How important is having your own car?

Hey , how are things?

Living in a city the size of Frankfurt (in the middle of the city for a while), I find it surprising that so many people own cars. For one thing, it becomes hard to find somewhere to park your car. Or it's expensive because you have to pay for it.

The other reason I am surprised is because of the amount of public transport. It's easy to get around the city without a car. It can take time, but it's easy.

That's very different to where I grew up. It was a rural (1) area. There were school buses that took students to and then home from school and there were taxis. So, it was unusual for a family not to have a vehicle (2) or two.

We had a family car that Mum drove most of the time. But Dad had a work vehicle as well, something for doing jobs around the farm but that he could also drive into town when he needed to. 

As we children got our driver's licences, we bought cars. For a couple of years that meant two or three extra cars in (or just outside) our front garden. Don't worry, we were on a farm - there was plenty of space!

When I moved to a city (the second biggest in Tasmania), I still needed a car. There were public buses, but they didn't run super frequently, so it wasn't just me - most people had a vehicle of some type.

I'm sure if you live in the bigger cities in Australia, like Melbourne or Brisbane, you don't have to own a car. The bigger cities have trains as well as buses and Melbourne even has trams. One young Australian I knew, from central Melbourne, didn't even have her driver's licence 😯. But I don't think that is normal.

For me, here in Frankfurt, I'm happy without a car. It would cost me a lot of money for no reason. If I really need a vehicle for something, I can always rent one 😀.

So, , what do you think? Is owning a car an important part of life for you? Could you live without one? Do most Germans have cars? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Drive carefully,

Andrea

(1) rural - open land for farming, country

(2) vehicle - general word for types of transportation. Cars, buses, motorbikes, etc.