  Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 68 Registered: 11-2005 |
So I'm kinda over my NYC phase, i've been here about 10 years now. I think I am ready to move back to Detroit, but not ready to go back to driving. One thing I loved over the last 10 years was not being a slave to an automobile. Are people living downtown and not driving??????? | ||
Naturalsister Member Username: Naturalsister Post Number: 839 Registered: 11-2004 |
Yes, I am. Live, work, play - ALL DOWNTOWN. My commute is a DPM ride. later - naturalsister | ||
Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 69 Registered: 11-2005 |
great! what does a monthly pass go for in detroit? (Message edited by fjw718 on October 20, 2006) | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 3041 Registered: 10-2003 |
<<carless in the Motor City... Who need a car when all busses end downtown and you live work and play there like NS?  | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 88 Registered: 03-2005 |
We have a college age relative living downtown in the Culteral Center with no car. He says he 'dresses down' then takes the bus any time of the day or night or early a.m. Always a good idea to have enough taxi money to get home in a pinch if you know what I mean. So Fjw718 come on back to the 'D' it is a whole lot less expensive than NYC. | ||
Bobj Member Username: Bobj Post Number: 1267 Registered: 11-2003 |
I knew someone who did it for awhile, grocery shopping can be tough, doctors/dentists, or visiting places or people outside the City can also be a problem. | ||
Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 70 Registered: 11-2005 |
www.zipcar.com needs to come to detroit. They are already in Minn. and Chicago | ||
Valkyrias Member Username: Valkyrias Post Number: 357 Registered: 02-2005 |
i know of a few people who live downtown and have *clunkers* to get them to places that are farther away, but don't really rely on that car to be their primary means of transportation. biking seems to be a big thing around here these days, too. so you could always get a crap car as a backup, if need be...but it seems entirely possible to get by without one. i'm sure more people on here will verify that... i have also known a couple people who lived carless in the burbs...and they made it work. although i will say my friend who lived at m59 and mound had a much harder time compared to the guy i knew who lived at 9 and woodward. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 282 Registered: 04-2006 |
there is a Zip car type service in the Ann Arbor area as well. I like the concept. It defintely keeps the bills lower and may lead to less single occupancy vehicle trips. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 8023 Registered: 10-2003 |
bobj - There are good doctors and dentists in or outside of downtown. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 843 Registered: 03-2006 |
I live in Woodbridge go to WSU and work downtown I ride my bike and have a half ass car to visitmy parents and the dentist in the burbs. Thinking about checking out a downtown dentist | ||
Harmonie Member Username: Harmonie Post Number: 629 Registered: 08-2004 |
I don't have a car. I live downtown, walk two blocks to work...walk to 99.9% of my social engagements whether it's sporting events, the 100 bars within walking distance, campus martius park, the festivals...there is a grocery store in Trolley Plaza where I live (not great but has everything you need if you need it right then) the only time I need a car is to visit the family in the burbs...and for that there is an Avis on my corner that knows me by name. Oh...my dentist is in the RenCen, and your just a bus ride away from the Detroit Medical Center. So to make a short answer long....Yes you can go carless which also means insurance-less and gas-less and parking-less and general upkeep-less. So come on home Oh... they are starting motorcitycarshare.org soon. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 89 Registered: 03-2005 |
My family of 3 lived with one car between all of us for a while. What seemed to make it work was that we lived a few houses off Woodward at and I worked off Woodward in Birmingham. The city commute to the burbs was an easy one with the Smart system. Living near and working near Woodward seemed to be the success of our single car family. | ||
Naturalsister Member Username: Naturalsister Post Number: 840 Registered: 11-2004 |
Dr. Abate, DDS (Tower 500 RenCen) is wonderful. I had a root canal/crown done there. They're great. Back to the thread subject - Groceries and laundry are my biggest issues. Easterm market is a savior (I walk). later - naturalsister | ||
Ghetto_butterfly Member Username: Ghetto_butterfly Post Number: 653 Registered: 09-2004 |
That's all great and I wish I could do without a car. But what none of you mentioned is that in order to live carless in Detroit, you need a job near your home. I live on E. Jefferson and it would be easy without a car if my job was downtown, lots of busses but my job is on Detroit's far west side, there is no way I could easily commute without a car. I'd be on several different busses for probably several hours each way every day. | ||
Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 71 Registered: 11-2005 |
thanks guys! my apartment/job hunting begins today! | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 3043 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yeah that is true GB. Even though I work/attend school in Dearborn, all I ever take is the Michigan Ave bus for roughly a 20 minute commute one way everyday. So yeah were one needs to go and what one needs to do on a daily basis will make a difference. | ||
Jjw Member Username: Jjw Post Number: 185 Registered: 10-2005 |
The difference between NYC and Detroit without a car: In NYC, an easy train ride can take you up and down the east coast on almost an hourly basis. And... once you get to Boston, Philly, Baltimore, or DC--good mass transit is available. A person could live without a car in Detroit easily but adjustments definitely have to be made. In NYC--let's go over to.... In Detroit, let's drive over to... Unfortunately, I would not want to live in Detroit without a car. I am in NYC almost weekly and knowing at least 500 people without cars--they move to Detroit--they get a car. Simple fact. | ||
Sticks Member Username: Sticks Post Number: 117 Registered: 08-2005 |
DPM monthly passes are $20, unlimited rides. For someone that takes the DPM to and from work everyday, this saves just a couple bucks a month. But if you end up going home for lunch and then taking it to Wings games or other miscellaneous trips, it's worth it. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 9 Registered: 10-2006 |
I also live in NYC (Brooklyn) and if I were to move back to Detroit, I think I would have no choice but to buy a car. While it's certainly possible to survive car-free in Detroit, I think it would be problematic and would seriously compromise job and social opportunities. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 196 Registered: 04-2006 |
I live in NYC too and I cannot imagine living without a car back in Detroit. You can get from Boston to DC to Philly and back and never touch a car. It would be nice if the midwest could one day be that way. | ||
Urbanvaquero Member Username: Urbanvaquero Post Number: 330 Registered: 02-2004 |
Let's face it, In "world class" metropolises, one can get EVERYWHERE without a car. In Detroit, and by Detroit I mean every single corner of Detroit and not just the CBD, one cannot get EVERYWHERE in the city without a car. As far as grocery shopping in the CBD or the immediately surrounding neighborhoods including the one in which I reside, one cannot throw a Rachel Ray/ Martha Stewart/ Julia Child recipes dinner party with what the local grocery stores offer. I know, because I've tried to get every ingredient for a dinner party in the city once, and this city failed me. Heck, in the Eastern Market it's a fight just to find stores that stock the stuff you need to cook a fancy meal. It sucks that one has to go to Merchant's in the burbs for any beer or wine that comes to mind that one hasn't had in a while, to go out to bloody Rochester at 18 mile to get a tropical fruit that isn't in a produce section a twenty-minute drive from downtown, to drive out to Somerset or Novi or Ann Arbor if one wins the lottery and wants to fill the closet with designer clothing, or drive out to Royal Oak, Birmingham or West Bloomfield to see a first-run independent film the weekend after it debuts on the coasts (DFT is great but makes you wait). But as a defense of a good thing happening in the city, we finally have grocery store with a decent butchery near the CBD with low, low prices-- Honeybee Market behind the old train terminal. And the avocados are always fresh and were only 5/$3 today! Somehow they keep their produce prices cheaper than Eastern Market. I've yet to figure that one out. --Brenda | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 550 Registered: 02-2006 |
Interestingly, I just moved to Chicago 2 months ago, and just this week, I took the symbolic step of removing my car key and keyless from my everyday key ring. | ||
Urbanvaquero Member Username: Urbanvaquero Post Number: 339 Registered: 02-2004 |
I can't wait to be someday liberated from having to own a car. I'm not going to hold my breath for thirty years waiting for that day to arrive in Detroit. --Brenda | ||
Miketoronto Member Username: Miketoronto Post Number: 333 Registered: 07-2004 |
The problem is Detroiters who can take transit but choose to drive, don't help the situation. And there are many who live on busy bus routes and work downtown, that could take a bus to work, but don't. I know of a guy lives like a 15min bus ride down Jefferson to his workplace, yet drives. If more people took transit to the places they could get to by bus, then the system would improve. The Woodward corridor has pretty decent service, yet many people won't even touch that route when they could use it if they really wanted to. | ||
Spaceboykelly Member Username: Spaceboykelly Post Number: 180 Registered: 04-2005 |
Okay, one can be a food snob within the city of Detroit, and one can also live a good life without a car here, too. I live without a car in Midtown, and so I bike, bus, and walk everywhere [of course I gracioiusly accept rides too]. As long as you live within the more "downtown" area [CBD, New Center, Midtown] of the city it is relatively easy to go without a car. Again, for some reason people must not be able to find the "good" grocery/produce stores so I will list some of my favorites: The Good Well, University Foods, Food Pride, The Polish Market, AK Grocery, Honeybee, and many different specialized storefronts/stands in the Eastern Market are all great. For emergencies Detroit has an abundance of liquor stores, CVSs, and gas stations. As an experiment interested people should test out living without a car for a week, or a month. Keep in mind, that living without a car in Detroit is initially difficult, but becomes much easier as time goes on. It's helpful to carry a bag with bus passes, and an umbrella at all times. Familiarize yourself with the bus maps, and the basic formula of the schedule's intervals. Biking is usually a good way to quickly travel a mile or so, and you also probably have friends who travel similar routes to you [for work, school, or the occasional suburban shopping trip]. | ||
Kristina Member Username: Kristina Post Number: 13 Registered: 07-2006 |
Fjw718, I would answer that question with a "sort of." Its a hell of a lot cheaper to go carless. BUT... I live in the corridor and I used to often walk downtown. Not anymore, I've been jumped way too many times. Also, in my brief stint downtown I would get harassed relentlessy for change or food or booze or crack or whatever when I'd walk from to work to my apartment at night (literally 1/2 a block). The other forumers will probably disagree, but I say downtown can be really dicey at night. Sometimes its just plain old street smarts to drive from location to location. Sometimes its nice to drive so a million people don't ask you for change on your way (definitely the approach I take when my parents come to visit...) That all said, I think gender makes a huge difference. Being a relatively tiny female apparently a big sign appears on me after dark that says "VICTIM," so I may have a skewed perspective. | ||
Crash_nyc Member Username: Crash_nyc Post Number: 651 Registered: 08-2004 |
I'd say definitely plan on getting a car. I'd feel choked-out without a car in Detroit. I had to go without a car in Detroit for about 6 months back when I was 20 (temporarily uninsureable due to too many speeding tix). Life was a bitch. I was living in Boston-Edison district, attending Wayne State during the day, and working nights downtown. Nothing beats running late for class because the Woodward bus runs on a non-schedule, or waiting on a cold street corner at 3:AM in the middle of winter, wondering why the cab you called is taking so long. Screw that! If you work in the Ren Cen and live in the Millinder Center, it might work out well, but I just can't deal with the restrictions of not being able to get-up-and-go wherever I want to at a moment's notice. I've been living in NYC for 11 years (Williamsburg, Brooklyn), and while I went carless for 7 years here, I finally broke down and bought some road-metal, just to have that freedom. Got tired of being a slave to the train schedule on the weekends. Save up for a ride. | ||
Tndetroiter Member Username: Tndetroiter Post Number: 405 Registered: 12-2005 |
Downtown is not dicey at night. The hobos are harmless. | ||
Newlaster Member Username: Newlaster Post Number: 196 Registered: 06-2004 |
I live in Woodbridge, and make a commute to midtown or downtown nearly every-day. I've always had a car in the city before the last three months. You seriously have to adjust your lifestyle. It mostly involves strategically getting rides with your friends when they're already going where you need to go. You can get around the lower Detroit neighborhoods (downtown, midtown, Woodbridge, Corktown, SW, Eastern Market...etc.) pretty efficiently on a bicycle when the weather is decent. The buses in the city are a wild-card at best, and you'd need to plan a day to get out to the suburbs. I seriously hope to get my car back before the winter-winter hits. | ||
Kristina Member Username: Kristina Post Number: 14 Registered: 07-2006 |
Tndetroiter, Do you get off work at 2 in the morning with lots of cash in your pockets? Trust me, downtown can be very dicey, particularly to those that work in the bars. | ||
Traxus Member Username: Traxus Post Number: 13 Registered: 02-2006 |
Dhugger: "We have a college age relative living downtown in the Culteral Center with no car. He says he 'dresses down' then takes the bus any time of the day or night or early a.m. Always a good idea to have enough taxi money to get home in a pinch if you know what I mean." I do the same thing. Although admittably I am looking into getting an auto. Its possible to rely on public transportation, but its a little rough/cold in the winter. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 90 Registered: 03-2005 |
Naturalsister: We also have used Dr. Joe Abbote for dental services in the Ren Cen. Great dentist & fun guy. Reconsidered the carless in Detroit thing. When I did it living/working off Woodward it really did impede my evening social life. Admittedly we had one car in the family to fight over too. Fjw718: you might try the going carless - but budget for an old beater mobile just incase. Then there is the whole parking thing down town. AAAaaah just give us some decent mass transit please! | ||
Miketoronto Member Username: Miketoronto Post Number: 334 Registered: 07-2004 |
I notice a number of you guys bring up the weather. Transit is never going to succeed in Detroit if people are not going to take transit, because they can't be outside for 10min waiting for a bus in the winter. I know there are other issues right now with transit not having good service. But if you guys are not going to use transit even if it is good, because of it being cold out or needing a timetable, then whats the point of pushing for transit. Even the worlds top transit systems you will have to adhere to a timetable during certain periods or wait outside in the snow for a bus. If you are not willing to put up with a little snow or timetables, etc. Then transit will never succeed. I rely on transit in Toronto and while I know that my bus comes every 5-10min, I also have to remember to know the timetable after 11PM, for when the service dips down to every 15min. I have had to wait at 3AM in the morning on cold winter nights for a bus, etc. There are concessions you will have to make if you want to use transit. Nothing is perfect but transit will never get better if people don't use it, even for some of their trips. I am sure many of you with cars could use transit for some of your trips if you really wanted to give it a go. So why not do it? Start doign your work trips by transit. | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 230 Registered: 04-2006 |
I'm in the same boat as some of these cats. i have a cheap car to get to my folk's house... but i ride my bike EVERYWHERE... tho i recently started a job in oak park (book beat) so i use my car for that now... | ||
Rocket_city Member Username: Rocket_city Post Number: 123 Registered: 04-2006 |
It's totally possible, even though I'm sure there are inconveniences. I, for the most part live car free during the week. I have one but bike to work downtown from Midtown. I go to Wayne, so biking or walking is the best. I only use my car to go to the Cathedral on Sundays and to the grocery store. Other than that, it's mostly just used for trips outside the city. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 823 Registered: 12-2005 |
I can't help but call attention to the irony that the thread title contains "carless in Detroit." What would Henry Ford post? | ||
Rocket_city Member Username: Rocket_city Post Number: 125 Registered: 04-2006 |
Something like, "Well, I use the extensive streetcar system that links the Interurban. These modes of transportation, in addition to walk, get me to my job, which is developing a car to get rid of this system." heh... | ||
Jenniferl Member Username: Jenniferl Post Number: 339 Registered: 03-2004 |
Re: What Miketoronto said about waiting in bad weather for public transportation for 10 minutes. If you rely on the Woodward bus system, you're going to be standing out there for a lot longer than 10 minutes. 20 minutes is more like it, maybe even longer. If the weather is bad, the hour is late, and there a couple of weirdos waiting at the same bus stop, that bus is gonna be late or maybe it won't show up at all. Trust me, I've been there. | ||
Erikd Member Username: Erikd Post Number: 750 Registered: 10-2003 |
Jenniferl is right on. Waiting 5 or 10 minutes for the bus is fine, but it's usually more like 20-40 minutes (if not longer) in Detroit. | ||
Urbanvaquero Member Username: Urbanvaquero Post Number: 348 Registered: 02-2004 |
Yes, and how much bullshit would one have to put up with during that 10-20 minute wait at the bus stop. How many babies will we have to watch being abandoned at the State Fair bus swap. And why can't we go to a gas station for a five-minute filler-up and not get thrice-accosted by four different panhandlers having their own little turfwar, fighting each other with sawed-off sporks they got from the outland do-gooders at the public parks, or worse -- with needles they got from the needle van. With the best transit system, and throw in lightrail to boot, it's still not going to be the best transit system so long as visitors and residents alike are wary of the unchecked, unhoused, overintoxicated, coked up beer-and-a-beejay lumpin' proletariat, and weary of businesses that could give a shit of what's happening outside their windows, and the elected officials who could care what happens outside the westside sanctuaries that put them into office year after year. Detroit's a great place to live. "Great Things!" as the UDM billboards proclaim. --Brenda | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 828 Registered: 12-2005 |
proletariat? | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 92 Registered: 03-2005 |
Jenniferl: While working & living off Woodward the SMART system worked if my schedule was between 7 a.m. & 6 p.m. After those hours I would wait 45 minutes to 1 hour for a bus. This was a straight route with no transfers. When I used the system coworkers thought I was crazy. The fact they paid for parking while working in Birmingham didn't phase them. Bham parking = first 2 hours free while full time workers pay for the remaining 6 or 7 hours in the parking structures. AAaahh life as part of the 'PROLETARIAT'. The rich park for free while the servants pay to park their beater mobiles. The SMART bus was cheaper in that situation. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 313 Registered: 04-2006 |
Carshare is here! Well for those in A2 at least.. But the good news is that it typically spreads. http://www.mlive.com/news/aane ws/index.ssf?/base/news-20/116 222282488820.xml&coll=2 | ||
Fjw718 Member Username: Fjw718 Post Number: 82 Registered: 11-2005 |
wow, now lets just get these guys in detroit and we are all set | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 5139 Registered: 02-2004 |
Every people in the ghetto live dangerously in Detroit. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 585 Registered: 02-2006 |
What? |
