Over the years, I’ve realized that:
I don’t enjoy driving.
I don’t like sharing the roads with dangerous drivers (especially in my area with frequent accidents).
I don’t like the costs and financial burdens associated with owning a car.
Groceries and appointments seem to be my only reason for needing a car, but I feel like I can find ways around these with proper location and route planning. Right now, I currently live in the suburbs where it’s basically essential to own a car.
I’m looking for a way where I can live a life without the need for a car. It seems that by re-locating to a country with a superior transit system, it could be an option. Is this possible or am I being unrealistic? What am I missing?
How big or important of a factor was this for you when going nomad? How does it impact you?
Not a digital nomad. I’m from Australia, which is just as car addicted as north America. Then I lived in Europe (Hamburg, Germany) for two years and I was living car free, as we’re all my mates there. Walking, cycling and catching public transit was how everyone got around and it was so nice and pleasant.
Now I moved back to Australia and I can’t stand it anymore. Gridlocked traffic, fumes on the streets, narrow footpaths, dangerous bicycle ‘lanes’, and immense urban sprawl making getting around without a car difficult. It’s a shitshow. Already making plans to move back to Hamburg again. I can’'t stand the car-addicted poorly-designed urban environments of Australia anymore.
And…huge speeding tickets from random cameras in QLD. Or, so I hear.
I did seven years in Australia (Melbourne) without a car. It was nice, and manageable, but a situation came up where I eventually had to get one. A lot depends on where you find yourself I guess.