Living without a car

[Skeptisk]

I am hoping to be offered a job in Copenhagen and will probably accept.

I understand that Copenhagen has great public transport and cycle lanes but is not very car friendly so I’m wondering whether I could get by without a car (for the first time in over 30 years).

Anyone else given up car ownership completely?

[interstellar]

Absolutely no need for a car in CPH.

Trains are easy and I would easily manage without, plus they are crazy prices in DK.

Edited by interstellar on Friday 20th May 11:07

[spikeyhead]

I spent 18 months working in the Netherlands.

Initially I took a Mondeo there and left a Porsche in the UK.

After six weeks I realised that it was pointless having a car there, brought the Mondeo back to the UK, sold the Porsche and lived there quite happily.

[SidewaysSi]

God no, why would you do that?

[Limpet]

I've never lived there but have visited many times on business. The public transport is absolutely first class. Light rail (Metro), train and bus can all be used with the same ticket, and you just pay according to zone. They're clean, modern and run on time 24 hours a day. It's a breath of fresh air after the filthy, dilapidated, fragmented and unreliable public transport network in the UK. Cheap too. You can go pretty much anywhere in the city for about £3.

I seem to remember there's a Zipcar style app-based car sharing service as well, but the name escapes me.

If you live and work in the city, I can easily see how you'd manage without a car there.

[C70R]

Limpet said:

IThe public transport is absolutely first class. Light rail (Metro), train and bus can all be used with the same ticket, and you just pay according to zone. They're clean, modern and run on time 24 hours a day. It's a breath of fresh air after the filthy, dilapidated, fragmented and unreliable public transport network in the UK.

Outside of London, maybe. But the bolded bit basically describes public transport in London.

To the OP, I'm insanely jealous. I've visited a lot, and can't get enough of Warpigs and Mikkeller. The food scene out there is absolutely phenomenal if that's your bag - Noma actually just reopened, and was booked solid for the next few months in the space of a couple of hours.

You absolutely don't need a car, but I'd advise getting a bike with nice chunky, robust tyres for the 'variable' surfaces. Enjoy living without a car for a while - I did it for a few years when I first moved to London, and it's liberating!

[MDUBZ]

C70R said:

Limpet said:

IThe public transport is absolutely first class. Light rail (Metro), train and bus can all be used with the same ticket, and you just pay according to zone. They're clean, modern and run on time 24 hours a day. It's a breath of fresh air after the filthy, dilapidated, fragmented and unreliable public transport network in the UK.

Outside of London, maybe. But the bolded bit basically describes public transport in London.

To the OP, I'm insanely jealous. I've visited a lot, and can't get enough of Warpigs and Mikkeller. The food scene out there is absolutely phenomenal if that's your bag - Noma actually just reopened, and was booked solid for the next few months in the space of a couple of hours.

You absolutely don't need a car, but I'd advise getting a bike with nice chunky, robust tyres for the 'variable' surfaces. Enjoy living without a car for a while - I did it for a few years when I first moved to London, and it's liberating!

That’s a very generous depiction of London public transport..

No need to keep money tied up in a depreciating asset if you don’t need to; not sure leaving cars for long periods of time is great for them; you still need to maintain to a certain degree even if they aren’t moving. You can always hire a car if you want to explore outside of Copenhagen on the odd weekend and if you find you need one more often you can always buy one?

[Skeptisk]

SidewaysSi said:

God no, why would you do that?

I’ve heard that you don’t need one and owning one can be a pain owing to high cost and parking restrictions.

Finding a nice place to live that accepts our dog might already be difficult without having to have parking too.

I suspect that car and motorbike ownership isn’t that much fun either. Denmark is flat as a pancake, has worse weather than the U.K. and I think all the Scandi countries have harsh penalties for speeding.

[kingston12]

Skeptisk said:

I am hoping to be offered a job in Copenhagen and will probably accept.

I understand that Copenhagen has great public transport and cycle lanes but is not very car friendly so I’m wondering whether I could get by without a car (for the first time in over 30 years).

Anyone else given up car ownership completely?

I haven't, but I could do so very easily. I only keep my car because it's got some sentimental value, I've got a garage to keep it in and it doesn't depreciate much. It hasn't done more than 2k miles in a year for as long as I can remember, often much less.

I'd have thought that not owning a car is one of the real advantages of living in a city. I live on the furthest fringe of outer London, but everything I need day-to-day is within 5-10 minutes walk, including multiple Zipcars (and vans) if I do need anything else. Living somewhere central in Copenhagen will be much more convenient still.

I'd try without a car and see how it goes. I'd be surprised if you miss having one that often.

[spikeyhead]

I lived in Nijmegen.

It was an eight minute walk to work, or a six minute cycle ride, or about ten minutes in the car.

Going into town, it was quicker to cycle the two miles than it was to drive, park on the edge and walk into the centre, then if I wanted a beer that was fine when on my bike but not in the car.

There was a Lidl about two minutes walk away.

A car just became pointless.

[Trif]

SidewaysSi said:

God no, why would you do that?

Driving around a city sucks.


To the OP. Do what the locals do and buy a bike.

[C70R]

MDUBZ said:

C70R said:

Limpet said:

IThe public transport is absolutely first class. Light rail (Metro), train and bus can all be used with the same ticket, and you just pay according to zone. They're clean, modern and run on time 24 hours a day. It's a breath of fresh air after the filthy, dilapidated, fragmented and unreliable public transport network in the UK.

Outside of London, maybe. But the bolded bit basically describes public transport in London.

To the OP, I'm insanely jealous. I've visited a lot, and can't get enough of Warpigs and Mikkeller. The food scene out there is absolutely phenomenal if that's your bag - Noma actually just reopened, and was booked solid for the next few months in the space of a couple of hours.

You absolutely don't need a car, but I'd advise getting a bike with nice chunky, robust tyres for the 'variable' surfaces. Enjoy living without a car for a while - I did it for a few years when I first moved to London, and it's liberating!

That’s a very generous depiction of London public transport.

I'd say we were probably meeting in the middle somewhere. Copenhagen's public transport is great for a small city (population is less than 10% of London's), but it's definitely not surgically clean or 100% on time.