• Chiming into the chorus here: haven’t owned a car since 2001. There’s no need. I live in what amounts to a “fifteen minute city” and for those rare things that aren’t within a fifteen minute walk of my home, I have great public transit to use instead. In almost 25 years of living here I think the total number of times I’ve had to use a taxi or hired van or the like to do something that wouldn’t be easily done with public transit have cost me less than 1% the purchase price of an automobile.

    So I’ve saved the price of a car, the price of fuel/charging, the price of insurance, the price of maintenance. My lifestyle as a result is much better than it would be if I continued using cars.

    (I’ve also calculated that if I took a taxi too and from work daily it would take me five years before the costs of that added up to the price of purchasing—just buying—a car.)