March 26, 2026
when moving from ohio/texas to new york, the first question often asked of me is “did you bring your car?”. of course not! this would have been an incredibly frustrating experience if i had; the thought of engaging in the constant cacophony of honking which covers lower manhattan is revolting. though the arguments against cars may be more evident to those in new york city (or those particularly online), i’d like to hash out my opposition to driving for those a bit less familiar with the spirit of the times.
even if not in new York, driving is a demanding activity. though many do not treat it as such, driving involves operating a vehicle with the ability to kill you or those around; driving ranks among the primary killers of the young for a reason! many on the road love using their phones despite this – last year i was rear-ended by a teenager on his phone. when i drive around, there are many drivers delaying green lights looking at a screen.
with the demands of driving comes the necessary sacrifice of our time while driving there are many other activities i could be doing; in high school i’d finish my geometry homework on the DART. this week, i’ve finished sister outsider by audre lorde between train trips. personally, i do not believe listening to audiobooks, especially while driving, counts as reading; too much attention is demanded by the primary act. the same goes for podcasts and music. foremost, driving is a waste of time as compared to a train or walk. neither is it given the respect it requires.
on a city-specific level, a car is not necessary in most of new york. i mentioned to my former boss that i was selling my car; his first question was how i would get groceries. for someone accustomed to the built environment of most cities, this is a relevant question outside of a few neighborhoods (though i will note that this is highly dependent on neighborhood – in houston i walked to heb for groceries weekly and in cleveland there were several stores within 1/2 mile). here, most everything is a short jaunt away. i have a supermarket within three blocks and a larger one within five. while putting my bed together a few nights ago, i noticed that i needed an allen wrench and screws. in cleveland i would drive fifteen minutes to home depot (if they were open that late). instead, i walked to one of the many hardware stores in my area, this one being a bit farther as i had to pick one which was open at 9pm. even for specialty items i can take the train. my gyms are also 1/2 mile away; i have friends a 30 minute commute via train, and so on. much more convenient.
another concern is cost. due to car-forward land usage many cities have free parking. i will note that there is a good amount of free parking outside of the touristy parts of nyc. this relative cost increase of not having a car is an illusion generated by the disguised costs of free parking and that one pays at the point of usage for transit. meanwhile, the costs of car ownership are unequally distributed. in the long run, transit wins out (max 32$/week versus gas+insurance+repairs/year).
another concern in many minds is the perceived danger of transit. i know several who have said that they will not visit new york as they’d like to drive between points and the traffic is too much for them. please take the train. perceived crime on the subway is a function of scale; any area with such a large number of people will have a larger number of crimes given an equal rate of crime per capita. in other words, more crime will be reported despite having the same risk of violence (note that nyc actually has a lower crime rate than many cities!). this fear of crime manifests as a fear of being around the other inhabitants of the subway. it should not be so; furthermore i love the subway for the variety of people on it: still mobile nonagenarians, teens coming home from school, tired men still awake from last night’s club, women on the way to fidi in expensive pantsuits, those speaking a multitude of languages to put babel to shame. love ought to be the proper emotion here.
a smaller consideration is that of physical mobility. those who find themselves in suburban office parks and isolated retail find themselves more static than they’d like to be. the average american walks 4-5k steps/day (~2 miles), far less than what we were built for. this sedentarism is atrocious for our bodies, even without discussing caloric burn, etc. many of our skills are use it or lose it; walking is an ability one does not want to lose with age. meanwhile, not having a car forces one to use their feet and stay minimally active.
cities could be built in a way to force us to make better decisions in health and wealth by making these choices the path of least resistance; there are precious few which deliver. by making cars inconvenient, nyc does well by its residents.