Comment by creyes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by creyes | Hacker News Reader

LA resident here. Got rid of my car 2 years ago and haven't looked back. A big difference for me is that I hate driving - especially here. The stress of it really got to me.

Financially, I'm not sure that I actually 'save' money. I live within 100yds of a ton of bars and restaurants, and a 5 minute walk to Trader Joes/Metro. I Uber most places but also take the Metro to DTLA and Santa Monica pretty often.

The whole car payment/insurance/gas/maintenance costs for sure are more than what I pay to Uber/Metro but what I'm not sure how to value the 'cost of walking.' I definitely pay a premium for my location and I often wonder, if I lived in a less convenient area (had to drive to groceries, far from Metro) if I'd be able to not have a car. Because as it stands, car costs < uber/metro/rent premium

I'd value the cost of walking as negative: it's good for your health.

I agree, but I think GP is also considering the premium paid to live in a "walkable" area.

Yeah, the math doesn't always work out.

In our case, it did: we spent six weeks in LA, and we paid a good $500 extra to live in a townhouse that had a grocery store, mall and park within walking distance. What we spent extra on the location (I think) we made up in not having to pay for a long term car rental.

If we were doing this long term and had to weigh against buying a car, I think the math would have worked out differently.

Fact. Just google'd average 1 bedroom rent in LA and I pay a good ~$1k more... mostly for walkability

I feel like if the premium wasn't there, due to sufficient competition among buildings and/or walkable areas OUTSIDE of the downtown cores (sub-nodes?) that it would be more viable for people to make that choice.

Depends slightly on what you breathe while you walk.

How do you handle stuff like day trips? Do you just rent a car?

Yeah. Turo (formerly relayrides) is pretty sweet for getting whatever kind of car you need last minute.

shameless Turo referral link: https://turo.com/referral?code=741175rvV6z3

>> The stress of it really got to me.

This in LA traffic

Reply on news.ycombinator.com