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Comment by TrackerFF | Hacker News Reader

(I live in Norway)

When I lived in a major city, I went 10 years without owning a car. Should I for whatever reason need a car, I could rent one. But other than that, public transportation, walking, and biking for me. Hell, I often preferred public transportation over a car.

But as soon as I moved back home, a rural area, a car has more or less become a life necessity. I simply can't imagine living out in rural nowhere without a car, it would be such a hassle. Where I live a bus goes 3 times a day to the neighboring towns, that's it.

It really depends on where you live, and what your logistical situation looks like.

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I spent 17 years without a car - first Berkeley then Brooklyn. It was a huge boost in financial freedom and stability - nothing worse than a major repair on something you depend on.

But most of the US this is impossible by design. Where I grew up you might live right next to a grocery store- but it is a mile walk because of the wall and road design. Nuts.

If the only road that goes past your house is a bicycle path, a bicycle will be the most convenient. If the only road that goes past your house is a railroad, then a train will be the most convenient. If the only road that goes past your house is a motorway, then a car will be the most convenient.

But the transport infrastructure isn't an immutable property of the land, it's collectively-planned-and-built infrastructure. So the most convenient mode of transportation will settle into an equilibrium as the initial investment begets convenience, begetting more people choosing that method, begetting more investment and planning of towns and cities to accommodate that transportation method.

Where I lived all this summer the only transport infrastructure that was available for the last 80 years since the reservoir dam was completed was an old diesel tractor and an equally old motorboat with an evil 2T outboard, or a 3 km walk to a pier that was being visited by a 1957-built ferry twice a day, if it did not break down.

Then there are two to four months in a year when there is no transport except a single emergency services hoverboat while the ice settles or melts. Depending if it didn't break down, there isn't any emergency elsewhere, and a host of lesser things, like hovercraft travel isn't exactly cheap or fuel-efficient.

And then snowmobiles in winter. But also cars, if you're not afraid enough to test the ice thickness by driving on it.

That is an immutable property of the land.

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