One of the bigger issues is that being car-free simply is not an option in large swaths of the US and other places. I've lived in places with zero public transportation. One town had taxis: You could not schedule them to get to work on time. The company would not give reasonable call-ahead times: They would simply say it might take 5 minutes or 2 hours. This same city wasn't walkable.

One city had buses, which mostly served the college campus. The busses didn't run on Sunday, late enough at night for second shift workers to get home, nor run to the edges of town (where some factories were).

So many places aren't walkable (or can be easily cycled). One place I lived... the quickest route was on a state road, and didn't allow cycling/walking and wasn't safe for it either. The police would stop you, especially at night. The route that you were allowed to take was much longer.

I am now in a place where I don't need a car. (and I forgot to transfer my license while moving to another country, so I don't drive). Walking is safe. Cycling is safe. There are 'shortcuts' for walking/cycling. Public transport is pretty robust, though the overnight hours could be improved. I can even go to other cities - including some not-so-big-cities - using public transportation (trains or busses). It is wonderful and definitely feels like some utopia. It is so freaking wonderful to have such an option.

I was shocked by lack of public transport in Houston when I visited a friend there in 2008. He warned me to rent a car in the airport, but still it was unbelievable by European standards. And people in richer suburbs actively opposed any public transport claiming it just brings crime. And forget walking. In many cases one cannot legally reach some areas by feet.

I’ve raised three children in Manhattan without owning a car. None of my children (who are all college age) know how to drive, which is always an amusing point of interest among their new friends when they get to college.

So when they were younger, there are times when you simply do need a taxi. It’s infrequent — buses, subways, walking cover most of your needs — but there are times when you really need one.

I would say it's positive to not have to drive a car, but having a license and some driving experience is certainly a good thing, even if you don't rely on a car for daily transportation.

Sometimes a rental car/van/truck is the proper tool for a task.

I got a drivers licence as I was pushed by my parents to, but I hated it. The thought that a small mistake of mine would end up killing someone. Now I'm married with children, living car-free and I'm loving it. My children can't stand being in a car, and since they are not used to it they puke anytime they have to drive more than 5 min. I can't imagine how many children are forced to ride a car and get sick until they just "suck it up".

I have not heard of kids commonly getting sick until they're used to it, but I also haven't been around that many so if it's one in ten or less, odds are I've just never encountered someone who had this (as kid or with their kids) and mentioned it. But I'd feel confident saying this isn't normal, as in a majority doesn't have this.

Anodoctally I would say thay most kid do get nauseous in a car drive, but they do get used to it (some less quickly than others).

I have zero trouble understanding that owning a personal car may not make economic sense in many cities. I have more trouble really grokking the no driver license. So many trips associated with both work and vacation experiences--or even weekend activities outside of a city--require renting a car. I guess you can consciously avoid those situations but it seems very limiting.

(Certainly I couldn't really have done jobs I've had without being able to drive a car and would have missed out on many, many travel experiences including just visiting family.)

Swiss here without a licence. I agree that a licence would be useful at times but in the 15 years I could have had one, the perceived value of it never outweighed the cost of acquisition.

When I was 18 and wanted a licences, I didn't had nor was willing to save up the about $3000 it costs, and later, when I had the money, I wasn't willing to put in the dozens of hours of my time. So getting one is on my "maybe later" list of life todos.

Thing is in Switzerland, as a software engineer (compared to jobs who definitely need licences), using a car is not just a matter whether it makes economical sense: Public transport is often just faster and in my opinion more convenient. E.g. my last time commuting from one city to another was, door to door, 60 min by train and would have been 50 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes by car depending on traffic. The big difference being that I spent the time in the train working, reading, sleeping, chatting with people etc. and after work I could spontaneously decide to go out with friends, without worries how to get home after some drinks.

Same for weekend activities. Public transport gets you there and especially in Switzerland, cities are so small that you can actually just walk out. You can start e.g. a bicycle tour from your city apartment, no need to get somewhere else first.

As a said in the beginning there are still situation where I wish I had a licence. On the other hand, I'd end up using it maybe 2-3 times a year and I'm not sure how comfortable and safe I would be driving with that little regular experience.

growing up i remember sorta envying the kids who got hardship licenses at 14, allowed for teens to drive to work and contribute income to their family, completely ignoring the familial/financial situation borne of that. in that small, mostly suburban city, everyone drove, and everyone got their license by 16 (unless you failed your test a bunch of times).

imagine my shock when i went to college with a bunch of kids from “the city” (nyc) who never got a license in the first place and many didn’t even see the point of it. truly mind-blowing.

now i live in LA and haven’t owned a car for years (but still have a license). it’s great! the weather makes this the perfect city for mass biking/scootering, if only we could convert even some of our abundance of street parking into bike lanes.

If I lived in Boston--as opposed to a fairly far out exurb--I could imagine not owning a car given that I mostly work remotely. Though I probably still would so I could get out to mountains, etc. for the weekend. In any case, I would certainly want to be able to drive so I could do various vacations and sometimes necessary work driving. Some of this is less common in Uber days but certainly not non-existent.

My point again isn't about owning or not owning a car but being able to drive a car when needed.

When do you need to? If your family never drives, you wouldn’t see a need to.

It’s almost like asking “well wouldn’t you want to be able to go camping?” Sure, if you grew up camping you might know you want that. But if you didn’t, why would you even think about going camping?

Similarly, if you’ve only lived in a city where you can hire a driver (cabs, moving vans, etc) as needed, why would you ever think you need to be able to drive? What is the situation you’ll be in where you need a license?

I've lived without a car for years but I still find a license invaluable for the few times I'm moving or helping someone move. It's much (much!) cheaper where I live to borrow a car from a friend or car share service than pay a moving service. I aim to never use a car except when moving or visiting family inaccessible to public transit.

Leaving aside that one office I do go into sometimes is in a suburban office park (but I suppose I can take commuter rail/Uber when I needed to go in). I have lots of friends scattered around the area. Most do not live in the city. It's very usual for me on weekends to go to the mountains/shore/skiing/etc. all of which need cars. (And the handful of people I know who live in e.g. SF without cars use Zipcar and rentals a lot to pickup things, etc.)

When I travel in the US, I go places like national parks which all need cars to get to.

I would absolutely not be fine with living in a city with no real way to get out of it.

agreed, having a license is still useful for renting cars as needed, which i do periodically myself.

I don't know where the OP lives, but in Europe it is pretty durable. I have a driving license, but I never owned or rented a car while living in the EU. I mostly cycled while living in Budapest and London. You can use the train or fly if you want to go everywhere else. Everything is cheap (compare to owning a car) and reasonably fast.

When I moved to New Zealand after ~2 weeks I bought a car because it wasn't feasible to move around without one.

It's definitely more feasible in much of Europe than in most of the US. You're still somewhat constrained to where there's decent rail or bus service--or where you can go with friends/partner; you're probably not going to travel around the Scottish highlands without a car.

But, if you live and work in a relatively major city and are fine with mostly traveling to and from where there's good public transit you can make it work.

It's much harder in the US if only because, outside of New York City, there's sort of an expectation you have a car and things tend to be organized with that expectation in mind. People can and do get help from friends with cars but this becomes harder as you get further out of school.

Seeing the off the beaten path countryside is the one thing I miss about not using cars. I have a license, but only really learned to drive comfortably in my home area.

But the bulk of work and vacations are fine. For work I’m usually in denser cities or can use Uber/taxis. For vacation, I also generally go to places with train infrastructure, or to a specific destination where a car isn’t needed.

Growing up we didn't have a lot of money and my family didn't have a car, (and a license in Germany is quite expensive, about 1k and it involves a ton of lessons) or vacations, so I basically just bolted to a university town when I was 18 and as a developer in an urban environment, I've never needed one since.

Nowadays as an adult, I think on vacations it might actually be a good thing because I've found just taking trains in foreign countries is actually one of the more fun aspects of travelling.

You should probably see the trains in some Eastern European countries then. Slow and dirty.

I've been to Eastern Europe several times over the last few years. In some countries public infrastructure is so-so but that's mostly a function of the countries still not being super wealthy. Overall I had a good experience.

East Europeans need to stop this self-colonizing attitude. The trains are reasonably OK, with great variations from place to place. Is there room for improvement? Sure.

An average of 35 km/h is okay? I could probably do that with my bike.

I very much doubt that the average train speed in EE is 35 km/h, and I traveled extensively by train from the baltics through the balkans over several decades.

If you take the average EE train, it is worse than Western Europe or Japan, comparable or better than US, with more extensive coverage.