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Comment by PaywallBuster | Hacker News Reader

you keep a car for something that will happen once per ~ 4 years?

Commenter provided one obvious example.. that doesn't imply a lack of other examples.

Hypothermically cold/wet days, if you suffer a physical injury, going anywhere with friends, trips to IKEA, groceries that last more than a week, vacations, or the reason I stopped cycling:

a car driver randomly forces you to pay for a new bike while also giving you a concussion and 7 stitches to your face then drives away.

Happier now with my 'cage' than with the ego I used to have.

When I tried to go car-free, I was surprised to learn just how many different kinds of once-or-twice-a-year occurrences there can be in a single year.

Most people in big cities live without cars and rent for the once every few years moving or whatever that requires a car.

Yes, that was the theory as I understood it at the time. As a single man in my late 20s with a remote job, I moved to the most densely populated neighborhood of the largest city in the region, bought a bicycle and a transit pass, and signed up for a car-sharing service, expecting car-free life to be easy. Instead, I found that it was... possible.

I got through a full year before giving up and buying another car. I have never been motivated to repeat the experience, though I still love city life and try to keep car usage to a minimum, getting around primarily by motorcycle.

I take it you think people that get life insurance are suckers?

Statistically, yes. Assuming n of m people get insurance money, m-n people are suckers. Sorry.

life insurance is priced for once in a lifetime events

There are many people who would happily pay 4 years of car ownership if it means difference between safe birth and unsafe one. If you think its rare mindset, see what happens if (very frequent when I look around) miscarriage happens, how it fucks up people in most fundamental ways and insecure they become.

And obviously there are tremendous use cases to enjoy weekends, do groceries/other shopping, helping friends and family and so on and on...

I come from Europe, currently living in Switzerland which has best rail system in the world and general decent public transport... but still owning a car is a must for 4 of us, travelling anywhere with kids is a chore and amount of stuff for weekend is impossible to carry in public transport (stroller(s), child bed, all clothing, food equipment etc. and thats just kids).

Sure you can spend all weekends in the same place if thats your thing, but it certainly ain't ours, not when we have alps just in the backyard.

With some exceptions (especially in places where car ownership is a real financial/hassle burden like Manhattan), my observation is that people who choose not to own a car even in an urban environment with good public transit end up making a lot of lifestyle compromises. Even leaving aside trips to the emergency room, sick pets, etc., they just don't head to the mountains/beach/etc. because it's too big of a hassle. And especially once you get past a certain age, you can't rely on friends with cars like we did undergrad. Perfectly valid choice but, for the most part, you just don't do things that are a pain to do.

Well, there's also the baby after that happens.

Baby on a bike is easy (well, once they're big enough to hold their heads up). Ours (one and five) pretty much want me to take them on the bike everywhere, unless the weather is brutally wet or cold (< 25˚F for me, though a friend here takes his kid on the bike down to about 15˚).

When the weather's sufficiently bad, we take the BMW with heated seats instead =)

> once they're big enough to hold their heads up

I don’t think this happens before mom and baby are discharged from the hospital, so it is not relevant to the discussion.

Clearly I was taking a longer term view of the phrase "after that happens".

That said: my wife and her mother _did_ ride home on the back of her father's bicycle after she was born (in 1980s China).

It's rains more than once per 4 years.

Haha, wow... where are you from?

Better tell the people in the Netherlands they can't ride bikes then!

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