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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-11-19, 16:23

If I lived in New York City or somewhere like that, where I was actually living smack downtown and I worked somewhere that was also smack downtown, and the bulk of my friends, hangouts, socializing activities were all smack downtown, I certainly wouldn't own a car. I figure the money I wasn't spending on monthly payments, insurance, parking and maintenance automatically becomes my subway/train/taxi/bus money, right? Or I walk/bike/skateboard. All those options to choose from.

On long weekends, if I wanted to get out of the city and go somewhere, that's what Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, etc. are for, and that's what I'd do.

I'd never own a car if the bulk of my life took - living, working, socializing, shopping - took place within a 3-5 mile chunk of area.

But that's not my life. The things I do/places I go aren't served by public transport (there's none to speak of, once out of the downtown Chattanooga area). Out here in the suburbs, you drive. Or, if you want to walk and bike everywhere, allow for a shitload of time on grocery/pharmacy/errand runs (and good luck on all the hilly, curvy, no-shoulder roads around here that aren't safe/conducive for either of those activities).

I do hate driving, and I've come to despise everyone else driving around me (because they all suck at it...don't know how to use turn signals, don't know how to treat four-way stops or roundabouts, roll through stop signs, constantly distracted by/screwing with their phones, tailgate or slowpoke (the old thing about how everyone driving slower than you is an idiot and everyone driving faster is a maniac).

But it's my only viable option, where I live and how my life is. If the outlying areas of Chattanooga had bus and rail/subway systems, I'd use them. But they don't. And they never will because someone would've done it by now. And I'm too damn old to walk everywhere, and riding a bike for long periods of times makes my balls feel weird (and not the good kind of weird).

Hey...TMI Friday!
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