How do you possibly survive in Chi without a car?

[grapico]

Eh, I lived fine w/o a car when I lived closer to downtown and worked downtown and was single.

Now that I live a little farther north of downtown, and live with my gf on a treelined street, have a large dog (that goes almost everywhere), 2 mouths to feed when grocery shopping... *sharing* a car is nice. I have been going to the forest preserve, to some parks and stuff in Evanston/Wilmette along with other nature areas out of the city. I am rarely in or near the Loop/River North either, maybe 3-4 times a month tops.

It is certainly doable without a car though but you can live multiple lifestyles here. I used to be downtown everyday when I was younger, I am 30 now and really don't care for it that much, I prefer being in the neighborhoods or somewhere semi secluded out by the lake, that neighborhood feel can't be found in the suburbs either though, so I still prefer that side of city life.

[prelude91]

I find that traveling North-South is much easier than East-West with out a car. If you live along the red line or brown line getting downtown is a breeze without a car, but neighborhood to neighborhood travel can get tricky. I owned a condo on State/Goethe (with Garage parking) and dated a girl who lived in Wicker Park, I can honestly say, I would never travel to WP without a car, and we probably wouldn't be dating today
By the time I walked up to North Ave, waited for the bus, sat on the bus as it litterally made a stop at EVERY corner, 45 min would have passed by. Compare that to, hop in my car (garage parked) drive 15min to Wicker Park, park on street (easy parking). I have saved my self 30min. I honestly don't find the traffic to be that bad off peak hours in the city, and if it is 20 degrees outside, no way in hell I am waiting for the bus.

[Muppet123]

It doesn't take 45 min from the North Ave bus to get to Wicker Park unless you get to the stop right after a bunching of two buses went by and it was an off peak time, and you were unlucky... I used to live there and take the 72 to the red line every day to get to Loyola's campus on Pearson. My total trip was probably about 20-30 minutes on average. There is this lovely invention called bus tracker that lets you know when the bus will be at a certain stop, its actually really accurate. Frankly, unless she had a parking spot for you, it probably ended up taking you longer to drive out there with all the traffic on North and then hunt for a non-permit parking spot...

[chicagocubs]

I just came back to NC after a week's visit in northern IL. I am a native Chicagoan, but, all of my relatives have moved to the north suburbs or Iowa. In my time there, I:
> racked up almost $30.00 in tolls
> spent $90.00 + in gas (normally I spend that in a month)
> put on over 1000 miles on my car
> who knows the depreciation caused on my car

Usually I love coming "home" because I can park my car and utilize public transport but as this was a family-type of holiday, it was all driving. I have to drive in NC because where I live there is no reliable public transport and usually, I look forward to the break.

My point is this: when you are in a situation where you have absolutely no choice but to drive, you wish for public transport more. It is all in what you can't have. This past week when I was in northern IL with no choice but to drive, (and public transport being just so close, yet so far away) it made the 1.5 hour drive to see my elderly, ailing uncle that much more odious. Driving around here in NC is annoying, especially when there is an issue with the car or the weather is bad...but, again, there is no choice in the matter.

HOWEVER, I did not always feel that way. Coming from a very car-focused family, my car was one of my greatest possessions...while I lived in Chicago. I disdained public transport, much like our OP. I did not want anything to do with it. It took moving away and not having access to it that made me appreciate the very existence and availability of buses, trains, etc. I think that quite possibly, the root of this discussion is the availability of choices, rather than the actual need to have a car (or not) while living in the city.

[Craziaskowboi]

You possibly survive in Chicago without a car by taking the El.

[hank0604]

Also, regarding the earlier post about certain occupations needing a car:

A lot of blue collar jobs requiring lots of equipment and travel from site to site, yes, those jobs will never be able to be done without a vehicle. However, others can be done easily without cars, we just have to recondition ourselves to that idea. For example, there have been some Realtors leaving the cars behind in recent years; Oak Park does a bicycle based parade of homes every year, and I know of several apartment locators that are bicycle based. As someone that doesn't own a car, this makes sense to me--I don't want to get in a car, be driven to a place, and buy it, only find out that it's really not convenient to get to without a car.