I'll preface this with we live a little over a mile to the nearest bus stop. We're in the suburbs of a major city. Stores are a few miles away. On Zillow, our house has a walk score of 13 out of 100 and a transit score of 24 out of 100. So evidently, Zillow thinks this neighborhood is car-dependent.
Two years ago we went about two weeks without a car when it was in the shop for an extended time. This week, our car is again in the shop with body damage. It's now been 8 days. They promised us about 10 days. So here's hoping they were on target with that estimate. We chose not to rent a car for this period. (And our insurance doesn't cover car rental.)
It's been a little challenging for this past week without a car. My daughters have walked to the bus stop to go to the places they need to be. My husband works from home several days a week, but he did need to go into the office for meetings earlier this week. He normally takes the bus. However, we usually give him a ride to the bus stop. So this was inconvenient for him to not have a car. I've been a true homebody all week. I did a huge grocery stock-up shortly before the car went in. The only things we're low on now are fresh milk and bananas. We're fine, though. We've been using powdered milk the last couple of days and have been inundated with our own fresh produce, even if we don't have bananas. This week is obviously not the norm for us.
Our experience with just one car and four drivers the rest of the year
the good
- one car costs less to purchase than two cars do
- we pay less in insurance
- we car pool places more often, including errands, so we spend less in gas. A side benefit -- going places together more often builds the relationships within our family.
- just one car to take in for general maintenance and repairs
- we need less space for housing one car vs two, freeing up the garage for storage space
the bad
- sometimes two of us need to go in two different directions at the same time. How we've managed that--a third person (usually me) will chauffeur both people to and from, with one person arriving at their destination a little earlier than needed. Or, sometimes one person will take the bus, for the person for whom bus travel works out more favorably.
- with just one car, we don't have the flexibility of having a larger car, SUV, or truck for transporting large or dirty items. When buying our current car, we chose a sedan for gas economy and ease of driving for our then teen drivers. If we were to ever add a second car, we'd look at something larger to use as a secondary vehicle, with the idea we'd transport those large items with it. We've missed out on a couple of yard sale or free pile items that would have been nice to own, such as exercise equipment.
- and of course, like this week, when our one car is down, we don't have a back-up car to count on.
This week of being carless will come to an end soon. I think we'll all appreciate having the car back for our use. I've missed the freedom that having our own transportation offers.
So how about you and your situation? Would you or have you considered downsizing your current number of cars? What opportunities would you miss by having fewer or no cars? Do you live in an area with a good walk score?
