I am Dutch, have 0 cars, 2 bicycles, and I’m perfectly happy with it. I’ve only recently came across the first situation in which I felt like car access would be usefull.
A couple I’m friends with were pregnant and they don’t have a car either, but since they wanted to be able to go to the hospital quickly and indepently, they rented a car for a week or so. This would’t work for me because I don’t have a drivers license. People often ask me ‘but what if you need to do this or that…’ and never do I feel like they’re pointing towards a problem that I have. Just some minor inconvenience, if one at all. But in this case I thought, yeah if my wife were pregnant it would be damn usefull to be able to transport her by car, by myself. If it ever happens I’m sure we’ll find a solution though. But I found it interesting that it was only the first situation in which it actually seemed usefull to me to have car access.
I wonder if in a society such as yours, where this is all more common.
Could you have taxi companies that take a small fee up front to guarantee you a rapid taxi to hospital when the time comes. I’ll assume ambulances are fine for accidents and emergencies. A regular taxi (and the wait) is fine for unexpected trips where you are unable to cycle for some reason.
But a reasonable fee to say, I want a “rapid” taxi for this instance.
I think that “reasonable fee” would be a quite high one. You’re basically asking someone to be available 24/7 for a specified period of time. And besides, depending on where the person is when you call them it might actually be quicker to just call a cab.
I only got my driver’s license because my wife insisted on it. She didn’t want to be the only one to shuttle the kids around. So I got my license and shuttle them around on my cargo bike, and then teach them to ride their own bike. I still rarely use the car. When we go anywhere by car, she insists on driving.
I am Dutch, have 0 cars, 2 bicycles, and I’m perfectly happy with it. I’ve only recently came across the first situation in which I felt like car access would be usefull.
A couple I’m friends with were pregnant and they don’t have a car either, but since they wanted to be able to go to the hospital quickly and indepently, they rented a car for a week or so. This would’t work for me because I don’t have a drivers license. People often ask me ‘but what if you need to do this or that…’ and never do I feel like they’re pointing towards a problem that I have. Just some minor inconvenience, if one at all. But in this case I thought, yeah if my wife were pregnant it would be damn usefull to be able to transport her by car, by myself. If it ever happens I’m sure we’ll find a solution though. But I found it interesting that it was only the first situation in which it actually seemed usefull to me to have car access.
I wonder if in a society such as yours, where this is all more common.
Could you have taxi companies that take a small fee up front to guarantee you a rapid taxi to hospital when the time comes. I’ll assume ambulances are fine for accidents and emergencies. A regular taxi (and the wait) is fine for unexpected trips where you are unable to cycle for some reason.
But a reasonable fee to say, I want a “rapid” taxi for this instance.
I think that “reasonable fee” would be a quite high one. You’re basically asking someone to be available 24/7 for a specified period of time. And besides, depending on where the person is when you call them it might actually be quicker to just call a cab.
Yeah, if you bring up cycling, all of a sudden everybody needs to transport a fridge to another town in the rain.
I only got my driver’s license because my wife insisted on it. She didn’t want to be the only one to shuttle the kids around. So I got my license and shuttle them around on my cargo bike, and then teach them to ride their own bike. I still rarely use the car. When we go anywhere by car, she insists on driving.