plan B.
Same with Union. Eventually a woman with a car saw that there was zero transportation and drove me back across the mountain after being taken to the hospital by ambulance (I had a reaction to my meds; I was fine)
It can be very hit or miss outside of larger metropolitan areas.
Very very very hard outside of a city. Harder further you get out from the city. There is nothing in walking distance. You'll spend a fortune on cabs, Ubers etc.
I think in this area of the suburbs it's doable. There's a grocery store, a few restaurants and more in walking distance. The bus line is a few houses away.
Depends where. I'm in South Florida and make due with buses and ride share. Bus routes I use are frequent aside from Sundays but I'm off then so it doesn't matter. I also work at a grocery store and have another one less than a three minute walk from my house in a huge plaza so I'm not concerned about store access. It would be easier with a car but for me it would probably be more expansive factoring in fuel, insurance, and car payment. I pay less per month with my hybrid model of public transport and buses. Time is the thing I'd gain, not money.
I have a friend who lives without a car. She invites me to drive an hour and a half to visit for the weekend so she has a ride to the swimming spot in the river, in her town. There’s no public transit in her town and so she needs rides to the nearest train station occasionally. She’s hugely dependent on friends with cars. But she figures it out. So, not easy, very hard, but possible.
Basically impossible. Public transportation is non existent outside of cities, ride-sharing would be incredibly expensive, walking would be dangerous and take a very long time and most roadways are not safe for cycling.
I live in the suburbs of a major city and it’s nearly impossible. The grocery stores are over an hour away. We don’t have many sidewalks and the cars drive very fast. They wouldn’t be watching for you.
Depends how alone you are.
If you are trying to work a 9-5 job and have a life. Hard.
But if you go way past the cities, skip the 9-5 and adopt a homesteader life style, it gets easier.
Depends on how you define city. There are definitely main streets in small towns where you could have enough groceries and businesses within walking/biking distance to be okay for food and work. Amazon/Walmart delivers most places for everything else you might need. It's doable.
If you're in a rural area, it's next to impossible though. I have a house in a small town in upstate NY and it's about 10km before you get to the first business. There's farm stands, but you'd be pretty stranded without a car.
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