Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I don't live in a place where it would be easy to be car free. Also, my job depends on my ability to drive to client's homes, so if I didn't have a car, I would be unemployed.

I passed my driver's licence 6 months ago (I'm 24.) I have never had a car. I don't really see the need to get one, it might actually be more cumbersome than convenient here.

My dad wrote off the car this summer and I'm desperately trying to show him we don't need one, despite the inconvenience. I'm too scared to learn to drive anyway.

I don't drive (never had a license), but we have a car. I ride my bike to work and places I go on my own. I think I would love to not have a car at all, but that's kinda scary (how would we travel??). It's reallyreally horrible to get around here without a car (no bike lanes, not biker friendly, no one walks, etc.), but it can be done.

Hey you're like me!

Wow, I had no idea there were so many PPKers who also didn't drive! It's cool to know others here get around without cars. =D

I am also 24 and don't have a license yet. I don't really want a car, although it would be nice for groceries and when it's raining, but driving kinda scares me, and I love being able to bike or walk everywhere, one of the few perks of this town.

I sold my car before I moved to Philly. It's the first time I haven't had a car since I was 17 (besides a couple months in 2005 when I moved to Rhode Island with my mom for a summer and my car died). My boyfriend does have a car, though, and I use it sometimes, but I hate driving here so I prefer to get around other ways. I walk whenever possible.

I had driving lessons when I was 16 but somehow managed to get the two worst driving instructors in the city. Both were really rude, constantly treated me like an idiot and made derogatory comments about women. They just shattered my confidence in driving, so I gave up and haven't tried again.

I would like to try again now, but it's way too expensive for me at the moment. Maybe next year. My partner has a car, and we maybe use it once a week. But our town is fairly small and we live right next to a major shopping centre, a bus interchange and my work, so we realistically just walk or bus everywhere we need to go. We're getting bikes soon too, so we'll probably drive even less then.

I haven't owned a car since 2000. I sold it when I moved to NYC. I ride a bike almost exclusively for my travel needs. I'll very occasionally take the subway and use a commuter rail line to go visit my parents in NJ.

I drive VERY occasionally when I'm visiting my parents. They've lately been encouraging me to drive when I'm home so that I'm not nervous if there's ever an emergency and I need to drive. I drove from Central NJ to Easton and Bethlehem, PA this past weekend and I was reminded how much I don't like to drive anymore.

I just turned 30. I have never had a licence, let alone a car. My husband currently has a van, but we don't use it much.

SF Muni does suck, as veganstephen mentioned, but it's not nearly as bad as Edmonton Transit, which is what I have relied on for most of my life. It is certainly more inconvenient not having a car, but it's certainly not impossible.

My primary reason for moving to Chicago was that I wouldn't need a car. I hate driving. I kept mine for about a year in the city before I got rid of it. I never used the damn thing, but it was nice when I was running late for work in the pre-bike days. Once I started riding every day, I definitely didn't need it. Plus, the majority of the time, I can get places faster on my bike.

My roommate has a car, which has come in handy on many occasions. Since I'm injured and can't ride, I've been using it to go to the grocery store or Target. We also use it for laundry day, since our building doesn't have it onsite.

I haven't really driven extensively in about 9 years. Last year, when my partner forced me to practice driving so that he wouldn't be stuck chauffeuring me around, I hit the gas pedal when I thought I was hitting the brakes more times that I'd like to say. I'm so glad that we live in a pretty dense city now and I can walk to most of the places I want to go or take public transportation for places that aren't within walking distance.

I also don't drive. I sold my car when I moved to SF and it hasn't been a huge problem. At first when I got here I'd get so frustrated when I looked up directions on Google Maps and it'd say like "ten minutes" and then I'd realize I was on the car tab so I'd click public transportation and it'd shoot up to "40 minutes". I've gotten used to it for the most part but Muni really is awful and it can be very inconvenient.

I had a car for the first couple of years here in San Francsico and I liked having one, a lot. It's especially nice to have on weekends since theres so many great places sort of nearby/outside of the city that a car gets you easy access to. When I moved to a more densely populated neighborhood parking became an issue as I racked up embarrassing amount of tickets and spent half my day looking ofr a parking spot/ trying to remember what streets had street sweeping on which days etc etc/

Anyway, last week my car died and I signed up for Zipcar and it's been great so far.

I opened this thread because I thought the subject was cat-free PPKers and I couldn't imagine that there were 2 pages of PPKers without cats.

I never learned to drive, being in a car makes me nervous and I have to have the radio on or I feel light headed.

when i moved to dc i gave away my car. i rode my bike everywhere.

then i moved to san francisco and bought two cars. no, seriously. well, nate and i wanted a car to take weekend trips, so we bought a 1969 datsun 2000. then i got my job and i needed to have a car for work. i tried to use the datsun but really a 40+ year old 2 seater roadster is not really a good car when you need to haul around a ton of equipment.

I don't have a car because I don't really need or want one enough to pay for one. I live about a 30min walk or bus ride away from stuff I need to get to. I can drive though.

I don't have a car or a license. Yes, I'm 25 years old. Driving lessons are really expensive here and my mommyanddaddy never paid for mine, like most parents do for their kids ("If you never start smoking, we will pay for your driver's license when you turn 18!") As of yet, I don't need a car, anyway.

37. No car, no license, no nothing. New Yorkers don't drive. But now that I'm not a NYer I've come to the grips with the fact that I may have to learn.

I thought I would be the only one, but I have no car or license either. I am going to try gettting my license again, hopefully by year's end. I'm 33 and it is just extremely overdue. I never got it in h.s. because we didn't have the driver's ed program and I was being a brat since I knew I wasn't going to have a car anyway. I didn't need one in college since everything was within walking distance or bus-able. Then I moved home and lucked out with a job two blocks from our house, so again, no pressing need to drive. I got laid off earlier this year and I know I am not going to get that lucky again. Plus the buses out here are terrible. It will take 2 hours to get somewhere that only takes 20 mins. driving. I'm going to get my permit for the billionth time next week and then call a driving school. I am afraid of driving, but I'm more afraid of how much more I am going to miss out on by not getting over the fear and going for it.

I don't have a car any more. State of Minnesota won't let me. Took away my license in 2007 when I demonstrated that my MS had progressed to the point where it could cause safety issues on the road by causing a safety issue on the road - totaling a parked car (my leg froze up and I couldn't get off the accelerator). Sucked horribly at first, but I'm better off not driving anyway. I was prone to 'issues' ...

Most everything around here is accessible by foot or public transportation, and I avoid the hassle of gas and insurance and parking and all. Still, I'm thinking of getting into Zipcar or something.

I managed to get to 24 without driving, I passed my test in January earlier this year and got my little car a couple of weeks later. I so wish I could have remained car free. I am not particularly keen on driving (it's so scary!) for one thing and I do hate the impact I cause on the environment by having one. However, whilst I live in a city that you can walk from one side of to another in 30 minutes, I work in a rural high school about 14 miles away. I originally got the bus for the first 18 months of working there, but then they cancelled the journey I took. Public transport is also appalling here so the bus was often dirty or breaking down, if it arrived at all. I then got a ride in but needed to arrive and leave at different times to the person driving. Driving has made my life much less difficult. I still hate it though.