[asciimov]

As an aging millennial that grew up in West Texas, I have the exact opposite feelings.

To me cars, equal freedom. I grew up in a small neighborhood, I rode bikes to my friends houses there but my neighborhood was so far removed from other places and stores that there was no other place to go. Getting my license at 16 opened so many doors for me. Now I could go hang out at my other friends houses that lived 10-15 miles away from me. I could get a job, go to the store and movies, and just cruse around without having my parents question me. I didn't have a cell phone back then, so being able to leave and not be contacted was glorious.

For college I moved out to the Texas Panhandle. When gas was cheap I'd often go out for long drives into the country with friends, to talk, so explore and see what was out there, to visit family, and to make beer runs because our city was dry meaning you had to go out of town to buy a six pack.

When I have had extended periods of not having a vehicle I have get a visceral sense of foreboding and dread. I feel like a caged animal, unable to leave any situation, escape in case of danger. These feelings mildly lessen if public transit is available, but they are still there. Having any kind of vehicle feels like safety as I know I can flee if I need to, even if I don't.

[AlphaCharlie]

Do you live in a low density area?

I think your point of view aligns well with the idea that increased density and good alternative transit options lead to less need and want for cars.

But rural and isolated areas can’t live without a car (or a credible alternative).

As much as I’d like car to disappear, there’s a lot of use of it that we can’t replace without severely altering some of the population’s quality of life

[asciimov]

I'm sure many would consider where I grew up low density. It was just underdeveloped suburban section of a town of 110K people.

I'm sure when everything is in walking distance, that the costs to store a vehicle becomes unmaintainable, and largely unneeded. But for a large swath of American's living outside of the major metros in the north, having a car is just a way of life.

[ryukafalz]

>but my neighborhood was so far removed from other places and stores that there was no other place to go

This is probably why. It's less clear cut when there's an abundance of places to go and things to do within easy walking/biking/transit distance.

[asciimov]

Indeed.

I'm always fascinated by the idea of high density cities, because that kind of lifestyle is so foreign to me. While I would love to have stores and restaurants that stay open past 9 pm, I don't think I want to live in such close quarters to so many other people.

[ryukafalz]

Even in the suburbs here in the Northeast, things are physically close enough to each other that you could get to quite a lot without a car. We often don't build in such a way that it's comfortable to do so though.

I've just moved to a suburb of Philadelphia. I'm on a quiet residential street, but there's a train station to Philly about an 8 minute bike ride away (with trains every 7ish minutes at rush hour), and the route is reasonably comfortable. Likewise there's a main street about a 5 minute ride away with several restaurants and shops, and the neighboring towns are similar. (Riding on the main street itself is less comfortable, but there's at least a documented plan to add bike infrastructure.)

There's also a big-box shopping center that would be a 12 minute ride away, but there's currently no safe route there without a car. That's a policy choice though, there's nothing about the distances involved that would make it infeasible.

Despite all this, I would guess that my neighborhood doesn't fundamentally look much different than those you're familiar with. It's maybe slightly more compact, but unless you're really far out there my guess is it's just better-connected.

Not showing my actual house for obvious reasons but this is representative: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MidgjesXcKjgTFnt9

[mariojv]

Are you from El Paso? My husband is from there, and him and his younger sisters also love to drive. His parents have made a point of getting them all cars by the time they're in college at the latest. Part of it is that it's really hard to get around that city without a car, but they also take really good care of their cars and treasure them even after moving away to a city with slightly more transit options. It is interesting though that they seem to buck the trend of younger people not wanting to drive as much.