I know how it is though. I live in Tampa,FL. It isn’t the easiest city to get around without a car. I’ve tried to get around without one, but it’s just not practical. Tampa has a bus system, but, buses are just no way to get around; it’s so slow. What would take me 15 minutes by car would take me 1:15 by bus. If only Tampa could finance a rail system. Subways are a lot quicker than buses. Trust me, I have been to cities that have then and man is it so easy and quick to use. Biking is not an option here either. This is because of the heat. I think I would die of the heat if I tried to go to the supermarket on a bike in 100 degree heat in the summer.

In my case I used to live in a Northwest Suburb of Chicago, Palatine, IL. In these northwest suburbs you could exist mostly without a car. That’s in their downtown area (Downtown Arlington Heights in particular is nicely high end, safe and walkable) For the ones that were smart enough to spring up their downtown areas around the Metra stations that is (Metra is Chicago’s suburban commuter train service) The premium is not $30,000 however. For my two bedroom one bath condo several miles away from Metra in Palatine the value topped out at $166,000. To be closer to the train a one bedroom one bath condo was starting at $230,000. This may have changed with the real estate bubble bursting but it was still insane.

When I first moved there I worked in Northbrook, IL so I had to have a car for that. Then I ended up working on the northern tip of Chicago which was 20 minutes by car (since I was in a car friendly area right off of rt 53) but by train the total trip would’ve probably taken around hour due to needing to take Metra a bit farther in to Chicago and switch to the Blue Line to head back North a few stops. Not to mention finding parking at the Metra station. After that I worked in Niles which was the same thing.

It wasn’t until I worked in downtown Chicago when I began to realize I could live without a car. For a few years I did the daily drive to Metra, park, catch the train and ride downtown from Palatine. It was beautiful. The majority of my trip (from parking to train pass) was completely tax deductible and I wasn’t trapped in my vehicle for an hour or so at a time. I could do other things on the train that I could not in a car like read.

Even so however . . . I still hung on to my car due to the area I lived in. The layout of my complex and the layout of that section of Palatine in general did not lend itself well to safe carless living.

Now I’m living in the City of Chicago in a house on the northwest side. There’s a 24 hour bus stop a block away which links up to a 24 hour Blue Line stop. To the commenter that complained that jobs along bus routes are low paying . . . The highest paying jobs in Chicago tend to be in the loop where most routes terminate. My car is only needing to be used once maybe twice a month. Zipcar and iGo aren’t overly close to where I am however Enterprise is and generally when I need to rent a car I need it for the day. I’m fortunate in that my spouse does have a car and does need it for work so we still will have one vehicle between the two of us.

I have run into a couple of situations where I’ve needed car transportation and they’ve been out however I could always just grab a cab.

There have been times where I’ve spent in excess of $750/mo between car payments, insurance, gas (I’ve had commutes that were in excess of 100 miles a day), and maintenance. My current pass for Chicago’s CTA service which provides unlimited usage of the El and Bus costs $86/mo which is cheaper than I’ve spent in gas in many cases not to mention this expense is completely tax deductible.

This all said, this isn’t for everyone. Some people have made a decision to live in an area where a car was required. Other people have ingrained ideas that car ownership is a must have. Still other people think you’re crazy, special or slow if you don’t own a car however that can extend to not owning a car that they approve of (As one example, Smartcars & Mini Coopers aren’t enough for them, their lifestyle and their perception of safety so therefore NO ONE should own cars like that. I guess the free market system only suits them when it only has products they want to buy)

For those of us where it is an option though . . . Give it some thought.