💾 Archived View for tilde.team › ~brib › gemlog › 2022-05-15-cars.gmi captured on 2024-08-18 at 17:21:30. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Things I'm going to miss if I move somewhere without good public transport or bike access

Free exercise. In the summer I also get the chance to absorb Vitamin D.
The cost of running a bike is £40 for insurance + ~£100 for servicing (including breakdowns). Per year. For unlimited travel. On a more-than-10-year-old bike. Even including long-distance travel (which requires public transport) it's cheaper than regularly running a car.
If I go to a new city on a train I land right in the heart of the city.
I can sleep on a train when I travel to a new city. I can also read or browse memes on my phone.
I get that feeling that I'm messing the environment up less than if I was running a car.
I'm not worried about accidentally killing people.
I get to use bike-only spaces which are often more direct than roads for cars.
Free parking. Bikes take up less space so they're also easier to park, even in the centre of the city (although I must caveat -- they are not always _easy_), or in a shared house.
When there's a bunch of panic-buying on petrol prices I remain calm. And I'm not usually the sort of person to remain calm.

I guess I'm just used to the car-free lifestyle -- these little benefits are nice, and besides, living car-free for several years means my inner map of what a space is like is based on how I can walk or bike around the space. I am rather loathe to give that up.

Unfortunately given housing prices in my area I have one of two options:

Move somewhere in my local (for some definition of the word) area which requires a car for day-to-day living
Move somewhere across my country which has a cheaper cost of living, and allows me to live car-free

Not an easy decision.