Having lived in Southern California my whole life, I’ve always needed a car to get around. Even when I was young and I couldn’t drive anywhere, I still relied on my parents to drop me off at school, take me to soccer practice and wherever else I needed to go. Now that I’m all grown up, I have my own car but to be honest, I don’t like driving it all that much. Owning a car isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be for me because it’s so expensive. Between buying the actual car, maintenance costs, insurance and gas you’re looking at a huge investment over a short period of time.
Southern California isn’t know for it’s public transportation but I wish it was better. I’ve lived temporarily in cities with great public transportation and the extra time trains or buses took didn’t bother me at all. It’s nice to be able to sit back and relax for a half hour and listen to music on your phone or read a book(although I have seen some people doing the latter while driving!) instead of fighting traffic on the roads. And it’s obviously a lot cheaper than owning a car.
But no matter how good public transportation ever gets, there are still going to be times when it just won’t cut it. Sometimes you might be in a rush or maybe you need to transport some large items. I never would have thought it would be possible to ditch my car but with the emergence of various car sharing and taxi services, I think we’re almost at that point where not having a car could become feasible. Let’s take a look at some of the options and see if I can ditch my car anytime soon.
Public Transportation
This is probably your best bet in most cities, but in Southern California, public transportation is pretty inefficient. It’s not too expensive but it doesn’t cover much ground and it takes forever sometimes. In San Diego, I had the option to take public transportation to work but it would have taken about an hour versus a drive time of about 15 minutes.
Car Sharing Services
I really like car sharing services like Car2go since it allows you to pick up cars using their smartphone app and leave them wherever you want. It’s way cheaper than a taxi and almost on par with a traditional car since they’re electric and insurance is included in the per mile rate. I pay $1,000 a year on insurance alone so that would be the equivalent of 2,600 car sharing minutes($1,000/{$0.38 cents/minute}) before I broke even on just insurance.
Taxi Services
I pretty much refuse to get into a regular cab these days since the drivers are usually so rude, won’t accept credit card and in general just aren’t very good at their job. But with the emergence of companies like Lyft and Uber, I’m in love with taking taxis now. The rates are very reasonable and the cars are clean, the drivers are nice and they give out a ton of free money when you sign up!
Bike or Walk
If you’re on a tight budget, then this might be your best and only option. Since I’ve been on a work hiatus for the past two months, I’ve been biking nearly everywhere and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve saved a ton of money on gas and it’s also great exercise. Everyone thinks that biking takes much longer than driving but for distances under 10-15 miles it’s pretty comparable. I can average 15-17 mph on my hybrid bike and I never have to worry about parking. You might get a little sweaty though so there’s that.
Rental Car
All of the above methods are great for shorter distances, but if I didn’t have a car I would have to rent one to go on trips or be able to visit my family in LA. Renting a car is pretty expensive so this would really be a last ditch option.
Ultimately, I don’t think it’s feasible for a single person living in Southern California to ditch their car quite yet but I do think it’s possible for two people to share one car in today’s environment. If your partner or spouse is into the idea then it might be a viable option to ditch one of your cars. The monetary savings would be huge and you might be surprised at how easy it is to get around without a car.
Readers, what do you think about my plan to get rid of my car? My new job is about 20 miles away so it will be pretty tough to bike to work but I could car share or pay someone to carpool with them. If I can’t get rid of my car this year, when do you think I’ll be able to? 1-2 years, 3-5 years, or more?
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The grocery store is 1 mile away, and I’ve tried getting in the habit of walking to save on gas and get light exercise.
I like the alternatives you list, since Costco trips would probably be a bit challenging on a bike! Or maybe just challenging enough, with a bike trailer!? One day…
If you DO go to a single-car household, keep us up to speed on how it works out. We’re not quite in the position to go single-car yet (read: not married or engaged), but I do aim to take this strategy when the time comes. The thought was prompted this summer, when the GF and I both needed new tires. OUCH.
Haha a bike trailer would be an awesome idea, a little goofy though. I think one car shared between two people is the best solution, especially since you tend to do more and more things together as your relationship gets more serious. You could also get 1 nice car instead of 2 crappy cars if you really want to ball it up! Even if you spend more on the car you’re still saving on everything else..
Ditching my car was the best thing that ever happened to me… of course, I moved to NYC where renting a parking spot is the monetary equivalent of renting an apartment in many cities. Though my rent nearly doubled when I moved, I was actually able to improve my expense situation by getting rid of my car, which I averaged out to about $700/month (loan payment, gas, insurance, maintenance). Public transit here is $112 for unlimited bus and train. Throw in a few taxis and I spend less than $200/month on transportation. My car was also not that reliable, so I was able to get rid of the anxiety/stress of “will I make it from A to B today?” Trains breakdown once in a while, but I’d say that my commute is between 25 and 30 minutes about 90% of the time. In San Diego, it was between 20 minutes and 60 minutes just depending on the traffic gods… all in all, my freedom to go where I want is somewhat limited if I want to leave NYC, but I would gladly trade that for the consistency, cost, and convenience of my every day commute.
Yea I refuse to pay for parking so I probably would have a heart attack if I had a car in NYC. I think car sharing and biking would work really well in a city like NYC, have you considered signing up for any of those types of services?
Once you get used to public transportation it’s actually pretty consistent and a lot of services let you track them with smartphone apps and things like that now a days.
I tried the Citi Bike thing just for leisure and it’s a great program. Only problem for me is that the stations where you can dock the bikes only go up to 59th St. and I work on 84th… plus I have to cross town and would like to make it to work alive (most days). I have friends that use it though and love it (we’ll see when the winter comes around). Enterprise just came out with a ZipCar-like program and had a promotion to waive all of the registration/annual fees so I’m signed up, but yet to use it.
If traffic is flowing, it takes 20 minutes to travel the 13 miles to my work. The one time I took a bus, it took 2 hours each way and I had to walk over a mile between the bus and destination at either end.
I think self-driving cars will be the breakthrough that make not owning a car feasible for most people. Dispatched self-driving cars would be like current taxi cabs or rental cars, but would hopefully be less expensive.
I would totally buy a self-driving car! I would be able to get a ton of work done in the car every day so I really wouldn’t mind commuting an hour each way since I could just sleep, read, or work in the car. I’m sure they’ll be pretty expensive when they first come out but it’s pretty exciting to think about the future and the possibilities.
I’ve changed biking to my primary mode of transportation (9 miles to work), but we don’t have any immediate plans to sell either of our cars. Mr PoP still really likes driving both cars, so in some way they are “toys” for the weekend, too. Expensive ones, but toys =)
That’s the perfect distance for biking to work, I’m jealous! I would definitely seriously consider selling my car and sharing one with my fiancee if I could bike to work every day. My new job is about 20 miles from my house though so probably a little bit too far.
Have you tried Lyft yet? I did a few weeks ago and had a great experience! It’s not “cheap”, but still about 30% less expensive than a cab. More convenient, cleaner, and I got water and candy!!
Hey Todd, yes I tried Lyft in San Diego a couple weeks ago for the first time! It was awesome, not sure about the price vs. a cab but the convenience(smart phone app, pay with cc, etc) and general experience is vastly superior than with a cab. I mainly use Uber now that I’m in OC though since Lyft doesn’t operate here yet. They’re both great.
As long as you’re 20 miles away from work I think a car is a necessity unless your job is very straight forward 9-5 reliable. Otherwise you’ll be calling for rides anytime you have to get in early or stay late for a meeting.
Yea 20 miles is tough, I think 10 would be doable but 20 is just too far. I think carpooling would be a good option since if your boss asks you to stay late you can just tell them your carpool partner has to leave haha.