Don't buy a car - Live in Detroit anyways

[O3H]

The paradigm shift has started.
Detroit is no longer The Car place for many

https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...it/2802906002/

[401don]

The paradigm shift has started.
Detroit is no longer The Car place for many

https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...it/2802906002/

Is that based on the crowded sidewalk behind the guy in the picture?

[Scottathew]

I'm disappointed the article doesn't cover bus transit. He mentions the qLine and completely ignores that DDOT and SMART have routes the fully cover the QLINE route and SMART can even take you all the way to Pontiac. Also, the buses are faster and more frequent than the QLINE.

[SammyS]

Although I’m in the industry, I totally agree that Detroit needs alternatives to actually owning such an expensive asset that’s utilized for a few hours a day at best. Autonomous vehicles are a few years away and could provide the answer. In the meantime, Michigan’s rediculous Insurance premiums need to be resolved.

[O3H]

Sort of like how everyone buys BIG TRUCKS but leaves them empty
90% of the time in parking lots, garages, etc.

I get an 8ft piece of 2 x 4 into my Pontiac Vibe and close the hatch.
If I need more stuff, I have it delivered, or rent a truck for 1 day only.
The idiocy of rolling around in an empty big ass school bus chassis is odd.

For those that read, and keep up on the news
http://www.secondwavemedia.com/featu...ty-020518.aspx

No car - go Maven
https://www.maven.com/us/en/detroit-...tion-locations

[Scottathew]

I get an 8ft piece of 2 x 4 into my Pontiac Vibe and close the hatch.
If I need more stuff, I have it delivered, or rent a truck for 1 day only.
The idiocy of rolling around in an empty big ass school bus chassis is odd.

This is a point I've tried to drive home again and again with my friends. I've got a lot of friends that have households pulling in 100-200K, and they live paycheck to paycheck because they piss all their money away, including on stupid things like trucks. I ask them why, and they make up some scenario that maybe would come up once every few years.

My family recently downsized from a minivan to a Honda CRV [[used, of course). I still take the bus from Troy to my job in downtown Detroit just for the convenience of not driving and also to keep the abuse of our roads off my car.

My wife recently got a new job in Pontiac, which cuts her commute in half. We bought a used sedan for her commute.

In the next few years I may entertain becoming a stay-at-home dad. If I end up in that scenario I really want to sell off a car and use my bike for most of my needs around town.

[softailrider]

This is a point I've tried to drive home again and again with my friends. I've got a lot of friends that have households pulling in 100-200K, and they live paycheck to paycheck because they piss all their money away, including on stupid things like trucks. I ask them why, and they make up some scenario that maybe would come up once every few years.

My family recently downsized from a minivan to a Honda CRV [[used, of course). I still take the bus from Troy to my job in downtown Detroit just for the convenience of not driving and also to keep the abuse of our roads off my car.

My wife recently got a new job in Pontiac, which cuts her commute in half. We bought a used sedan for her commute.

In the next few years I may entertain becoming a stay-at-home dad. If I end up in that scenario I really want to sell off a car and use my bike for most of my needs around town.

Good luck with that bike idea in January and February around here.

[Scottathew]

Good luck with that bike idea in January and February around here.

It's really not too bad as long as there hasn't been a storm recently. Snow comes, gets plowed, and melts. Layers and facial protection can handle most temperatures.

I already recreationally ride my bike during winter. During it for a purpose would probably involve shorter trips that what I do now.

Also, the nice thing is that during the worst of the weather you simply just don't need to go outside unless you have a pressing reason. Appointments can be rescheduled if not important, or you can use Uber and Lyft for the rare occasions where a jobless person must be somewhere.

I'm not saying that this is something that everyone ought to do, but it's certainly something I'd be willing to try.

[Bham1982]

It's really not too bad as long as there hasn't been a storm recently. Snow comes, gets plowed, and melts. Layers and facial protection can handle most temperatures.

Or you can just hop in your climate controlled AWD car in an insulated garage. 99.9% are gonna choose this option over biking with baby in blizzard through sprawl.

[Bham1982]

In the next few years I may entertain becoming a stay-at-home dad. If I end up in that scenario I really want to sell off a car and use my bike for most of my needs around town.

I think it's cool you want to be a stay-at-home dad, but you will likely be the only dad in Troy tooling around the blizzards on a bike. You're gonna take the baby to WalMart by bike on a day like today?

Why live somewhere like Troy if you don't want to use cars? Troy is like 1000% car-oriented. It's almost municipal law to require two large SUVs in every household.

[Scottathew]

I think it's cool you want to be a stay-at-home dad, but you will likely be the only dad in Troy tooling around the blizzards on a bike. You're gonna take the baby to WalMart by bike on a day like today?

Why live somewhere like Troy if you don't want to use cars? Troy is like 1000% car-oriented. It's almost municipal law to require two large SUVs in every household.

Not that it matters much, but I'm in Rochester Hills, not Troy. Also of note, I'm proposing selling off one of two cars my family has. This would mean my wife would use the car to get to and from work, leaving me without a car during the day.

I live within walking\biking distance to the Hampton Shopping Center, Meijer, Lowes, Fresh Thyme, etc... I live within a few hundred feet of a CVS.

When the weather is too extreme, I would simply stay at home. The kids get picked up and dropped of by a school bus. I could get my grocery shopping done on days when the roads and sidewalks are clear enough to take my bike and bike trailer. I don't need to shop every day, nor am I required to shop when my wife has the car [[I could do it in the evening or on the weekend).

Worst case scenario I would just use Uber or a grocery delivery service, or order stuff on Amazon. There is a premium to be paid for some of those, so I would use them sparingly, and still come out ahead of owning a car. It's a myth that one must be able to utilize a car at any given moment.

As to the question, why live in Rochester Hills while wanting to be less car dependent? My answer is that I want really good public schools for my children, access to great parks and trails, and low crime. We're grounded in Michigan due to my family and my wife and I both have good paying jobs in the Metro Detroit area.

I certainly understand the "I'm gonna be a bad ass and ride my bike during the winter" lifestyle isn't for everyone, but I do think it's not as bad or as impossible as people think.

My friends think I'm crazy because I walk three blocks from the bus stop to work, but I know that it's not a big deal and it improves my life. I feel the same way about riding my bike, even in the winter time.

[O3H]

Ever wonder why people put up with car parking payments

https://en.parkopedia.com/parking/de...g=201902111730

[O3H]

ahhh your balls aren't big enough SoftTail, just nut up and go

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...king/21230943/

[softailrider]

ahhh your balls aren't big enough SoftTail, just nut up and go

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...king/21230943/

I enjoy cycling very much [[ Cannondale with a Lefty ) if its 40, not much wind and no ice I might go out for a ride. I'm not riding to work any time of the year, in this type of weather, you got to be pretty hard core.

[Zacha341]

I prefer driving. I'm in the recycle mode to that end driving used cars all my life. I know there are some new progressives that want all cars and planes removed. Course they will have theirs.

[Hermod]

I prefer driving. I'm in the recycle mode to that end driving used cars all my life. I know there are some new progressives that want all cars and planes removed. Course they will have theirs.

The nomenklatura have needs that the masses don't

[Pat001]

The nomenklatura have needs that the masses don't

They'll keep their luxuries. They just want YOU to live in the stone age so that THEY can claim the credit for "saving the planet."

[Honky Tonk]

I know there are some new progressives that want all cars and planes removed. Course they will have theirs.

That's different.They have a real need for those things, not like the rest of us.

[Zacha341]

^^^ How progressive, so it must be good, virtuous, and without question. Indeed!

Don't get me wrong, I believe in measures towards sustaining our planet and resources. I do my part where I can.

But, I also KNOW that extreme policies, enforcements, and wealth redistribution will be born on the backs of our poorest.

Not the policy makers, elite.

[O3H]

It costs around, approximately, estimate of $3,000 a year for a car
---with around $1,000 of that being gasoline purchases.
Figure in registration, plates, insurance, maintenance, etc.
Four brand new Tires are damn near impossible to get under $400

MANY would love an extra $3,000 in their pocket.

Yearly Depreciation is brutal , AAA estimates on it
Small sedans–$2,114
Small SUVs–$2,840
Minivans–$3,839
Electric vehicles–$5,704
The higher the price, the greater depreciation $ amount in any year.

People need to wake up to the 2020+ realities of the Detroit area
There are THOUSANDS of UN-employed people, today, right now.
Many others are in that $20,000 - $30,000 a year income bracket.
A car is a burden, a monkey on the back, a money pit, for families.

[Honky Tonk]

It costs around, approximately, estimate of $3,000 a year for a car
---with around $1,000 of that being gasoline purchases.
Figure in registration, plates, insurance, maintenance, etc.
Four brand new Tires are damn near impossible to get under $400

MANY would love an extra $3,000 in their pocket.

Yearly Depreciation is brutal , AAA estimates on it
Small sedans–$2,114
Small SUVs–$2,840
Minivans–$3,839
Electric vehicles–$5,704
The higher the price, the greater depreciation $ amount in any year.

People need to wake up to the 2020+ realities of the Detroit area
There are THOUSANDS of UN-employed people, today, right now.
Many others are in that $20,000 - $30,000 a year income bracket.
A car is a burden, a monkey on the back, a money pit, for families.

Staggering numbers. Give it up, seriously, if you can do without. But don't come to me looking to subsidize pie-in-the-sky mass transit schemes that aren't working. I'm tired of watching three types of bus lines running around nearly or totally empty.

[dtowncitylover]

Staggering numbers. Give it up, seriously, if you can do without. But don't come to me looking to subsidize pie-in-the-sky mass transit schemes that aren't working. I'm tired of watching three types of bus lines running around nearly or totally empty.

Please, tell us more about how transit "isn't working" when the state of our roads clearly shows how broken that shit is.

#banallcars

[Honky Tonk]

Please, tell us more about how transit "isn't working" when the state of our roads clearly shows how broken that shit is.

#banallcars

Please re-read my post, slowly this time, until what I wrote sinks in. The roads are "broken" because the money is being diverted to pay for the riderless buses shit, so the people riding them can pay $1.75 a ride, because they're "entitled". #this

[dtowncitylover]

Please re-read my post, slowly this time, until what I wrote sinks in. The roads are "broken" because the money is being diverted to pay for the riderless buses shit, so the people riding them can pay $1.75 a ride, because they're "entitled". #this

That's cute you think MDOT is diverting all this money to transit as if SMART and DDOT have suddenly evolved into a Alpha World City transit system and Detroit roads are now suddenly worse than Haiti.

Please tell the other 20+ people on my bus every morning they are entitled. Or the 30+ people on my FAST bus downtown the other night. Oh, wait they're empty buses, they must be figments of my imagination.

"HOW DARE PUBLIC TRANSIT EXIST. THEY NEED TO FIX MY ROADS" -Screams temper-tantrum guy about "entitlements"

"IM ENTITLED TO MY CAR AND GOOD ROADS AND EVERYONE ELSE CAN PISS OFF" -same guy went on

I mean this is usually how my transit interactions happen around here.

Me: I think we need to fully fund the RTA and invest in transit and roads so our region can be be more attractive.
People like Honky Tonk: I think you should piss off becauseI need my car and I need good roads and I don't want to pay for someone else's transportation and they should pay for all of it. But how about the government pay for better roads.
Me: How about we do all those things.
People like Honky Tonk: YOU'RE SO ENTITLED. WHAT ABOUT ROADS? WHAT ABOUT MY NEEDS?

Ok, my rant is over.

[Zacha341]

#ownacarifyouwantto

Not to be outdone by its stunning subhead:

#thoseinpowerwill!

#banallcars