I'm currently discovering that it's amusingly much easier to live without a car in the city with a family-with-kid than with a family-with-dog. Not a lot of medium-or-larger-sized-dog-friendly public transport that I've found. But if there isn't a good park for your dog to run around in close by, and you don't have a yard cause you live in an apartment... it's suddenly essential to have a car! Same with getting to the vet, etc.

Sounds like you just came up with a new service. LyftLeg?

>Not a lot of medium-or-larger-sized-dog-friendly public transport that I've found

Why would you want to transport your dog inside the city? Apart from the occasional visit to the vet maybe?

For their walks, you could always use your neighborhood and peripheral places -- shouldn't there be some suitable spot within 1 mile or so at least?

> Why would you want to transport your dog inside the city?

My office has an open dog policy, but I almost never see dogs in the office, and when I do, they're inevitably small (the kinds you can hold on the subway). Meanwhile, on the Mountain View campus, dogs everywhere. You need a car to bring your dog to work with you.

>Meanwhile, on the Mountain View campus, dogs everywhere.

And how does that work for people trying to concentrate while working, with barking etc? Or are those dogs parked outside of the office?

> "And how does that work for people trying to concentrate while working, with barking etc?"

People are considerate enough not to bring poorly-behaved dogs to work. I've run into many dogs around the office and have never had a barking problem - they usually just roam in a small area around their owner/team, quietly.

Pretty much the only time I've heard a dog bark at work was when someone accidentally kicked it...

>they usually just roam in a small area around their owner/team.

That sounds quite distracting in a small/medium office space by itself.

My experience has been people who bring dogs to work are often oblivious to the nuisance they cause to others who try to focus.

Amazon also encourages dogs... they have a three strikes policy and lots of warnings. The dog has to be quiet and well behaved to come into the office. Lots of goldens, labs, corgis and bulldogs in the office.

Have you ever heard someone at Google complain about the policy? I haven't.

Perhaps for not wanting to be that guy?

Besides, I don't work at Google. At the companies I did work, when someone brought a dog to work (few times) it was always a problematic situation, people tried to ignore the ruckus, moved to nearby desks etc.

The dogs that come into the office are all well-behaved. It's part of policy, and coworkers aren't jerks. It's still an office, and there's no better way to turn coworkers against you than bringing in a disruptive dog. People are smart enough to know not to bring in a dog that will make enemies.

I like the dog policy, because every so often I have the nice surprise of being able to pet a fluffy dog, at work. In practice it's not so bad as what you're thinking it might devolve into.

Google has at least 1 dog-friendly morning and evening shuttle to/from SF.

Move to Seattle. (On second thought, please don't, the rent is high enough, thanks.) Public transport is universally dog friendly.

I recently just stopped driving into New York City from Westchester. I used to have no qualms about driving for an hour and then taking some 10 minutes to find parking, but there is a better way. The Metro North is 35 minutes to Grand Central and parking is relatively easy, especially when I am going in on an evening. I realized it isn't worth my time to drive in given that I can do other things on the train such as read or write or just close my eyes. As a bonus, I am certainly less stressed when I get where I am going.

Also old cities have different "suburbs" than newer cities. Boston's "streetcar suburbs" were built along public transit first and foremost so they're the perfect blended suburb for families. Nice and quiet but a short train's ride away from downtown.

We commute by bike or transit as a family in Boston through all seasons. We own a car but it sits parked unless we're going on a special weekend trip or something; the car averages 6k miles per year and I'd estimate that Christmas, etc account for about 1/3 of that.

East coast is definitely different than west coast in terms of density. Come out west and you will see suburbs.

The east cost still has plenty of suburbs, they are just slightly higher density than what you might see surrounding LA or San Diego. See the MD-DC corridor, with almost no public transit except light rail, but townhouses are abundant. People that grew up in LA don't even know what a townhouse is.