Experiment: Living Car-free Without Public Transportation

I don't think my transportation needs + wants are worth what a car costs in 2025, so I'm living car-free - with no buses or trains.

I made the decision a year ago to move into a co-housing neighborhood in middle Georgia as a founding resident. At the time, I lived in rural western Colorado, where I co-own a house with my 74yo mother.

Backstory on why I didn’t already own a car: I got rid of my 2005 Honda CR-V because we just didn’t need two cars, and her CR-V was a 2019.

My 3 Hesitations for Moving to Middle Georgia

1. Atlanta airport is 90 miles away and traffic is awful. The shuttle service is excellent but pretty pricey at $56 each way. That’s more than my plane ticket!

2. The humidity. After 5 years in high-n-dry Colorado, I’m spoiled by the relative comfort of dry heat and dry cold.

3. This small city with a population of 80,000+ has a great school system, rec center, farmer’s market, library, etc. But not one damn bus. “Maybe in 2050”, says the local government website. Pffft.

All of these add up to some pretty crappy conditions to not have a car. So why am I even considering this?

Car Prices are Turdtastic

I’m not going to count on them to come down either. Plus, I hate car salesmen and their condescending BS. I hate haggling. I hate dealership cartels. And most of all, I hate that the average used vehicle is going for $25K 🤮 and the average new one clocks in at $48K. This translates to average car payments of $525 and $750 respectively, with nearly 19% of new car buyers ponying up $1000/month. God I hope that’s not an 84-month term on a Cybertruck!

Car insurance rates are significantly higher now, averaging $165/month, because car replacement and parts are way up. That $500 fender-bender has multiplied in price with all of the high tech sensors on newer cars.

So before you put in one drop of gas, get one oil change, or buy one new tire, you’re looking at $700-900 per month. Or you buy an old beater and gamble that you’ll spend less than that on repairs.

This begs the question…

Do you get $700-900 of value from your car every month?

I have worked from home since 2003, so I’m one of the few who doesn’t have a job to pay for a car whose primary purpose is to get me to that job. But that’s the case for most people, and it’s a nasty little catch-22.

I don’t have kids, who need all kinds of “mom taxi” services for extracurriculars, play dates, shopping, braces, oops-forgot-my-gym-clothes.

I derive zero pleasure or benefit from any road trips over 20 miles, because I run the risk of highway hypnosis if I’m alone in the car.

Therefore the answer is a big fat resounding NO for me.

So how do I get anything done?

What kind of psychopath packs eggs this way??

Since my little neighborhood is right next to a big hospital, I have a significant number of restaurants, doctors’ offices, the library and other services within a mile. But everything else - supermarkets, Walmart, Target, Goodwill, Home Depot, Walgreens, Kohl’s, etc - is 3 miles away. I’m not a huge fan of throwing away money on delivery services, so I did some math, looked up hacks, and checked on the unused benefits that come with my credit cards.

• $49 for Walmart+ Cancel at the end of the free trial, and you get it for half-price.
  Pro Tip: I shared the fee with my mom because she wants Paramount+, which is a benefit of Walmart+ worth $60/yr, so really it’s $25. Also, I’ve been prompted to tip on 2 out of 15 deliveries, not sure I understand why it’s only sometimes. I do when prompted.

• One of my credit cards gives me a free Door Dash Pass and $25 worth of credits each month. Those credits basically cover the mark-up and tip for two deliveries from Aldi’s.
  Pro Tip: It can be combined with discount codes, which makes it worthwhile. I just did this last night to get a $65 ceiling fan from Lowe’s for $35 + tax and tip ($10).

• Instacart+ for $19/year - a perfectly-timed offer, because I wasn’t interested at $99. There was a $40 off $80 coupon code that could be used twice, so it was more than worth it even if I don’t ever use it again.
  Pro Tip: You can connect your Costco and Sam’s Club memberships to get member prices, which is pretty sweet!

• Two monthly $10 Lyft ride credits from one of my credit cards. If I want to visit friends in the university town 20 miles away, it’ll cost me about $20-25 total round-trip after these credits. Sweet!

• Amazon Prime for $0, because I was grandfathered into the old way of sharing someone else’s account back in 2014-15, it continues to be freeeee for me.

I have certain oracle qualities, and I predict…

1. That I won’t need a car because of my co-housing neighbors. There aren’t many yet - founding resident, remember - but so far, one of them has been great about inviting me for supermarket, thrifting and other errands. I keep her gas tank full and do lots of other favors as needed. I don’t take something for nothing.

2. Most of my cohousing neighbor peeps travel a LOT, for weeks or months at a time. I know it’s not healthy for a car to just sit unused, so I was planning to offer to keep it healthy and offer to cover the insurance. Well this one is already coming true because the above errand neighbor is away for 7 weeks and offered me the use of her car while she’s gone. She declined the insurance offer.

3. There’s a couple planning to move in next year who just don’t like driving and currently live in a big city, no car. That makes the possibility of some kind of car-sharing situation being set up, which is absolutely in line with the principles of the cohousing community - efficiency and generosity.

What if things don’t go as anticipated?

Image credit: Screenshot from Walmart.com

An e-bike. I thought I’d get one right away for the sake of autonomy, but I’m a little nervous about being “invisible”. I haven’t seen a single bike on the main road in the 7 weeks I’ve been here, so I either have to familiarize myself with quieter routes or buy flashy-blinky things to make sure I’m seen.

Mom’s car. My mom turns 75 this year, and has what I call “airhead moments”. If they start to affect her ability to drive, I’m taking the keys, the car, and her to Georgia. She knows this, and now religiously does crosswords and sudoku puzzles to “spite” me. The thing is, I don’t want her to decline any further for a very long time, I’d rather just not have a car…so I’m silently cheering her on.

Summary of Car-lessness Costs so far: $168

$43 for delivery services - annual
$10 in Walmart delivery tips - occasional (I do it when the option is offered)
$35 for neighbor’s gas tank - monthly
$50 for a 10’ U-Haul to pick up large furniture for my house - one-time/rare
$30 to have an FB seller to deliver an armoire - one-time/rare

Now that you have the full picture, updates will be wayyyy shorter!