If anyone here is in Germany, I'd like to ask you: what will it take for you to stop driving?
Previously on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16375534
Previously on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16375534
However:
Do you live alone? If no, how do you do your shopping, for example? Do you have kids? If yes, how do you transport them?
And this comes from someone who enjoys driving.
It’s easy to forget if you live in the centre of the capital city of course.
That said, I know many people who only use them occasionally. Gas is expensive here.
Where do you park your car? On the street, in a designated parking zone, which happens to be a five to ten minute walk from where you live (because the handful of spots closer to your apartment are already taken).
Where do you wash your car? Not in your driveway (because you don't have one) or on the street in front of your apartment, because that's - quite frankly - illegal. So, you have to take it to a car wash, which is inconvenient.
Car inspections... well, on that, I can only speak for Germany and Switzerland. In our case, the engine bay and undercarriage needs to be thoroughly washed before going for an inspection, any sign of rust is an automatic failure, and the criteria overall are much stricter than in the US and UK.
America (or even just suburban America) and other car-friendly Anglo-Saxon countries are more of an exception than a fair representation of how the average person relates to owning and driving a car.
However, the people who consider that hurdle are usually young people, living alone. Their focus now is to enjoy the life, travel, socialising, etc.
In a few years, they will have partner, kids, and they will find out, that the car saves them a lot of time. It they can do in 10 minutes, what used to take 45? Sure, bring it on. That's exactly the reason why I and my similarly aged friends got the cars: the day has only 24 hours, and compared to that, car-related costs are only an expense, and quite a small ones in the bigger scheme of things.
I live in Europe, though.
https://www.amazon.de/Andersen-Royal-Shopper-Wismar-schwarz/...
It's also very common to have a reusable shopping bag in your everyday carry, and/or to carry your groceries in your backpack.
Nowadays, we do weekly shopping. No way I would do that with public transport.
Most people in Germany don't have a garage. Apart from that: the other part of the question is "where do I park my car when I'm not at home?", which is about 50% of the time. Inner cities in Germany don't have giant parking spots but narrow streets with parallel parking on the street with parking fees.
At work; we have a parking lot. When visiting business partners, they have visitor parking. Shops also do have parking. Even the small gym that I visit has a parking lot (small one, but they don't want to lose customers after all). There are not many reasons to go to inner city, just for pubs. And there's no way you can go to pub and then drive anyway. All the small shops disappeared from the city centre years ago, because the patrons had a problem getting there. If you want the cheapest, but still clean and representable office space, you go into the city centre, into the pedestrian zone. Just don't expect many visits there, or even a fast internet connection for your office.
Yes, I do live in Europe. Not in DE, though.
Luckily in Germany there are quite a lot pedestrian zones ("Fußgängerzonen") for shopping where motorized vehicles aren't even allowed and small businesses can thrive there. Cars have to park somewhere else and this can often become a problem. Parking is also quite expensive in major cities with parking fees up to 3€/hour. Building more parking lots into the inner cities is impossible and the fees are high to keep people moving.
> Shops also do have parking.
In Germany malls aren't very common. Inner cities are mostly mixed business and residential with shops on the lowest floor and apartments above.
In cities, almost everything is faster by bike than by car. European cities are very dense, parking space is scarce and many inner cities are car-free.
Public transport infrastructure is great and while people like to complain about Deutsche Bahn (the railway company), it's still more predictable and comfortable than driving a car.
Oh, and did I mention how much money it saves not to own a car?
Yap. So true
re: the saving money buy not owning a car yes I am sure all the commuters to London would like to live in central London housing is still more expensive than a car
If I would be sure that I will not move back to home country I would probably look to sell the car.
You asked this question on HN, which probably has a youger than median audience, which tends to value computers over cars and tends to work in tech related industries, living in cities. These answer are not representative of Germany in any way.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...