Give Up Owning a Car? An Urban Fantasy

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/opinion/letters/car-owners.html

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To the Editor:

Re “When Owning a Car Is a Quaint Memory,” by Kara Swisher (Op-Ed, March 23):

Has Ms. Swisher lived in the ’burbs? Ride-sharing and autonomous vehicles are great, but giving up owning a car is less practical for those living outside cities. Would you teach your 7-year-old to use Uber to get a ride home from her swim lesson? Should I use it to go hit several nurseries for spring plants? Each stop can easily be half an hour, and at the end we’ll be hauling home plants in pots and shrubs in burlap sacks.

When I get the boat ready to launch in the spring, it takes five to 10 trips over a few weeks, and the tools, wax, paint and gear I use get loaded at the start and put away when the job is done.

I’ve lived in New York City on and off for much of my life, and never wanted a car there. Here in southern New Jersey, it’s a pretty essential tool.

Bill WayToms River, N.J.

To the Editor:

Access to a car is a matter of survival for many people. For many Americans the spiritual journey to having no car would end up in homelessness or bankruptcy. Many people in our country live in regions where trying to hold down a job without a car is impossible.

The yawning income gap in the Bay Area is evinced by the large number of people who must actually live in their cars with their families. Plenty of people would love to live in Kara Swisher’s Ford Fiesta.

Jennifer E. JamesChicago