r/carfree

I don’t know if this is just because of the school I go to (very rich, PWI public school) but not having your own car, or even a license in my situation immediately alienates you from any social circle

I’ve had to resort to lies about having my car totaled and taken away to not immediately be judged. Lacking reliable transport is already bad enough but kids just make it worse 🫩
Am I the only one in this situation ?

i’ve been car-free for about a month now and i’m running into an issue: one of my best friends lives over two miles from me and doesn’t have a car. what would you do in this scenario? i have an electric scooter and i’ve been scooting everywhere but typically with this friend, id go and pick her up in my car and we’d hang out at my house. she also has medical assistant school at 6pm near my house, normally i’d drop her off there too.

we’re supposed to hang out today and im unsure if i should ask my mom to take her here, and to take her to school (seems a bit childish, im 18 and my friend is 19) or…? not sure what other options i have since public transportation is not really an option. she doesn’t have a car because her mother is very strict and hasn’t allowed her to get a job or a license, but that’s another issue lol.

edit: i’m unsure how people are claiming to walk over 2 miles in 20-40 minutes…maps says it takes an hour. my friend lives on the complete other side of town so i believe this. if it was me going to her house, of course i’d just scoot. but if its her coming to my house (which it is)…i will not be asking her to walk for an hour. i was raised better than that.

bus is not really an option because the nearest bus stop to me is across a busy 40mph street. it’s very dangerous to run across this street, but using the nearest crosswalk would make it take about 30 minutes just to get to the bus stop. i don’t think that’s really worth it, since if my friend walked 10 minutes to her bus stop, was on the bus for 10 minutes, and walked 30 minutes to the crosswalk and then to my house, it would only be about 10 minutes faster than just walking the whole way. she’d also need to walk 30 minutes to the bus stop to get to school…and it would take about 30 minutes or maybe even less to just walk to school (i’ve walked there before), so that’s definitely not worth it. i live in a very residential area, in a bad place to use busses.

How long have you been car-free? Meaning either not owning a car or driving any car?

Am 67 and car-free well over last 40 yrs. I did manage to get my driver's license when 20 yrs. But gave it up a yr. later when I realized I didn't feel safe for myself to drive on high speed highways.

When growing up in a big poor family of 6 kids, we didn't get a car until I was 14 yrs. old. I am the oldest. I've lived in Canada all my life.

Hello! I have never had a license and have been somehow able to get by despite living in Maine. I'm looking to move to cities where I could not only live car-free but wouldn't deal with excessive snow and ice that I experience every year in Maine. Is Portland, OR an answer to my prayers?

I am now moving to a place where I won’t have a car and doesn’t have great public transit for the first time. It still has limited busses, but with limited hours. I am in my early 20s and have dysautonomia and EDS, which make walking long distances difficult and biking dangerous. It also means I am very sensitive to temperature, so walking when it is too hot or cold really worries me. Has anyone been in a similar situation and if so, how did you handle it? I really don’t feel like I can rely on the limited bus system from the standpoint of ever having a social life and wanting to get home after it ends.

Edit: to clarify to everyone-- I am not in the US. Many parts of the world are not very car-friendly and are designed to be incredibly 'walkable'. But that can be a challenge for some. And as a student, I do not have the option to live somewhere else––I need to be near the university.

I am 22 years old from London, I have had my UK automatic driving license since August 2024 (which is 2 years already). I am very curious about driving but atm I really don't want to buy a car as I have got in a new job recently. I want to hire a car for like a month, just to fulfill my wish. Where in London can I get a company which is very genuine, reasonable price range and would provide me car rental for a month? I looked for some leasing companies but they do a minimum of 24 months which is not necessary for me at all, I only want it for 1 month.

I looked into Enterprise, but their minimum age requirement is 25 years, and Europcar won't provide automatic cars to me as I am 22 years old. I am not sure if I can get anything from Sixt or any other companies as I have looked into their trustpilot reviews and it is genuinely very bad.

Also, I would like to know if I can get a good rental suggestion from any of you, then how can I do the insurance? Is rental insurance high? Can I include theft and everything in that?

One last thing is about the parking, where can I find cheaper parking lots? I live in E1 area.

Thank you very much for your kind response IA

And people are still fighting about the cost of public transportation or bike lanes and sidewalks but they're willing to pay this much for useless trucks.

I had developed insulin resistance and my metabolism became super slow since Imoved out to a car dependent place. I gained weight and I am unable to lose it no matter what due this sedentary lifestyle. I'm 33 now.

Woohoo...finally gave up my car so happy ! This is day of freedom for me.

After 12 months i realized that i wasnt using the car frequently. Occasionally did lalamove but only managed to cover for petrol.

Seriously, that feeling of being completely debt-free is like the ultimate liberation. It's like you've finally broken free from a huge burden.

No more stressing about looming payments or interest. You can finally breathe easy and make choices based on what you \*want\*, not what you \*owe\*. It's pretty much the best kind of independence there is.

Bonjour,

Je suis en dépression depuis trop longtemps et je ressent le besoin de sortir de montreal. Je n'ai malheureusement pas d'auto. J'ai aussi un chien que je doit amener. Est-ce ce quelqu’un ressent le même désir que moi de s'évader? Nous pourrions louer ensemble et utiliser votre voiture. Je paierai le gaz naturellement.

Je sens que si je ne sort pas de Montréal cette été je ne passerai pas l'hiver ☹️