• autumn (she/they)@beehaw.org
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        4 months ago

        another place i’d probably do without a car, if at all possible. i went car free in seattle for a year, another three years in athens, georgia. wasn’t until i moved to atlanta (and later the city i’m in now) that i had to go back to owning one.

    • JCPhoenix@beehaw.org
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      4 months ago

      Oh for sure. Like in my current city (Kansas City), public transportation is so pathetic. A person has to have a car here. There’s just no way to survive without one. And I live in the city, in the urban core.

      While I fought paying even $50/mo for parking on apt property, I always thought it was funny when people complained about the price for parking garages/lots downtown. At one point not that long ago, it was like $2-5 on nights/weekends. There are barely any parking meters around. And, as far as I know, there’s no parking permits required for street parking. And it’s plentiful. But people still bitched and moaned about “not enough free parking.” Because they didn’t want to pay and/or have to walk more than a block from their car to their destination. Sheesh.

      But in my soon-to-be new city, DC, it looks like someone could get away without having a car? I won’t be living in DC proper, but pretty close. So I’ll see.

      I think if I had to pay the city to park on the streets, I’d strangely be more OK with that? But having to pay my landlord for parking privileges seems ridiculous because I’ll already be paying them out the nose for rent and such.

      Oh well, such is the price for owning a car.

      • memfree@beehaw.org
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        4 months ago

        D.C. Metro runs from about 5am-midnight on weekdays, but on weekends it doesn’t start until 7. In the suburbs, you can drive to a commuter parking lot and leave your car for the workday. You are generally expected to drive your car home each night from there and they DO charge a pretty serious fee (especially given that you’d also be paying for the commute).

        Metro offers premium, guaranteed parking at 35 rail stations for a monthly fee of either $45.00 or $65.00 (plus the regular daily parking rate, which varies by station).

        • JCPhoenix@beehaw.org
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          4 months ago

          Thanks for that! I’m definitely hoping to take the Metro in most of the time. The first time I drove in DC back in 2010, I vowed, “never again.” I’ve driven in many cities, even in Puerto Rico once, but I thought DC was the worst.

          Obviously moving there, there will be times I have to drive around, but to the extent I can avoid doing so, I will.