What cities is an automobile needed in?

[chioma829]

jus wondering since cost of living is so how is it necessary to have a car in a particular city. San Fransisco, San Diego, Los Angelos

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I cannot speak for the other two cities, but in Los Angeles your survival will be insurmountably difficult without a car. Los Angeles is not one city; rather, it encompasses 88 incorporated cities and has an intricate freeway system. A few employed people catch the city bus or use metro rail, but these services do not reach every corner of the city. Having a car is almost a necessary evil.

http://www.losangelesmetro.net/

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

I can't imagine living almost anywhere in the state of CA without a car. I was born and raised there and public transportation is not the forte in that state. San Francisco has the BART, but I'm not sure how safe it is during all hours or what the feasibility is of it being one's only means of transportation.

[pickledpepperRN]

I did a class in Glendale and was surprised that many nurses take the MetroRail from Lancaster. Pay is good in Glendale and the station is right down the street.

In the Bay Area there is parking at BART stations too. A cousin says if you work near a station it is fast and safe.

I have a very short ten minute drive to my night shift in LA.

Still would NOT want to take busses or walk from the bus stop.

Don't walk in the dark.

Yeah. A car is necessary unless you can't drive. I know nurses whose spouse drives them to work.

[RNinSoCal]

I have lived in all 3 cities. Went to school in San Diego. Worked in LA. Now live in the Bay area. I could not live without my car. Nurses work such wacky hours that even cities that do have public transportation do not run when I need it. My car insurance was the most expensive in LA county.

California cities are too spread out for good public tranportation.

[LydiaNN]

The public transportation system in San Francisco is pretty good. I imagine you could get by without a car, but it wouldn't be very convenient. In San Diego and L.A., you'd be very limited without one.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

My sister-in-law (who has lived in Chicago and Boston, both of which have pretty extensive public transit systems) lives in San Francisco now. She and her boyfriend use public transportation most of the time, but the specifically picked jobs and an apartment near stations, and a neighborhood where everything they needed was within walking distance. They do have one car, but they only use it when they need it. She says that they could survive without it, but that it would suck when it came to errands and trips out of their daily routine.

Honestly, the only place in the USA that I'd want to be without a car...is New York City.

[Sheri257]

I went without a car in San Francisco and road my bike to work because just paying for parking the car cost of fortune. But, during rainy season it wasn't much fun, especially when the bike skidded out on the road.

I don't know what it's like now but I could never get cabs in San Francisco either. It was incredibly frustrating ... it was the only major city I'd ever lived in where cabs wouldn't come when you called them.

New York and San Francisco are the only two cities where a car can be a disadvantage.

:typing

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My car insurance was the most expensive in LA county.

This is because Los Angeles County is home to the highest number of uninsured motorists, which causes rates to increase.

[tanaynicole]

I think that of the 3 cities, SF would be the easiest one to get around with out having a car. But reliability and safety are always a big issue.

[sdmommie]

I didn't own a car until I was about 25, because I couldn't afford it and I didn't want to deal with the traffic. It was easier to get by without a car in Los Angeles, than San Diego. In L.A., I basically planned where I lived according to the bus route. It was easy because I lived in Santa Monica and worked at UCLA. There were lots of busses that ended up there. I've also lived right at UCLA, and just walked to work. I found that in L.A., not only do you have the expense of owning a car, but also parking it. You have to pay for parking EVERYWHERE...at work, at home, anywhere you go. A parking space is a premium in some parts of L.A.

[hica19]

I went to college in San Francisco. Throughout my whole 4 years, I had no car. I did most of my traveling by bus or by friends' cars. Whenever I came home to the south bay, my parents would come and pick me up. In the southbay though, a car is very important. Nothing is within walking distance. I'm going to start the New Grad RN program at UCLA in August though and i'm not planning to have a car to start out with. I'm looking for an apartment in the UCLA area so that I could just walk to work. But how is the bus system in LA? Is it easy to get from UCLA to the Santa Monica and Hollywood areas? How about the part of LA that American Idol takes place?