[quote=spdrun]Unless you live in very specific parts of SD County, you’ll still need a car for things other than commuting.
Though I do know someone who got away with it for a year or two in Carlsbad, since work, grocery stores, etc were within biking distance of her apartment, and she could take the commuter train+bus to the airport when she wanted to get out of town. (She has family in NY and abroad as well.)[/quote]
Understand, spdrun. I didn’t say that dtn workers didn’t own a car. I was only stating that they didn’t need to put 500+ mi per week on it commuting, as many workers likely do who live and work in distant suburbs and exurbs. When you’re not sitting in traffic two or more hrs per day, you don’t have anywhere near the maintenance costs on your vehicle as you would if you drove it long distances every day. I also believe a whole lot more worker-bees in SD County drive vehicles worth between $3K and $10K to work everyday than some of the assumptions made on this forum. Contrary to popular belief, older vehicles are actually cheaper to run and maintain, even taking into acct that they need more parts. This is due to the high cost of annual registration and insurance coverage in the urban counties of CA (where the vast majority of “worker bees” live and work). Lots of families consisting of one or more “professional” workers DO own an expensive road car or 4WD vehicle (which they keep garaged) and maybe even a boat and/or other trailered “toys.” But the vehicle they take to work everyday is 10-20 yrs old.
