You Don't Need to Own a Car (If You Don't Drive to Work)

For about the last twenty years, my wife and I have had a pretty simple rule: if we don't need to drive to work, we don't need to own a car. We applied this even in car-centric places by taking advantage of carshare services.

People don't seem to understand just how easy modern carshare services have become, which is too bad, as they would benefit almost everyone.

NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel):

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CarShare service shown in this video:
Enterprise CarShare (Toronto)
Fetch CarShare (Amsterdam)
Sixt CarShare (Amsterdam)
GreenWheels (Amsterdam)
ConnectCar (Amsterdam)
ShareNow (Amsterdam)
MyWheels (Amsterdam)

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References and Image Credits

Witkar launch video:

Witkar [Wikipedia]

You're Going to Love AutoShare [2011]
AutoShare [YouTube]

Global, national, and urban burdens of paediatric asthma incidence attributable to ambient NO2 pollution: estimates from global datasets

Map data © OpenStreetMap Contributors

"Cars are parked 95% of the time". Let's check!

Amsterdam CarShare services map from:

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Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:06 When we lived without a car
0:45 Carsharing is really easy
1:04 It's not like a rental car
1:48 A brief history, Witkar, and AutoShare
2:26 An intro to carsharing types
2:53 How fixed carshare works
3:43 Different types of vehicles
4:59 How free-floating carshare works
5:54 Pricing and how to compare to owning
6:28 Car breakdowns: owning vs. carshare
7:30 Longer trips and weekends
8:15 I don't like paying for a parked car
8:53 Carsharing options in Amsterdam
9:13 How to use a typical carshare program
10:44 Charging & driving electric cars
11:22 Benefits of free-floating carshare
11:39 Conclusion
12:18 Patreon shout-out
12:31 Outro

#carsharing #carclub #autoshare #autodelen

[NotJustBikes]

Check out his video for the way it worked out for their situation, and for their financial calculations.

[napoleonibonaparte]

Can’t imagine sharing my horse with other European monarchs.

[paulk]

"Nearly the whole country is accessible with a combination of bicycle plus train" - what a great day to mention trains!

[keucher]

watching this channel makes me so sad because i become so painfully aware of how dreadful the world around me is to live in. watching these videos of amsterdam, with people cycling and walking and simply enjoying life in their city, rather than simply existing in it from the sealed environment of the cabin of a car, is almost heartbreaking as someone who lives in a car-dependent suburb in the US.

[andi_]

Funnily enough, when I talk to car-owning friends, they always say something like "oh wow, you paid 50 € just for this trip?". I find it funny how they don't even consider the monthly cost of their car, which they pay no matter if they are driving or not. Let alone the initial cost of the car, which is comparably insane even if you drive the same car for many years.

[LeahandLevi]

Yes! When I made my video about my experience living without a car it was wild to see just how many people are still baffled by this idea. We prioritized a walkable, urban area in part because we specifically didn't want to be dependent on a car!

[rawnanle]

this channel has singlehandedly raised my appreciation and respect for European city planning by unimaginable margins

[Lambda_Ovine]

I moved from Mexico and to the US, legally, all by the books, learned English, became a citizen and went to college all because I wanted to escape the pains of living on a developing nation... and here we are...
Don't get me wrong, the standard of living for the average American is obviously significantly higher than in Mexico... but if I recall correctly, I moved to the richest and most powerful country in the history of humanity. I shouldn't be envying the Dutch transport system.

[ricardoludwig]

THIS is how cars can still be useful in a dense future where they're no longer needed. They don't need to occupy valuable space, they get plenty of use, and their cost is shared by the community that uses it, rather than saddling everyone with obligatory expenses

[ThePlazmaBeast]

Never seen a better ad for car sharing than this one.

[jordanantonio]

The more I watch this channel the more I realize “wow the ‘system’ is broken and needs to be fixed” which is the first step in change. Great content

[s.lmaaltajik]

My family puts a ton of pressure on me to drive my own car, and the more and more I watch these videos, the more I’m learning about how life without having a car is possible and even more seamless. Your reasons; that insurance, personal responsibility, gas, maintenance, are all issues that I’ve thought about and used in my own argument on why I don’t want to have a car. Now it’s a little saddening knowing that a world like this exists but I’m stuck in the suburban hellscape

[skeletor]

If I didn’t live in a suburban hellscape, I’d love this.

[LucGendrot]

Unreasonably excited to listen to the [not just] bike man talk about The Netherlands again.

[lkruijsw]

I think psychologically it is hard to pay suddenly 60 euro for a trip, while it is only a few euro with your own car. Although overall it is cheaper.

[buszmen]

I used to work in car sharing company in Poland (refueling, cleaning, wheel swaps, small maintenance in general), and honestly I agree with everything stated in this video. I'm really happy to see a video which explains exactly how these companies work and also why it's more efficient to use shared cars instead of spending god knows how much on your own car.

[evan]

As I live in London, I absolutely do not have any need for a car for day to day. But if I do want to do a road trip, I can just use a zipcar and it’s sorted. No registration fees when I’m not using it. No insurance fees when I’m not using it. No maintenance fees!

That being said…

There is an odd relationship you can develop with your own car. Back when I owned one in the states, it was like the only private place I had and it was mine. I could sit in there if I didn’t want to go in my house and there was an odd peace about it, even if it did always have issues as it was a 1993 Buick 😅

[gamelord]

"[We use electric vehicles] because I generally consider it to be impolite to give little kids asthma when I'm going somewhere." Underrated snarky comments come from this channel for sure. I never really thought too much about the emissions of modern cars (besides the grand scale of climate change and all) until I started riding a bike in "shared lanes" of traffic and had to eat someone's exhaust. Sheesh. Can't wait for gas vehicles to be phased out.

[uniworkhorse]

I've gotten a lot of pressure from friends and family to own a car and this solves my dilemma! The fact that you can just use larger cargo cars when needed is a game changer wtf

[adriaan]

"I generally think its impolite to gives little kids asthma if I'm going anywhere" is the best reason I have ever heard for electric cars. Discovered the channel a little while back and been binge watching since