I'm curious. I know where my life diverged and where I would've been a car guy otherwise, would be interested to see what the dealio with other people is or whether they even ever thought about it
I'm curious. I know where my life diverged and where I would've been a car guy otherwise, would be interested to see what the dealio with other people is or whether they even ever thought about it
I think most people in the US don't think about it and go with the flow of "I'm an adult with a job of course I need a car", and if prompted why not try biking they just go "that seems like a pain in the ass/unsafe/not going to work in X weather". Even for ones that like biking recreationally. And I do empathize with not particularly wanting to bike commute every day in rain or snow or whatever. A lot of people have very inflexible work environments/schedules that wouldn't allow any exception for bad weather, so why take the chance (and it will be viewed especially negatively by bosses if they see it as "you're late because you choose to ride that stupid bike in instead of driving like a normal person")
And genuinely, not having a car in most US cities does limit your options geographically, economically, and socially.
I actually was a car guy from like age 16-21. I owned multiple cars, maintained them mostly myself, drove almost everywhere I went, gave people rides, etc. But day to day all that gave me was poor health, exposure to dangerous situations on the road, and a residence too far from the city center to reasonably visit any other way. It sucked. The only thing it was really good for was long distance travel, but when everyone you know still has cars that isn't as much of a factor. I wasn't doing a ton of solo road trips anyhow. I moved back into the city and kept my cars, but consciously tried to get around more and more with walking, transit, and eventually biking (due to the aforementioned poor health biking wasn't a primary way of getting around again for me until I got an ebike). I just enjoy those modes more, I feel more "in the world" that way. Eventually I realized I didn't need or particularly want the cars.