I've got a friend with an MR2...it needs a new engine I believe. If you ever decide to sell, let me know and I'll tell him about it. He's an '80s retro car fan and his no-longer-running MR2 was his pride and joy.Hoblit wrote:Now, I have two more cars and boy is it expensive. One four cylinder '86 Toyota MR2 which is GREAT on gas. And an eight cylinder '89 Lincoln Town Car which is HORRIBLE on gas.
In Amsterdam, they didn't buy all their groceries once a week or on any other schedule. Instead, they just go to the store to get what they need at the moment. A small basket (about the size of a milk crate; or saddle bags over the back tire) is plenty sufficient to carry some milk, dinner fixings, and some OJ. What we did, since we didn't have the nice little bike setup, was just carried our backpack. We only had to walk a couple of blocks and my backpack is pretty darned ergonomic (it's made to carry a 15.4" widescreen laptop for hours), so it was a cinch. We were simply drooling at the whole setup, but it just wouldn't work back home where the hills seem to be gently rolling when you are driving, but seem more like Mt Everest when biking, and of course, my head would be Mt St Helen's if I had to bike that!Billy's Little Trip wrote:We vacation on Catalina Island every so often, and they don't have cars on the island. You either walk, ride a bike or rent a golf cart. But everything is so close that walking is fine. But I love cursing the Island on mopeds and go to the uninhabited areas.
I couldn't imagine walking to the grocery store and carrying back bags of groceries. I don't even like carrying my groceries from the trunk of my car in the driveway, to my kitchen, lol.
Be happy. Be very happy.sausage boy wrote:We don't have WalMarts
Ha ha... yeah...the Lincoln is a freakin' boat. Lincoln SMASH.Lord of Oats wrote:Why do you need so many cars? Would not the compromise of one compact car suit you better than a two-seater and a big ass luxury sedan? Oh, wait. You have an '89 Town Car!? I'm going to come up and visit, and after we rock out, we're going to go out and run shit over in your Lincoln.Hoblit wrote:Now, I have two more cars and boy is it expensive. One four cylinder '86 Toyota MR2 which is GREAT on gas. And an eight cylinder '89 Lincoln Town Car which is HORRIBLE on gas.
What are those things in people's driveways in Avalon, then, eh?Billy's Little Trip wrote:We vacation on Catalina Island every so often, and they don't have cars on the island.
Note, I could be quite wrong. I think someone has a token car there. Moving truck? Damned cold medicine.Thats a shame because right before I bought it, it WAS for sale. Now I'm getting it at a reduced price and have fallen completely in love with it.Wages wrote:I've got a friend with an MR2...it needs a new engine I believe. If you ever decide to sell, let me know and I'll tell him about it. He's an '80s retro car fan and his no-longer-running MR2 was his pride and joy.Hoblit wrote:Now, I have two more cars and boy is it expensive. One four cylinder '86 Toyota MR2 which is GREAT on gas. And an eight cylinder '89 Lincoln Town Car which is HORRIBLE on gas.
1. If your closest 'nice restaurant' is The Olive Garden then I can assure you that the cities have way more to offer. Do not judge the state based on your awful suburban lifestyle!Lord of Oats wrote:1. I'm not really enjoying this state too much. I'm sure it's got a little more to offer in its cities, which I will likely explore a bit, before I take off completely, but I won't feel bad about leaving it behind.anti-m wrote:What brings you to the left coast?Lord of Oats wrote:I have a feeling I'm going to have some pretty severe culture shock when I move to that side.
2. That said, I can't change too much at once. I'm looking for a temperate climate with moderate humidity. I'm not terribly confident in my body's ability to adjust to a totally dry climate.
At the very least, move one of Florida's COASTS. 
Hey Hobs, I think it was EmbersofAutumn and not LOO who was touting Olive Garden as closest thing to a nice restaurant in his area.Hoblit wrote: 1. If your closest 'nice restaurant' is The Olive Garden then I can assure you that the cities have way more to offer. Do not judge the state based on your awful suburban lifestyle!
I'm pretty sure Santa Cruz is as well. Yep, pretty sure.fluffy wrote:Um, Seattle is also sea-level.
Yeah, my bad...I'm just not used to so many Floridians on the board. Now I gotta keep track of them too? You're right, I believe LOO is just about 60 miles south of me and I'm guessing, pretty close to the coast.anti-m wrote:Hey Hobs, I think it was EmbersofAutumn and not LOO who was touting Olive Garden as closest thing to a nice restaurant in his area.Hoblit wrote: <strike> 1. If your closest 'nice restaurant' is The Olive Garden then I can assure you that the cities have way more to offer. Do not judge the state based on your awful suburban lifestyle!
It's been about a year since I've been there, so I did a quick Google to see if the Islands restrictions have changed. Read here, second paragraph, facts >> http://www.rentfourless.com/catalina-island.htmRabid Garfunkel wrote:What are those things in people's driveways in Avalon, then, eh?Billy's Little Trip wrote:We vacation on Catalina Island every so often, and they don't have cars on the island.
But Catalina also has hordes of feral pigs roaming about, so that's okay.
But math jokes are never funny. Ever. Just ask Erik.fluffy wrote:The full title was "de^x/dx: formulaic and derivative." It was a dumb joke because de^x/dx = e^x, i.e. it's a function whose derivative is exactly the same as itself. Originally my comics were supposed to be retarded derivative deconstructions of webcomic clichés. It didn't work out that way (and in the end they were just retarded).
Like Zermott Switzerland. You take a cog railway and they meet you in any electric cart. At the big change-over times for the train after weekends there are all these carts downtown. But nowhere else and most times you never see them. It's great to walk around and never see a car.Billy's Little Trip wrote: But I have seen them unloading boats with pallets going to the local grocery store and the vehicles are big electric flat bed golf cart looking things. But I'd imagine that they would have to have gas powered trucks at some point to build a house or something of that nature.
That's pretty cool. There is a small island here in Newport, CA where I do some work and there are no cars allowed in the gated community. My guys have to unload what they need into a maintenance golf cart provided by the association, and drive 7 mph to the job site.roymond wrote:Like Zermott Switzerland. You take a cog railway and they meet you in any electric cart. At the big change-over times for the train after weekends there are all these carts downtown. But nowhere else and most times you never see them. It's great to walk around and never see a car.Billy's Little Trip wrote: But I have seen them unloading boats with pallets going to the local grocery store and the vehicles are big electric flat bed golf cart looking things. But I'd imagine that they would have to have gas powered trucks at some point to build a house or something of that nature.
Funny, my morning news KTLA 5 just did a piece on this for LA county. Apparently real estate agents can sell a house better with a high walkabilty score. Condos with high walkability scores get more interested buyers and sell twice as fast.fluffy wrote:If I had kids or a social life then I'd probably not be trying to sell my car (which, by the way, I already have an offer on, woo) but being a single person living in the middle of a dense urban area right next door to a grocery store, with pretty good mass transit nearby, and working about 5 blocks from home, makes the expense of owning a car not worth it.
I own a car and I have driven it once in the last month. I will also be driving tonight, to meet up with a friend for dinner. Given that the cost of ownership here is $450/month, that means that I'm basically paying $225/ride. It's not that it's too expensive for me or anything, but I also have a hard time justifying this pointless expense when there's a lot of other things that I <em>don't</em> do because $8/month seems "too expensive."
And, yes, when Ikea is nearby, Ikea runs do happen. If you have Ikea furniture then you also have a tendency to need to buy new Ikea furniture at any moment, due to breakage and/or whimsy.
Car ownership didn't use to be the default position to take, and I still don't think it should be. Obviously it depends on the sort of place you live in and the sort of lifestyle you have. Your environment and lifestyle require you to own a car. When I lived in New Mexico I needed to own a car. When I moved to NYC I sold my car. When I moved to Seattle I immediately bought a car since I thought I needed it again, but for the most part it's been a waste of money. Considering how much I'm getting for it vs. how much I paid on it for registration, taxes, insurance, interest, and dealing with crap like when it got broken into a year ago, I probably paid about $3/mile.
It has little to do with the environment (it's not like my car is actively damaging anything just sitting there), something to do with the opportunity cost (that $450/mo could be going to much more useful and fun things), and a lot to do with the hassle of owning something I never use but still have to pay attention to and give a crap about.
The closest business to where I live? The County ambulance station is about 1/4 mile up the road... and some more useless knowledge... more than 50% of the land on my road is undeveloped. 
