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Comment by dublinben | Hacker News Reader

What is the practical difference between owning a vehicle, and having access to one whenever you need it?

For many people, a car ends up storing a good variety of things they would need for very few trips, but only on said trips. e.g., if you only need your gym clothes on days when you stop by the gym on the way home from work, you don't need to have planned that stop before leaving for work in the morning if you keep a set of gym clothes in the car.

It's like having a really, really big purse or backpack.

Additionally, if I spill something in my car, oh well, maybe I'll steam clean the upholstery after a few months of such spills, but if I spill something in a shared vehicle, that seems worse to me--letting the mess build up for a few months impinges on others.

It also sucks trying to get things back that you forget in a shared car. I know a driver who let her wallet slip down the side of the passenger seat. After a bunch of failed attempts to tell her the location of the vehicle so she could check herself, the company went to look, a week later, but they didn't check the side of the passenger seat. Then the car got shipped 500 miles away for service. Six months later she received a call that they'd found her wallet, but of course everything had been replaced by then. And even then it was a hassle to get it shipped and picked up.

Exactly. In my case, I keep a ton of handy tools and emergency supplies in my car, that do occasionally come in handy, but would be impossible to lug everywhere myself. I would have a hard time imagining the benefits of giving up having a car, even if it was a bit cheaper not to have one.

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