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  • I don't drive a car and I don't intend on changing that, I've built my life around not driving, because I hate everything about it, so always full phone battery

  • I don't own a car and I don't want that to change.

    • Interesting, how come you don't want a car? Not judging just curious

      • Lot's of reasons, the list is quite long, you don't really have to read that all x) :

        *- cars maintenance is annoying

        *- parking is annoying

        *- on street parking and big parking lots are ugly and make places worse to live in

        *-cars are extremely dangerous

        *-cars are too loud

        *-cars are bad for the environment

        *-cars are an inefficient way to get around in most cases

        *-there is too much car infrastructure

        *-car infrastructure is really expensive, a lot of that tax money would be of better use elsewhere

        *-I'd rather support public transport and the implementation of good bicycle and walking infrastructure

        *-walking and riding a bike is healthy and can be really pleasant

        *-I can read stuff while using public transport (like lemmy posts)

        *-driving a car in big cities is scary and stressful

        *-trains are cool

        *-screw the car industry and their lobbying

        *- in the few cases I do want to use a car, I can easily rent one

        These are just the reasons from the top of my head, there are probably more.

      • I'm gonna jump in here with my own two cents as well!

        I am most certainly ecologically conscious so that is part of it. Although it's probably also an excuse and something to make myself feel better about it.

        The main reason is that I feel like I would be a danger to others lol. I used to ride motorbikes (plural because I crashed all 3 of them), absolutely sucked at it and wrecked my knees in the process. And I just feel like it's one of these areas in life where everyone else seems to just automatically know how to do it correctly but no one is sharing the secret. I mean, I was bad, I even wiped out once or twice just slowing down for an intersection and hitting the brakes too quickly or something (to this day I'm still not 100% sure what I did wrong).

        Even with bicycles. It didn't take long to learn to balance and pedal and whatever but beyond that I was awful and crashed for stupid, preventable reasons. Also tried skateboarding at one point and seemed to have a knack for hitting every small stone in the road that would lock my wheel up and send me flying.

        I worry that I'm behind the wheel of a car, I'm gonna daydream or something, or do something stupid and wrong that I don't even realise because apparently it's obvious to everyone else except me. And then injure someone other than myself this time. At least if I fuck up on a motorbike, it's going to likely just be me facing the consequences and I won't take out a family with me.

        I've also started priding myself with walking though. I'm part of a select few that could walk from here to the next town over if I felt like it, and I like being part of a select few. It also keeps me slightly in shape. The "fast metabolism" that I coasted on for years has definitely slowed down and I'm definitely getting a little bit of a belly now. And if I drove everywhere instead of walking, I'd probably be in much worse shape right now.

      • Not the OP but we have not owned a car since 2000 and don't want to own any. We can live without one (public transit, walk, bike, Uber or even renting a car when it's really needed... last time must have been 11 years ago). Why? It's something my spouse and I decided to get rid of when we became aware of climate crisis we were heading into. Likewise, we also stopped using planes completely, I mean, not just for personal travels but also for business (we have not traveled by plane since 2001) and learned to consume less.

      • (not original commenter) It's not really needed in or near European cities in a lot of cases.

        I have one because I had a job I needed to drive to at one point, but now, I can cycle most places, or get things delivered. Not paying for a car can pay for a lot of taxis for the other cases.

        Was thinking of getting one of those tiny electric 2 seat cars with sub 100 mile ranges to cover most of the remaining cases.

      • Ditto. My partner and I are well into our 40s, mortgage paid off, etc. Childfree. Living in a one-story attached house in a sort of suburbs, 20 minutes to city center by bike or bus. So, not a city apartment, and could have a decent car if we wanted to.

        I never even bothered with getting a license, do not want to be responsible for a tonne+ murder machine.

        We rent a car twice a year to visit relatives in the countryside, often one or two times more if there's a family event or other need. I take a taxi sometimes to go to the vet. Otherwise it's cycling (very bicycle-friendly city) or public transportation (also well arranged), and train & public transportation for other national travel. Transporting furniture is sometimes a hassle, but how often does one need to do that? Way more carefree and cheaper than owning a car.

      • Chiming into the chorus here: haven't owned a car since 2001. There's no need. I live in what amounts to a "fifteen minute city" and for those rare things that aren't within a fifteen minute walk of my home, I have great public transit to use instead. In almost 25 years of living here I think the total number of times I've had to use a taxi or hired van or the like to do something that wouldn't be easily done with public transit have cost me less than 1% the purchase price of an automobile.

        So I've saved the price of a car, the price of fuel/charging, the price of insurance, the price of maintenance. My lifestyle as a result is much better than it would be if I continued using cars.

        (I've also calculated that if I took a taxi too and from work daily it would take me five years before the costs of that added up to the price of purchasing—just buying—a car.)

  • I can charge a phone on the car's accessory circuit and charge the car battery if there's gasoline in the tank, so that seems like that'd be more useful.

  • Ignoring the loophole of using petrol to generate electricity. I can run my house on generators etc.

    I don't mind charging my phone everyday. Managing my motorcycle's energy is a right pain however. Do I have enough petrol for the trip/day/week, I just want to go home but I have to find a station, is there one on the way, do they have premium. My phone I plug in and let it sort it self out.

    • Do I have enough petrol for the trip/day/week, I just want to go home but I have to find a station, is there one on the way, do they have premium.

      I bet that there's some sort of fuel container that one can get to extend range.

      kagis

      Looks like it.

      https://www.frontaer.com/extra-motorcycle-fuel-tanks/

      • There is, but that kicks the can (hehe) down the road. It's not a big issue, I live where petrol is expensive but readily available. I set trip counters on the dash, I know roughly how many miles a full tank does and exactly how many miles since I last filled the bike.

        The convenience would be to never have to think about petrol again. That's more than the convenience to never plugging my phone in again.

  • Full tank. Nothing gives me more anxiety than car anxiety.

  • I currently fill up fuel about once every two months unless I do a long trip.... So probably the phone. Could actually save an ok amount of money not having to get new phones/battery replacements.

    Less useful if the EU law on replaceable batteries gives us options in the UK.

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