[falcolas]

Cars are awesome. I'm protected (from people, vehicles, and weather), I can go where I need to on demand and on my own schedule. My car is personalized to me, and my car is beholden to nobody else.

I can't imagine not having a car.

And yes, I've lived in big cities with good public transportation. Public transportation is a great bonus if and when it's appropriate for use, but it absolutely can't replace a car.

[blamazon]

Counterpoint: cars are unpleasant. They're expensive, complicated, require constant maintenance and consumable wear items and a lot of space to store, they pose a substantial personal liability risk, incur significant taxation and insurance fees, you have to pay for fuel and manage the logistics of frequent refueling/recharging, they rapidly depreciate in value, they can be damaged, catch on fire, strand you in the middle of nowhere, you have to pay attention constantly while using them, etc.

Yes, there are ways to defray these annoyances but those ways generally carry fractally nested annoyances of their own.

To me, living without a car is the true freedom, one that I miss, that I yearn for every day presently. To have the most expensive thing I own be a bicycle would be splendid. I can always rent a car, carry an umbrella, hail a taxi for the edge cases.

[falcolas]

> They're expensive,

Living is expensive. Housing is an order of magnitude more expensive on a monthly basis than cars are. Food is around the same as a car payment.

EDIT: And in a pinch, a car can be used as housing. Sucks that this is a real thing, but there are definitely folks who prioritize their car payments over house payments. Gives them shelter and transportation so they can find work again.

> complicated,

No more complicated than working around public transport, IME.

> require constant maintenance and consumable wear items

About once a year, yeah, drop it off at a mechanic for a few hours.

> and a lot of space to store,

The space is built into most origins and destinations, the cost built into the location regardless of whether you drove or not. To be cheeky, why not use what I'm already paying for?

> they pose a substantial personal liability risk,

Not really? Your liability is generally managed by insurance, which leads to:

> incur significant taxation and insurance fees, you have to pay for fuel

These exist for most other methods of transportation, just usually hidden from you. You'll pay for it in fares and taxes.

> manage the logistics of frequent refueling/recharging,

Once weekly (give or take) I stop and refuel. If I had to do it daily, I might be a bit more annoyed by it.

> they rapidly depreciate in value, they can be damaged, catch on fire, strand you in the middle of nowhere, you have to pay attention constantly while using them, etc.

Can be said about every method of transportation, sans walking, in existence. :) Though... a broken leg could definitely strand you places too.

> To have the most expensive thing I own be a bicycle would be splendid.

My personal computer is probably worth more than 99% of bikes on the market. FWIW, living an ascetic life is not something most people on the planet aspire to.

[throwaway22032]

> To have the most expensive thing I own be a bicycle would be splendid.

This is the reason why your opinion differs from the car drivers, I guess.

Owning my own home and significant items that I need for my lifestyle is a hard requirement for me. It's not a nice to have, I will compete with others until I have them, because otherwise I'll be competing for my entire life for rent, until someone inevitably outcompetes the older, less vivacious me.