Non-Vehicle able

[BigCityAttitude]

Obviously you could live in New York without a vehicle, but is there any others? In most other cities, the transportation just doesn't cut it.

[Neo]

I voted NYC because it is obviously a no-brainer. They have an excellent mass-transit system. I would like to add personal experience of Chicago to the mix though. I've lived there before without a car and I found it VERY easy to get around and do what I needed. They do have some gaps though and some real pains in coming from the subways to the EL's but it's very doable. Would be easier if they had all subway though, mainly downtown to make transfers easier.

[monsoon]

[BrandonTO416]

I voted NYC. Just a huge rail network.

[Cotuit]

I think you have to leave NYC out of this kind of poll

In 30 years on this earth I have only ever owned a car for 6 months. At the time I was living in a suburb of Boston, and working in a suburb of Boston (the only reason I took the job was because I happened to have a car, before that job I was commuting suburb to suburb car-free for 2 years [Waltham to Watertown]).

I have lived in Boston (including the close in suburb of Waltham); Portland, ME; New York City; and Providence without a car.

In Portland I was going to school, the campus was spread across the downtown area, walking everywhere wasn't a problem, I actually never rode a city bus in Portland.

In Providence I live on the edge of downtown and work on the other edge of downtown. Most days I walk to work, about 20 minutes. I can get to all the shopping I need to on the bus or by foot.

I am probably going to breakdown and by a car soon. The ability to get out of town on a whim is the basic reason. There is no parking where I work, so I won't suddenly start driving the 1.2 miles to work.

Boston is such a compact city that a combination of transit, and feet can get you anywhere in a reasonable amount of time (longer service hours would be nice, but whaddayagonnado?)

New York is so vast, that commutes can be long. I used to commute from Flushing, Queens to Midtown. The Express Bus would usually take about 45 minutes including a 10 block walk on the Manhattan end. Delays in the tunnel (which were numerous after Sept. 11th) could make it a very long commute however. Subway took me at least an hour. I took a bus from my house to either the 7 or V train, then the train into the city. Bus service in the outerboroughs can be quite shoddy. Service frequency can be quite poor in surprisingly congested areas. I knew a lot of people in Queens who drove most places. Brooklyn and Manhattan are better. The NYC Transit System is very delicately balanced, one problem can send a ripple effect through the entire system, delaying trains all over the place. The Queens Blvd. line is notorious for having service disruptions.

[urbanguy]

Non-Vehicle Friendly Cities:

New York

Chicago

San Francisco

Portland - & its gonna get even better

Honolulu - I dont have a car here and i get around just fine by walking or biking thanks to it being a compact city & the excellent bus system or taxis...BRT lines soon and possible Light Rail in the future as well

Seattle - its getting there well its very easy to navigate in the city the transportation is excellent in the city and its walkable too but outside of that is a hmmmm...

Not sure where else in the US cause there are so many sprawly suburban messes

How about Atlanta? Miami? Philly? Minneapolis?

[wolfdawg54]

New York...by far has the best system.

[Allan]

Obviously New York is the city where it is easiest to get by without a vehicle. With that said, however, it is possible to live in nearly every city without a car. It just depends on how inconvenienced you're willing to be.

Living in Detroit without a car is possible, but it is important to live near Woodward Avenue. The bus system runs throughout the city, but the buses have a bad habit of just plain not showing up. Woodward is by far the busiest line, with buses running just a few minutes apart, so if a bus doesn't show up, it won't be very long until the next one shows up. If you live in midtown, or nearby, you would be close by pretty much anything you'd need, so you could just walk. In other areas of the city, you may have to drive a short distance. It all really depends where in the city you live, and where in the city you work.