How to Avoid Buying a Car in a Big City
Since moving out of my childhood home in 2017, I have lived comfortably alongside my husband in Alberta, Canada, in a car-centric city without owning a car.
For context, we are a childfree non-disabled couple, my husband works from home, and I work a part-time customer service job that is within walking distance of our apartment.
People often add a silent "yet" when we talk about not owning a car, but it is by design rather than circumstances that we avoid buying one.
The choice has offered us convenience with our centrally located apartment, peace of mind with not having to think about taking care of a car, and extra money in our pockets by avoiding car-related payments.
A Convenient Location
Growing up, I always lived in a convenient location where walking and public transit were viable options for getting to school, hanging out with friends, and running errands.
My home was not close to the city center but was central to everything I deemed important as a kid, so I was fortunate to see things I wanted to do as accessible.
I don't even have a driver's license and have no intention of getting one.
On the other hand, my husband got his driver's license as soon as he could at sixteen as he lived in a more suburban area far from his school.
With access to his father's car, my husband offered a carpool where he drove classmates to school each day.
Even before we started officially dating in university at eighteen, he offered to drive me to and from school so I didn't have to take public transit.
When my husband and I moved in together though, we quickly decided that a convenient location was better than owning a car.
We accepted that we would pay for the luxury of being in a walkable area and are fortunate to have found a place where we can walk out the door and have access to most everyday things within a 10-minute walk.
Peace of Mind
Yes, my husband having easy access to his father's car was a privilege that provided a huge amount of freedom when we lived separately but we also made extensive use of my childhood home's convenient location.
At nineteen, we both transferred to a different university that happened to be much more accessible by transit than the other had been.
My husband would often drive from his suburban location to my central location and park for free on the street.
The need for the car often ended there as we would just walk to where we were going for dates or transit together to school and other events.
It may seem counterintuitive to have access to a car and not drive the whole way but university parking is ridiculously expensive.
My husband was also often stressed when thinking about the car potentially getting damaged throughout the day.
It's not like his father would have freaked out if the car got scratched or anything, but my husband still felt the burden of always having to think about the possibilities even with not being the main one caring for and paying for the thing.
Did I park in a secure location?
Is everything locked?
Where will I park when we go out?
Where can I fuel up along the way?
Did we leave with enough time to get there and find parking?
Have I left enough space for another person to park without dinging the car?
Do I have my keys?
My husband and I are anxious by nature so these (perhaps simple) questions weighed on him.
Being the passenger princess I am, I didn't think of these concerns at all until we sat down and talked about owning a car.
Is the perceived convenience of owning a car worth always thinking about the safety of our car, the parking situations wherever we go, and the overall maintenance required to keep the thing functional?
For us, it was not.
We also deal with many months of snow in Canada so the concerns of the weather both with driving in it and with protecting the car from it were a huge factor.
It may seem more convenient to hop into your own car in the winter but you are getting into a cold car that often needs to be cleared of snow and driving out into bad conditions while potentially stressed and tight on time.
Knowing we had access to a car definitely offered a safety net if we were running late to university.
But we create that safety net now by using ride-sharing apps like Uber or good old taxi services when we miscalculate the time to transit or walk.
Hopping into a warm Uber or taxi that will drop us right at the door of where we are going without the need to think of parking or driving conditions is a huge comfort.
For traveling longer distances, we rent a car from a nearby rental place, carpool, or take an intercity bus.
It may sound like a huge luxury to Uber a bunch but the math shows us that it's the cheaper option for us.
Money in our Pockets
We have tracked all our combined spending since 2017 and all our transportation needs add up to far less than the cost of owning and maintaining a car each month.
Let's look at what owning a car would likely cost us in Alberta, Canada but keep in mind that I have never owned or driven a car.
Looking at the average cost of buying a new car ($67,817) or a used car ($39,155), let's assume we would buy a $55k car that gets a twelve-year lifespan.
Not accounting for any interest on car payments, we can math it out as:
$55000 / 12 years / 12 months = $381.94/month
But that is not the only price to consider so let's look at some other average costs with owning a car in Alberta, Canada.
Let's go with $1.653 for fuel in Edmonton, Alberta as of November 2024, and assume a 50L tank that gets filled completely twice a month:
$1.653 x 50L x 2 = $165.30/month
The average car insurance cost for a man in his 30s in Alberta:
$268/month
With average car registration at $93 per year:
$93 / 12 = $7.75/month
The average cost of car maintenance is $1500 per year in Canada:
$1500 / 12 = $125/month
And looking at our own apartment building, we know our cost for a parking spot:
$225/month
So with all these basic costs of what owning a car could look like for me and my husband, we would be paying:
$1172.99/month
Comparatively, looking at the data from tracking our finances between 2017 and 2024, our expenses for all transportation services combined were:
$310.09/month
Looking at these expenses for only 2024:
$310.12/month
... We honestly did not know the averages would be this spooky close but apparently, this is what we spend for all Uber, taxis, car rentals, public transportation, intercity buses, fuel, and parking combined.
Breaking down our spending even further for 2024:
Uber/Taxi: $238.29/month
Note that these are average per-month costs from our tracking spreadsheet but this number ranges from a low of $130.96 to a high of $409.48 in a month while costs associated with a car are likely more stable amounts per month.
Public transportation/Intercity Bus: $48.33/month
Car Rental: $16.95/month
Fuel: $6.37/month
Parking: $0.18/month
This equates to about $862.89 of savings for us every month based on the hypothetical cost of what we would pay to own a car.
And if that number feels too high, let's say we were literally just given my father-in-law's old car, so paying off the car would become $0/month.
Our monthly cost of owning a car would now be $791.05/month.
So it would still be a savings of about $480.95/month with being given a used car by my very generous father-in-law.
And this dollar amount of savings is not even considering the convenience of being able to walk places which we would likely do less of if we had a car because "Why not just drive?"
Of course, us being a childfree non-disabled couple, my husband working from home, and myself being within walking distance of work makes these choices more sustainable in the long run but I think it is always good to compare costs.
Overall, my advice is always to start by simply tracking every dollar you spend.
Knowing where every dollar is going gives us so much power and freedom with how we spend our money, how we manage any debt, and knowing how things balance out each month.
We have also learned that it isn't about the direct one-to-one comparison of money values.
Even if we saved only $50/month instead of 480.95/month, we would stick with not owning a car because the convenience and peace of mind are so worth it to us.
Conclusion
It may feel impossible to go without a car in a car-centric city but I hope this post outlines some options even when the infrastructure we are surrounded by says otherwise.
Walking and using public transit, while having the safety net of ride-share services, works for me and my husband as getting somewhere in a convenient yet timely manner is all we need from transportation.
This process of figuring out why a car is not needed has been about reflecting on how we have done things in the past and being honest about what is most comfortable for us day-to-day.
Overall, this process starts with tracking every dollar spent.
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