Oh man it's been sometime since the last time I blogged. I need to blog more often so I'm going to try to get better at doing that.
There have been many years that I have not owned a car and the years I have, I never took it for granted. (Well maybe when I was a teenager by getting a bunch of speeding tickets and fines) But when I got older I realized that driving is such a wonderful privilege. So this has been on my mind a lot as I create a plan on possibly purchasing a car.
My original plan when I moved to Boston was to buy a car after my first year. But that didn't work out due to financial reasons because the cost of living is much much higher here than in Texas. Well recently I have been thinking about it more and more and every time I tell someone who has a car that I'm thinking about buying one; I get the same response "Cars are so expense and a pain to keep up with". You are so lucky not to have a car. Not to be rude but I'm really getting tired of hearing that and I'm about to explain why.
Is it less expensive to rely on public transportation? Of course if you basically want to take it to work and home especially if you work in a big city like I do. But there are a lot of cons to taking public transportation as well. Let's see.... You have the rude people that you have to deal with on a daily basis. Regardless if it is 20 degrees out or 100 degrees out you have to stand out there. And let me tell you in the winter there are more delays so you freeze unless you are dressed in some sort of Alaskan attire. If it is down pouring out you have no choice other than to wait for the bus or train and get soaked going anywhere in the process. Or you have the idiot who thinks it is fun to drive through puddles just so they can get you wet on purpose. Yes people still do that. During the week the bus and train schedules run more frequently but during the weekend they do not. So if you miss a bus by 2 minutes, you could possibly be waiting up to an hour for the next bus and that is NOT fun. But if you live in an area where you have everything right there and you can walk (like near downtown) then having a car may not be too much of a priority. Here they have a service called Zip Car and you can rent a car by the hour or day and gas as well as insurance is included in the price. I remember a girl from my church recently moved downtown and she couldn't wait to get rid of her car and use Zip Car when she needed it. You do have the alternative of taking cabs but it can get quite expensive. You must and I mean must live near a bus or train line and depending upon what you can afford, it may not be the area you would like to see yourself living in. But sometimes you don't have a choice. And then you have the option of renting cars (which I do from time to time) but that gets pricey too at times.
Now owning a car you don't have to worry about any of that. You get in your car and go. Sure, you may have car payments, car insurance, gas (which isn't cheap) and maintenance to worry about but in the end you just get in and go. Now the really good thing about renting cars is you can drive different types of cars that you would not normally choose so that's pretty awesome.
So to all of the car owners out there....if you think it is such a great idea to not own a car, try giving up your car for one month and then come back to me and tell me how great it is. And if you live in an area where there is no public transportation, move to an area where there is and give up your car.
If you cannot or do not want to do any of these things, you should never ever tell a person who does not have a car how lucky they are.
Well until next time....
