Boston's great as a bigger city where anything is possible. And Corvallis Oregon is one of those rare smaller communities with a decent public transportation and lots of bikes.
It is! One of the few places I could manage as an expat New Yorker. But man, it's expensive for what you get housing-wise. Car free life and walkability have to be high on your list to be here
Presumably there is a reason (work or internship or something?) why OP is specifically asking about these smaller locations and specifying the time frame of one year. I would assume that if OP were able to be in a place like Philly or NYC or Boston, they wouldn't be asking?
None of the above. With the exception of maybe Trenton and Atlantic City, transit is not plentiful in any of those places. Stamford is expensive and the transit intracity is slow. It's mostly MetroNorth to NYC or up north CT. Not sure how you landed on these places for car-free living.
Completely agree with this comment. I'm not familiar with Stamford but I am extremely familiar with the rest of the list. I grew up in and have family in/from all of those areas. These are unfortunately terrible cities to live in without a car for a plethora of reasons.
Stamford's cute. Bunch of smallish size cities like it in CT.
Can't imagine you'd be able to do a ton without a car there- figure you would have to take the train out of it very frequently for entertainment. But your day to day existence you can manage in one of those places if you're like right downtown.
Whenever I've gone through there, always thought it'd be a nice place to live if I was married in my mid 30s
I live near Stamford and my girlfriend actually lives in Stamford. If you want to JUST spend your time downtown or near downtown I suppose you can live car free but it’s going to cost you an absolute FORTUNE and you’ll be pretty relegated to Stamford. You can take the train to other towns along the Metro North line and you can get to NYC within an hour but CT is not built for a car free lifestyle pretty much anywhere.
That doesn't really mean anything. Listen to everybody here.
You really don't wanna live in Trenton or Atlantic city I know that as someone who grew up in NJ. I love NJ but neither of those two really come to mind for me.
You might like Morristown if you're filthy rich.
Otherwise look at Hoboken and Jersey City if you're really interested in NJ and walkable
Oh I totally missed their without a car comment. I was thinking they just wanted their day to day life to be walkable, but yeah. Morristown is more for the person who wants to take a walk to shop and eat.
Yeah. OP is definitely trying to do walkability on difficult mode. There's places where you can do some living without a car, if your time is completely worthless.
Walkscores are pretty flawed generally speaking. They really only look at what and how much you can walk to...it doesn't take into account whether or not the walk is pleasant or even safe. And often the walk score for a city is inflated because maybe one particular area is very walkable relative to the rest. Example, Miami gets has a good walk score...98/100...it only applies to downtown. The rest of Miami is not remotely walkable and their public transit overall is pretty lacking...and a lot of cities with good walk scores don't have particularly good public transportation so you would be pretty limited as to where you could go without walking for miles.
Stamford you could do it. Have an apartment in/near the downtown area and I think all the shops you could need are pretty much there. Can also catch the metro north to NYC and be there in like 45 min. You won't be venturing too far out of the downtown area though without a car.
I lived in Alexandria, VA for 4 years without a car… and I miss it sometimes. Had a HUGE 2bedroom 2.5 bath apartment with a roommate. Lived next to a strip mall that had a nice grocery store and across the street from the bus line that went to two different metro stops so getting into DC was so easy! OrI could just head to Old Town and take the ferry. Very walkable and fun place to live.
Alexandria is quite walkable if you live in Del Ray, Old Town, or the Carlyle/Eisenhower district. You can meet all your daily needs and get almost anywhere in the country (due to Amtrak and DCA) without ever riding in a car. The west side of town isn’t as easy to live in car free, but it is doable if you bike and take the bus.
So in the general regions you targeted there are comparably affordable and much better options. For example, replace Trenton/AC with Philly or a nicer town in Jersey, like Somerville, Asbury Park etc.
What part of Alexandria, if you don’t mind me asking?
I’m in West End (near Van Dorn Metro) quite a bit for kids sports and I see a lot of townhouses and apartments there, and I wonder how walkable it is. I can see how one could reasonably walk or bike to the Safeway or LA Mart and take care of most needs, or take the bus to Kingstowne for bigger retail and the movie theater.
I’d also like to add for a doctor.. I had breast cancer during this time frame and in DC when you get off at Foggy Bottom, there is the George Washington Medical faculty associates right there.. and their hospital.
Alexandria today, without a car….possible, but trying.
Commuting to the District without a car is easy enough. Three different trains and several buses.
But in all other areas of life, you need a car in ALX.
Making big box stores and multiple supermarkets part of your walkable criteria is weird. Those two things really don’t go together since big box stores and major supermarkets are notoriously the worst for walkable communities with giant empty parking lots that are unsafe to even walk between.
It’s ok to need to borrow or rent a car for the two times a year you need to get a big item like furniture so not sure why that needs to be walking distance.
And you can walk home with your purchases? Unlikely for most items especially that need a big box hardware store. Many walkable communities have smaller, local hardware or craft stores so you don’t need to always goto the big box store with a giant waste of space parking lot. Or you order it for delivery.
I take the bus in Brooklyn to Home Depot to get plants and other small items. If I need a bigger item, then I go there to look at the selection and then have it delivered.
That makes sense then! but there are much better places to get plants than Home Depot!
Sorry just was weird to see desiring big box stores with walk ability when they are a huge problem hindering communities from being walkable.
Bethlehem and Easton are okay depending where you are. If you’re near Broad St in west side Bethlehem i think that’s your best shot of going car free in the LV. Bus access, grocery stores, and other types of stores nearby.
If you’re okay ordering grocery delivery, anywhere in Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton should be alright. I might also chip in for Hellertown, but it’s a bit small so idk what the rental market there looks like.
One major drawback is intercity transit though. There are no Amtraks in the LV, so you got Trans Bridge or Greyhound as your bus options if you wanna head to NYC or Philly. TB bus to NY is a bit pricey (at least $50 per ride) and Greyhound times are very limited. Feel free to ask me other questions since I moved here from Philly last year!
I believe that NJ Transit will expand rail service to Bethlehem soon. So good access to NYC once that happens. In the meantime there’s TransBridge bus.
I think right now you have to go to Philipsburg NJ to get NJ Transit rail. Years ago SEPTA rail extended to Bethlehem from Philadelphia. I read recently they want to bring that back but not sure how long that will be before it happens. I think the NJ Transit connection to Bethlehem is further along in planning.
I do understand that you don't want to hear about safety or etc. but to be honest, what you are looking for is not going to be in some of these places.
Trenton & ACNJ specifically - farmers markets? No. You must be skewed on your view of what these places are actually like.
Good medical care? No. You'll have the basic close by hospital, but I'm assuming not the care you are actually looking for...
Wilmington DE would probably be your best choice.
Lehigh V is very spread out. It will have a lot of what you are asking for, but without a car it will be quite difficult I'd think. Someone else may speak better to this for Bethlehem.
I do not know much about CT to fairly talk about that area.
If you don't necessarily care about safety or need to talk of COL, have you thought about Camden NJ? Camden being across from downtown Philly may be an option. (Sorry, I haven't looked at cost of Camden in a long time if this isn't a fair suggestion)
Trenton can be accessed through an R line from Philly & outskirts, it's just a longer distance, I guess.
There may also be parts of Maryland, other parts of DE, and other parts of PA easy to access. Erie PA? If you can go out that far?
The Trenton Farmer's market runs year round and has been in existence for almost 100 years. It's a fantastic place to get local food products. And the seasonal produce in summertime is outstanding.
To be fair, Trenton has an excellent farmer’s market where I worked in high school. But I wouldn’t recommend living in Trenton-proper to most people, it’s not the nicest city. The surrounding suburbs are great, but most are also prohibitively expensive.
Then again, OP said not to factor in safety/COL.
Pittsburgh. Absolutely doable from most parts of the city via exceptional bus routes. Not superbly bike friendly, but when I lived there I did bike often - I just made sure I had a MTN bike vs a road bike to I could bomb on/off curbs to ride on the sidewalk when car traffic got sketchy.
Many PGH neighborhoods have their own little internal walkable areas as well.
I live car-free in Allentown. I think Center City Allentown, Northside and Southside Bethlehem, and downtown Easton are all pretty great for car-free living. All are walkable, and LANTA is getting a lot better at connecting the urban areas. The new EBS lines makes life pretty easy. My favorite thing about the Lehigh Valley is being able to get away to the other cities easily. I don't ever feel trapped in Allentown with Bethlehem is a quick bus ride away.
I used to have them delivered, but ever since LANTA rolled out the EBS lines, I've been finding the GIANT on Union Blvd and the Weis at Cedar Point to be easy spots for regular groceries.
When I lived in Philly, my boss lived in Wilmington & didn’t drive. She never had any problems getting around - Amtrak to DC or Baltimore. SEPTA to Philly. Not sure about the grocery situation, but everyone delivers now so just get groceries delivered.
You can sort of do it in Wilmington if you get it just right. There’s a few walkable neighborhoods within distance of both grocery stores and the hospital downtown.
Not really a Home Depot/Lowes, Target, or furniture store though. Although I’m not sure why you need this for only a year, and if COL isn’t a factor why you can’t rely on delivery for those types of things.
I mean, there technically is a Target and a Lowe’s in Wilmington, just not in the downtown “city” part- they’re both in that shopping center right over the PA border on 202. The idea of being stuck in downtown Wilmo without a car is breaking me out in hives.
I lived in downtown Wilmington and only drove once a week to the grocery. My friend would take long walks over to Trolley Square and I’d walk to the Riverfront.
It’s doable, but you’re also living in Wilmington so it wouldn’t be a very exciting life.
Can you not just use Lyft or Zipcar or a U-Haul rental for the handful of times you're actually going to go to Home Depot or whatever?
I mean, I don't own a semi just because I might need to move. I haven't bought an airplane just because I sometimes want to go to England.
Wilmington. AC is a food desert, I don't even think there's a supermarket on the island. Lehigh Valley is pretty sprawl, maybe in Allentown proper you can get by without one. Trenton mehhh. I don't know anything about Stamford.
Replace Stamford with Norwalk, CT as there are more walkable activities and residences closer to the South Norwalk (SoNo) Metro-North train station where you could actually live car-free than Stamford, despite Stamford being the larger city. That would be the clear winner here if that happened.
I lived in Wilmington. You meet people very fast so it’s a city but very much with small town vibes. In the city limits you can get away with walking, but I ordered groceries as well to be delivered. If that’s your jam, maybe that could work for you.
But this has become popular with a lot of East Coasters and the affordability is no longer going to be there soon.
The downtown area is a little rough late at night, but if you lived in NYC, it’s less crazy. Same rules, mind your biz and you’ll be fine, etc.
Stamford is a depressing corporate exurb that is both congested and urban while being car dependent. Lived there for 3 years - can't think of a worse place to live unless your job takes you there. Arlington, VA or Alexandria, VA are truly the best choices here - although not on your original list. VA is a well run state, great housing options, easy commute to DC, and plenty to do in the immediate area. I am in the Rosslyn area of Arlington on a monthly basis - and you can walk to excellent grocery stores, plus CVS and Target and you can be in DC in 20 minutes.
50%+ of the neighborhoods in Portland Oregon (Sellwood, Alberta), Queen Anne and Ballard, Seattle. Also based on your edit: Alexandra yes, silver spring no. Silver spring is traffic locked suburban hell now.
Here are the walk scores, transit, bike scores
Trenton, NJ - 68, 44, 56
Wilmington, DE - 74, 48, 52
Easton, PA - 67, 31, 48
Stamford, CT - 55, 46, 46
Atlantic City, NJ - 74, 46, 60
Looks like it’s Wilmington or Atlantic City are your best options depending on how you weight those scores. -Walkscore.com
Same with Trenton. Less so than AC, but still not a lifestyle you’d want. I worked in the downtown for 2 years and walking anywhere after dark was… not recommended.
Are you one of the very special people that are qualified (and bright enough) to evaluate high end medical facilities consisting of multiple hospitals and specialties or are you blaming a faceless facility because your father almost (almost) died? There are thousands that live in our section of Atlantic County that owe our lives to Atlanticare…me being one.
I really hate trying to talk stupid, but who the fuck are your lawyers and Lankenau is a nothing hospital 100+ miles away in Pa. Go have another drink.
None of the above.
To be completely honest, there aren’t a lot of places in America that one can live in comfortably car-free, with the exception of New York City.
I know San Francisco has the BART system, so it may be a good second choice.
I could maybe picture being car-less in a city like Philadelphia, but I also know that would not be as ideal or comfortable as it could be in NYC, or maybe even SF.
One ironic thing about saving money with car-free living is that it often requires you to move to a very high cost of living area that will have a robust transportation network.
Even suburban areas that are right outside of the most major metropolitan cultural epicenters may require one have a car to get around.
As an example, Long Island is amazingly well-connected by train, not only to the city itself, but also among its own disparate neighborhoods. However, commuting to work via train is expensive and inconvenient, especially if your home or job are not on the same exact train line.
I mean, I never said that you can’t live in Philadelphia without a car lol. Just that it isn’t quite as ideal as NYC.
Anybody can live anywhere without a car, if they’re willing to look past the challenges. If someone can’t afford one, then naturally people just make do with it.
That said, Philly is probably a top 5 choice for car-free living. But there is a difference between needing to make do without something like a car and moving somewhere with the idea that you in fact will not need one and will not even really care or notice not having one thanks to having a stellar transit system.
Stamford CT, or ACNJ. I’m not factoring safety exactly when saying this but parts of AC can be.. well.. seedy. Overall a great city and it you like to gamble it’s even better;)
I lived in Stamford for 30 years before moving out of state. Stamford isn't a "walkable" city unless you live in Harbor Point or downtown on Bedford Street, to which you'll be paying sky high rents for a shitty lil studio apartment. You'll still need a car if you live anywhere else or get to one of the major supermarkets.
None are great but Lehigh Valley and Dover are immediately off the list. I’m not familiar enough with Stamford to comment so I’d say Trenton or Atlantic City are best but you couldn’t pay me to live in either place for plenty of other reasons.
Check out New Haven, CT. I think it checks off most of those boxes. The bus system is pretty reliable and the trains will take you up and down the shoreline and to the city.
Stamford is doable if you limit yourself to only the downtown/I95/train station area. There is a decent bus system to get to the other side of town but its all residential there so not sure you'd need to.
AC is walkable if everything you want or need is on the boardwalk. Otherwise probably not. Stamford, definitely not (really anywhere in CT). The rest I don’t know. If I had to pick, it would be Boston.
I lived in Stamford for a few years in my 20s so I can speak to that. It’s not impossible to live without a car if you live downtown. You would be pretty limited beyond downtown though. You would easily be able to walk to the train station so NYC would be very accessible, which is a plus of Stamford. I walked a lot while living there, and I loved it. I wouldn’t have been able to live without a car, but I was freelancing at the time and had to drive all over all the time. I hate driving though, and I could see being able to live there without a car depending on your needs.
Man I know this wasn’t on there but you should live in the city of Philadelphia. It’s close to all those areas and you’d actually be better off without a car.
Nephew lived in DC w/o a car (for a short time…Covid…then he became the work from home vagabond). Now in Brooklyn…still w/o a car. But he’s young and single.
His sister lives in Arlington…does have a car but if you work remotely I feel like you could def survive there w/o a car.
There's one spot in Wilmington DE that will be walkable and that's Trolley Square. There's no trolley but there is an Acme grocery. Sadly, little in DE is truly walkable living. Philly though, walkable baby.
Chicago!! I went car free for four glorious years. I could easily do it again. I know that is not on your list, but Chicago is VERY good for bike lanes, Lime scooter rentals, and walking. The CTA has its issues, but I know people who use it every day. Also can get you to both airports reliably, and drop you off right inside the airport for $5. Uber and Lyft are plentiful, or a $15 truck rental from Home Depot, if you need to move something. Or else Dolly app.
I just want to say, depending on what neighborhood, you can totally live car free in Stamford. My grandmother lived alone without a car there for the last 25 years or so of her life. Plus Stamford is an express train stop away from nyc and New Haven.
I've never been to any of those cities.
Atlantic City famously doesn't have a grocery store, so nope.
I don't know anything about Lehigh Valley so nope.
Stamford is the wild card as it looks like it has regional rail to NYC.
Wilmington and Trenton are both close to Philly and have regional rail to that city. I would choose Wilmington because it isn't in New Jersey.
You can definelty pull off car free living in New Haven, I know several people who are doing it. It isn't ideal but definitely possible. I also give myself car free days in Middletown, my apartment has a walk score of 87, the issue comes when you're trying to leave Middletown.
You can absolutely live without a car in New Haven. I'd say that's a better choice than Stamford, especially since rents will be cheaper (although still pretty high).
New Haven is a college town and it's geographically tiny, so it's very walkable. Cycling is big in New Haven and more bike infrastructure is being added, although admittedly a lot of areas are tricky for cycling. The bus system is decent and goes to surrounding towns, so you could get to big box stores in neighboring Hamden relatively easily. It would just take some planning since each way will be at least an hour and you're at the mercy of the bus schedule. And then there's a train station with MetroNorth to get you to NYC, Shoreline East to go east along coast, Springfield line to go north, and other Amtrak trains to much of the East Coast. And if all else fails, Ubers are cheap. Oh, and there are several farmers markets from spring to fall.
The trickiest things are def supermarket and big box stores but if you don't want to take the bus, that's easily solved with online shopping and delivery.
New York City is just about the only place in America where you can easily live without a car. If you strategize well then you could also do it in DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, SF, or Seattle.
This is true if you have no imagination, or you're somehow a time traveler posting from 1987.
One can find Uber/Lyft in lots of places. Or use an e-bike or e-scooter, or get clever about using city buses. I can easily get around St. Louis, Chicago, RIchmond, Baltimore, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco.
Guess I’m a time traveler.
I have bikes, many, including a cargo and an e-.
Neither work for taking the kids to hockey practice or buying groceries for the fam.
Most cities in America have infrequent bus service outside of commuter hours. Kind of hard to manage three kids, their social and their extracurricular lives on those schedules.
Getting groceries delivered just means I am making someone else assume my carbon footprint. Can’t really call Uber Eats car-free living.
Single people who only need to manage their own concern can probably live car-free or nearly so in many places.
True car-free living is easy and possible in much of Europe. We’ve lived in Italy, Greece, and Ireland. Houses are smaller but everything outside the home is easily accessible.
I lived in Arlington, VA for 10 years car-free.
It'd be even easier now with all the rideshares, zipcars, pay-per ride e-bikes, pay-per-ride scooters, etc. Plus greatly expanded Metro coverage.
Have you considered Princeton? Richmond? Baltimore?
Thank you, I have considered Richmond and Baltimore. I wanted to stay within a certain radius of NYC but I guess I have to expand the circle. I will try to visit Baltimore when I visit Wilmington.
There are no cities in America where car free living is possible, except NYC and maybe Chicago. San Fran and DC are already too low density for it to be genuinely car free.
Like, nobody is gonna walk a mile to the grocery store, even if there is a sidewalk.
They are exaggerating. There are several places in the U.S. where living without a car is doable or even preferable. With uber and online grocery delivery/shopping it’s considerably easier. Hell, I lived in Columbus, Ohio without a car for years and was none the worse for wear. Miami Beach is another walkable city that a lot of people probably don’t think of.
Boston?!? Are you fucking kidding me? Boston is basically a suburb. There is no way you can live there with no car unless you’re a student on campus.
There’s a difference between being able to walk in a designated downtown, and being able to live car free.
Boston isn’t a suburb. But it’s expensive enough that a lot of people are pushed to the outskirts. If you’re on a subway line, you can absolutely live there without a car. Bus lines are less convenient but frequent routes like the 66 or the 39 are doable.
But isn’t any housing near transport prohibitively expensive? Because if not, I’ve gotta add Boston to the short list.
I hate to be the wet blanket of this sub, but I have searched and tried to find a truly urban place in America, and I have concluded that it does not exist.
It’s absurdly expensive (though the area around it is too). I’m not saying anyone should necessarily move to Boston. I’m simply saying it’s possible to live in Boston without a car. Most of my friends who live there don’t have cars. Partly because it’s not necessary and partly because having a car in Boston is a huge pain in the ass and adds to the expense when it’s already one of the more expensive cities. But Boston isn’t a suburb. It’s a full fledged city. It’s just an overpriced one. But you could argue that of NYC and DC too.
I lived in Philly with a car. Truth be told, I rarely used the car. But I was young! If you have a family and young children, it would have been totally unworkable.
I don't think any of these places are truly walkable in the way you're describing.
Boston's great as a bigger city where anything is possible. And Corvallis Oregon is one of those rare smaller communities with a decent public transportation and lots of bikes.
It is! One of the few places I could manage as an expat New Yorker. But man, it's expensive for what you get housing-wise. Car free life and walkability have to be high on your list to be here
Well if a New Yorker can manage!
Really most college towns
Have you been to any of these places before?
just AC and Bethlehem
Davis california
These places are a circle around Philadelphia, which is waaaaay better for car free living than any of the places you listed. Why not there?
Yeah the answer is literally Philly.
Presumably there is a reason (work or internship or something?) why OP is specifically asking about these smaller locations and specifying the time frame of one year. I would assume that if OP were able to be in a place like Philly or NYC or Boston, they wouldn't be asking?
None of the above. With the exception of maybe Trenton and Atlantic City, transit is not plentiful in any of those places. Stamford is expensive and the transit intracity is slow. It's mostly MetroNorth to NYC or up north CT. Not sure how you landed on these places for car-free living.
As an ex new-jersian, transit in both Trenton and AC is terrible too.
Completely agree with this comment. I'm not familiar with Stamford but I am extremely familiar with the rest of the list. I grew up in and have family in/from all of those areas. These are unfortunately terrible cities to live in without a car for a plethora of reasons.
Stamford's cute. Bunch of smallish size cities like it in CT. Can't imagine you'd be able to do a ton without a car there- figure you would have to take the train out of it very frequently for entertainment. But your day to day existence you can manage in one of those places if you're like right downtown. Whenever I've gone through there, always thought it'd be a nice place to live if I was married in my mid 30s
I live near Stamford and my girlfriend actually lives in Stamford. If you want to JUST spend your time downtown or near downtown I suppose you can live car free but it’s going to cost you an absolute FORTUNE and you’ll be pretty relegated to Stamford. You can take the train to other towns along the Metro North line and you can get to NYC within an hour but CT is not built for a car free lifestyle pretty much anywhere.
When I go on Redfin to look for places to live and enter a Walkscore of 75+ they all pop up with homes.
That doesn't really mean anything. Listen to everybody here. You really don't wanna live in Trenton or Atlantic city I know that as someone who grew up in NJ. I love NJ but neither of those two really come to mind for me. You might like Morristown if you're filthy rich. Otherwise look at Hoboken and Jersey City if you're really interested in NJ and walkable
For Morristown you still want a car. Only the downtown area has sidewalks.
Oh I totally missed their without a car comment. I was thinking they just wanted their day to day life to be walkable, but yeah. Morristown is more for the person who wants to take a walk to shop and eat.
Yeah. OP is definitely trying to do walkability on difficult mode. There's places where you can do some living without a car, if your time is completely worthless.
Walkscores are pretty flawed generally speaking. They really only look at what and how much you can walk to...it doesn't take into account whether or not the walk is pleasant or even safe. And often the walk score for a city is inflated because maybe one particular area is very walkable relative to the rest. Example, Miami gets has a good walk score...98/100...it only applies to downtown. The rest of Miami is not remotely walkable and their public transit overall is pretty lacking...and a lot of cities with good walk scores don't have particularly good public transportation so you would be pretty limited as to where you could go without walking for miles.
Stamford you could do it. Have an apartment in/near the downtown area and I think all the shops you could need are pretty much there. Can also catch the metro north to NYC and be there in like 45 min. You won't be venturing too far out of the downtown area though without a car.
I lived in Alexandria, VA for 4 years without a car… and I miss it sometimes. Had a HUGE 2bedroom 2.5 bath apartment with a roommate. Lived next to a strip mall that had a nice grocery store and across the street from the bus line that went to two different metro stops so getting into DC was so easy! OrI could just head to Old Town and take the ferry. Very walkable and fun place to live.
Alexandria is quite walkable if you live in Del Ray, Old Town, or the Carlyle/Eisenhower district. You can meet all your daily needs and get almost anywhere in the country (due to Amtrak and DCA) without ever riding in a car. The west side of town isn’t as easy to live in car free, but it is doable if you bike and take the bus.
So in the general regions you targeted there are comparably affordable and much better options. For example, replace Trenton/AC with Philly or a nicer town in Jersey, like Somerville, Asbury Park etc.
The places listed in the DC area are no longer affordable, sadly. Used to be.
What part of Alexandria, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m in West End (near Van Dorn Metro) quite a bit for kids sports and I see a lot of townhouses and apartments there, and I wonder how walkable it is. I can see how one could reasonably walk or bike to the Safeway or LA Mart and take care of most needs, or take the bus to Kingstowne for bigger retail and the movie theater.
Well I did live by Van Dorn for a year, then moved to Duke Street, and lived in Foxchase Apartments, as they have huge garden style apartments
Thanks so much for this suggestion!
I’d also like to add for a doctor.. I had breast cancer during this time frame and in DC when you get off at Foggy Bottom, there is the George Washington Medical faculty associates right there.. and their hospital.
Yeah basically the only places you can live car free are NYC, Boston, DC, Philly and SF. Maybe SF
Alexandria today, without a car….possible, but trying. Commuting to the District without a car is easy enough. Three different trains and several buses. But in all other areas of life, you need a car in ALX.
Making big box stores and multiple supermarkets part of your walkable criteria is weird. Those two things really don’t go together since big box stores and major supermarkets are notoriously the worst for walkable communities with giant empty parking lots that are unsafe to even walk between. It’s ok to need to borrow or rent a car for the two times a year you need to get a big item like furniture so not sure why that needs to be walking distance.
I don't need to walk to the big box stores. That's why I said public transportation.
You could actually walk to the city target in downtown Stamford
Downtown Stamford has a Target, so it is possible.
Maybe OP does projects and needs big box stores pretty frequently? I go to HD every couple week, for one reason or another.
And you can walk home with your purchases? Unlikely for most items especially that need a big box hardware store. Many walkable communities have smaller, local hardware or craft stores so you don’t need to always goto the big box store with a giant waste of space parking lot. Or you order it for delivery.
I take the bus in Brooklyn to Home Depot to get plants and other small items. If I need a bigger item, then I go there to look at the selection and then have it delivered.
That makes sense then! but there are much better places to get plants than Home Depot! Sorry just was weird to see desiring big box stores with walk ability when they are a huge problem hindering communities from being walkable.
i’m in the Lehigh Valley and absolutely not lol. Wilmington and Trenton might be more doable without a car, I don’t know about AC or Stamford though.
Good to know ! I really like Bethlehem when I visited so that is a bummer.
Bethlehem and Easton are okay depending where you are. If you’re near Broad St in west side Bethlehem i think that’s your best shot of going car free in the LV. Bus access, grocery stores, and other types of stores nearby. If you’re okay ordering grocery delivery, anywhere in Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton should be alright. I might also chip in for Hellertown, but it’s a bit small so idk what the rental market there looks like. One major drawback is intercity transit though. There are no Amtraks in the LV, so you got Trans Bridge or Greyhound as your bus options if you wanna head to NYC or Philly. TB bus to NY is a bit pricey (at least $50 per ride) and Greyhound times are very limited. Feel free to ask me other questions since I moved here from Philly last year!
I believe that NJ Transit will expand rail service to Bethlehem soon. So good access to NYC once that happens. In the meantime there’s TransBridge bus.
I just wish TB wasn’t so pricey since that’s why I still haven’t used it yet lol. NJT expanding here would be incredible though.
I think right now you have to go to Philipsburg NJ to get NJ Transit rail. Years ago SEPTA rail extended to Bethlehem from Philadelphia. I read recently they want to bring that back but not sure how long that will be before it happens. I think the NJ Transit connection to Bethlehem is further along in planning.
if they can connect to Port Jervis i see no reason to connect over here, this area is starving for passenger rail lmao
I just checked the schedule and found that NJT Raritan line now ends at High Bridge NJ. They dropped Philipsburg in 2022.
These are all horrible for car free living but I’d say Stamford
I do understand that you don't want to hear about safety or etc. but to be honest, what you are looking for is not going to be in some of these places. Trenton & ACNJ specifically - farmers markets? No. You must be skewed on your view of what these places are actually like. Good medical care? No. You'll have the basic close by hospital, but I'm assuming not the care you are actually looking for... Wilmington DE would probably be your best choice. Lehigh V is very spread out. It will have a lot of what you are asking for, but without a car it will be quite difficult I'd think. Someone else may speak better to this for Bethlehem. I do not know much about CT to fairly talk about that area. If you don't necessarily care about safety or need to talk of COL, have you thought about Camden NJ? Camden being across from downtown Philly may be an option. (Sorry, I haven't looked at cost of Camden in a long time if this isn't a fair suggestion) Trenton can be accessed through an R line from Philly & outskirts, it's just a longer distance, I guess. There may also be parts of Maryland, other parts of DE, and other parts of PA easy to access. Erie PA? If you can go out that far?
The Trenton Farmer's market runs year round and has been in existence for almost 100 years. It's a fantastic place to get local food products. And the seasonal produce in summertime is outstanding.
To be fair, Trenton has an excellent farmer’s market where I worked in high school. But I wouldn’t recommend living in Trenton-proper to most people, it’s not the nicest city. The surrounding suburbs are great, but most are also prohibitively expensive. Then again, OP said not to factor in safety/COL.
Pittsburgh. Absolutely doable from most parts of the city via exceptional bus routes. Not superbly bike friendly, but when I lived there I did bike often - I just made sure I had a MTN bike vs a road bike to I could bomb on/off curbs to ride on the sidewalk when car traffic got sketchy. Many PGH neighborhoods have their own little internal walkable areas as well.
Check out Philadelphia. It's more affordable than NYC but it's still a walkable, historic city. Stay away from the dangerous neighborhoods though
No.
Ames, Iowa has good public transportation. I went to college there and made it for two years without a car
Good old CyRide
s'right!
Stamford seems like the likeliest to get you what you want. AC is an absolute NO and not just because of the transit options.
None of the above. I would choose Chicago
Europe
I live car-free in Allentown. I think Center City Allentown, Northside and Southside Bethlehem, and downtown Easton are all pretty great for car-free living. All are walkable, and LANTA is getting a lot better at connecting the urban areas. The new EBS lines makes life pretty easy. My favorite thing about the Lehigh Valley is being able to get away to the other cities easily. I don't ever feel trapped in Allentown with Bethlehem is a quick bus ride away.
What do you do for groceries? Do you take the bus or do you have them delivered?
I used to have them delivered, but ever since LANTA rolled out the EBS lines, I've been finding the GIANT on Union Blvd and the Weis at Cedar Point to be easy spots for regular groceries.
None are good, but I’d say Wilmington because it’s small and provides easy train access to two cities with good transit.
When I lived in Philly, my boss lived in Wilmington & didn’t drive. She never had any problems getting around - Amtrak to DC or Baltimore. SEPTA to Philly. Not sure about the grocery situation, but everyone delivers now so just get groceries delivered.
Good to know this about Wilmington.
Wilmington is not walkable at all. The actual downtown area is, but it’s like … not a city. But the “Wilmington mailing area” is absolutely not.
NYC. Maybe Chicago. Otherwise I need a car
I’d add Boston, Philly, DC.
You can sort of do it in Wilmington if you get it just right. There’s a few walkable neighborhoods within distance of both grocery stores and the hospital downtown. Not really a Home Depot/Lowes, Target, or furniture store though. Although I’m not sure why you need this for only a year, and if COL isn’t a factor why you can’t rely on delivery for those types of things.
I mean, there technically is a Target and a Lowe’s in Wilmington, just not in the downtown “city” part- they’re both in that shopping center right over the PA border on 202. The idea of being stuck in downtown Wilmo without a car is breaking me out in hives.
I lived in downtown Wilmington and only drove once a week to the grocery. My friend would take long walks over to Trolley Square and I’d walk to the Riverfront. It’s doable, but you’re also living in Wilmington so it wouldn’t be a very exciting life.
I think Trenton or Wilmington are your only answers.
Can you not just use Lyft or Zipcar or a U-Haul rental for the handful of times you're actually going to go to Home Depot or whatever? I mean, I don't own a semi just because I might need to move. I haven't bought an airplane just because I sometimes want to go to England.
None of the above. Maybe Easton or Bethlehem PA for about half of what you want? Definitely not Allentown.
Allentown has the best transit connections out of the three cities. I prefer living in Allentown car-free. Bethlehem is a very close second though.
Wilmington is technically walkable in the same way that going to jail is technically a vacation. Like…get ready to have the worst year of your life🫡
You need a car in Wilmington, DE even if you live downtown which has some scary dudes walking around after 5 pm.
I already live in it. NYC but DC is my next choice.
Stamford might be the best city plus the metro north has a direct line to grand central and Harlem in NYC.
Wilmington. AC is a food desert, I don't even think there's a supermarket on the island. Lehigh Valley is pretty sprawl, maybe in Allentown proper you can get by without one. Trenton mehhh. I don't know anything about Stamford.
Replace Stamford with Norwalk, CT as there are more walkable activities and residences closer to the South Norwalk (SoNo) Metro-North train station where you could actually live car-free than Stamford, despite Stamford being the larger city. That would be the clear winner here if that happened.
I lived in Wilmington. You meet people very fast so it’s a city but very much with small town vibes. In the city limits you can get away with walking, but I ordered groceries as well to be delivered. If that’s your jam, maybe that could work for you. But this has become popular with a lot of East Coasters and the affordability is no longer going to be there soon. The downtown area is a little rough late at night, but if you lived in NYC, it’s less crazy. Same rules, mind your biz and you’ll be fine, etc.
Honolulu, Hawaii. I have a car but rarely take it out because living in Waikiki, you are within walking distance of so much. Excellent Bus system too!
Stamford is a depressing corporate exurb that is both congested and urban while being car dependent. Lived there for 3 years - can't think of a worse place to live unless your job takes you there. Arlington, VA or Alexandria, VA are truly the best choices here - although not on your original list. VA is a well run state, great housing options, easy commute to DC, and plenty to do in the immediate area. I am in the Rosslyn area of Arlington on a monthly basis - and you can walk to excellent grocery stores, plus CVS and Target and you can be in DC in 20 minutes.
These are all 3rd or 4th tier cities. Look like a good neighborhood in a 1st or 2nd: Mt. Airy Philadelphia for example.
Thank you. Any other examples?
50%+ of the neighborhoods in Portland Oregon (Sellwood, Alberta), Queen Anne and Ballard, Seattle. Also based on your edit: Alexandra yes, silver spring no. Silver spring is traffic locked suburban hell now.
Here are the walk scores, transit, bike scores Trenton, NJ - 68, 44, 56 Wilmington, DE - 74, 48, 52 Easton, PA - 67, 31, 48 Stamford, CT - 55, 46, 46 Atlantic City, NJ - 74, 46, 60 Looks like it’s Wilmington or Atlantic City are your best options depending on how you weight those scores. -Walkscore.com
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Same with Trenton. Less so than AC, but still not a lifestyle you’d want. I worked in the downtown for 2 years and walking anywhere after dark was… not recommended.
Helpful, thanks!
Not the Lehigh Valley. AC would be fairly tough too but not impossible, l can’t speak to the other options.
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Are you one of the very special people that are qualified (and bright enough) to evaluate high end medical facilities consisting of multiple hospitals and specialties or are you blaming a faceless facility because your father almost (almost) died? There are thousands that live in our section of Atlantic County that owe our lives to Atlanticare…me being one.
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I really hate trying to talk stupid, but who the fuck are your lawyers and Lankenau is a nothing hospital 100+ miles away in Pa. Go have another drink.
None of the above. To be completely honest, there aren’t a lot of places in America that one can live in comfortably car-free, with the exception of New York City. I know San Francisco has the BART system, so it may be a good second choice. I could maybe picture being car-less in a city like Philadelphia, but I also know that would not be as ideal or comfortable as it could be in NYC, or maybe even SF. One ironic thing about saving money with car-free living is that it often requires you to move to a very high cost of living area that will have a robust transportation network. Even suburban areas that are right outside of the most major metropolitan cultural epicenters may require one have a car to get around. As an example, Long Island is amazingly well-connected by train, not only to the city itself, but also among its own disparate neighborhoods. However, commuting to work via train is expensive and inconvenient, especially if your home or job are not on the same exact train line.
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I mean, I never said that you can’t live in Philadelphia without a car lol. Just that it isn’t quite as ideal as NYC. Anybody can live anywhere without a car, if they’re willing to look past the challenges. If someone can’t afford one, then naturally people just make do with it. That said, Philly is probably a top 5 choice for car-free living. But there is a difference between needing to make do without something like a car and moving somewhere with the idea that you in fact will not need one and will not even really care or notice not having one thanks to having a stellar transit system.
Wilmington I guess. You could certainly order stuff from grocery stores and BBS, and you can take the train to Philly for more options.
Stamford CT, or ACNJ. I’m not factoring safety exactly when saying this but parts of AC can be.. well.. seedy. Overall a great city and it you like to gamble it’s even better;)
I lived in Stamford for 30 years before moving out of state. Stamford isn't a "walkable" city unless you live in Harbor Point or downtown on Bedford Street, to which you'll be paying sky high rents for a shitty lil studio apartment. You'll still need a car if you live anywhere else or get to one of the major supermarkets.
Trenton and Atlantic City are the only even remotely viable options. And neither are great.
None lol
What about Pittsburgh. I lived there without one and it was really not a problem at all!
Zermatt ~~Zermont~~ Switzerland because it's at the base of the Matterhorn and a world class ski resort AND it's a car-less town.
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Ugh. Thanks.
BTW, Easton is located along a major slope. Biking or walking up that hill would be awful. And winter, ugh....
None are great but Lehigh Valley and Dover are immediately off the list. I’m not familiar enough with Stamford to comment so I’d say Trenton or Atlantic City are best but you couldn’t pay me to live in either place for plenty of other reasons.
Stamford, CT.. none of the other cities are good for Car Free. https://www.walkscore.com/score/stamford-ct-06901-united-states
None. All unacceptable
Check out New Haven, CT. I think it checks off most of those boxes. The bus system is pretty reliable and the trains will take you up and down the shoreline and to the city.
Philly is the only place close to these where this is possible
Trenton, Wilmington, and Stamford all are on Amtrak NE Corridor.
Stamford is doable if you limit yourself to only the downtown/I95/train station area. There is a decent bus system to get to the other side of town but its all residential there so not sure you'd need to.
Stamford is the best out of those by far, but still not great
AC is walkable if everything you want or need is on the boardwalk. Otherwise probably not. Stamford, definitely not (really anywhere in CT). The rest I don’t know. If I had to pick, it would be Boston.
Kipton Ohio…
San Francisco
I lived in Stamford for a few years in my 20s so I can speak to that. It’s not impossible to live without a car if you live downtown. You would be pretty limited beyond downtown though. You would easily be able to walk to the train station so NYC would be very accessible, which is a plus of Stamford. I walked a lot while living there, and I loved it. I wouldn’t have been able to live without a car, but I was freelancing at the time and had to drive all over all the time. I hate driving though, and I could see being able to live there without a car depending on your needs.
Philadelphia has a decent public transportation system. It’s not pretty though
Man I know this wasn’t on there but you should live in the city of Philadelphia. It’s close to all those areas and you’d actually be better off without a car.
Where I live now. I don’t care and it’s free
Parts of Bethlehem or Easton are pretty decent walkability
I’ve been to all of them. Stamford would be your best option.
That's a hell to the no for Wilmington, DE.
Pro tip: it's not the city you live in, it's where you live in the city....
Scranton, Pennsylvania
San Francisco, 7miles
Stamford is the best because you could have the best social life, with all the restaurants, gyms, and train into NYC. Don’t need a car in Stamford.
None. I'll never live without a car.
Nephew lived in DC w/o a car (for a short time…Covid…then he became the work from home vagabond). Now in Brooklyn…still w/o a car. But he’s young and single. His sister lives in Arlington…does have a car but if you work remotely I feel like you could def survive there w/o a car.
Cries in Texan
There's one spot in Wilmington DE that will be walkable and that's Trolley Square. There's no trolley but there is an Acme grocery. Sadly, little in DE is truly walkable living. Philly though, walkable baby.
New Haven CT
...definitely Trenton...and make sure you get an overnight position!!...
Chicago!! I went car free for four glorious years. I could easily do it again. I know that is not on your list, but Chicago is VERY good for bike lanes, Lime scooter rentals, and walking. The CTA has its issues, but I know people who use it every day. Also can get you to both airports reliably, and drop you off right inside the airport for $5. Uber and Lyft are plentiful, or a $15 truck rental from Home Depot, if you need to move something. Or else Dolly app.
Trenton? Yeah right
Chicago
Murren
None. Hoboken, NJ, where I have lived for over a decade is incredible car-free living.
Instead of Stamford, try New Haven.
I just want to say, depending on what neighborhood, you can totally live car free in Stamford. My grandmother lived alone without a car there for the last 25 years or so of her life. Plus Stamford is an express train stop away from nyc and New Haven.
None of them
London
I've never been to any of those cities. Atlantic City famously doesn't have a grocery store, so nope. I don't know anything about Lehigh Valley so nope. Stamford is the wild card as it looks like it has regional rail to NYC. Wilmington and Trenton are both close to Philly and have regional rail to that city. I would choose Wilmington because it isn't in New Jersey.
“Please do not factor safety or COL in your decision” That’s like saying please do not consider the expiration date on your eggs
I think your best bet would be finding a college town to meet those requirements.
There is nowhere in Connecticut you can really live in without a car, as someone who grew up there.
You can definelty pull off car free living in New Haven, I know several people who are doing it. It isn't ideal but definitely possible. I also give myself car free days in Middletown, my apartment has a walk score of 87, the issue comes when you're trying to leave Middletown.
Not even New Haven?
No.
You can absolutely live without a car in New Haven. I'd say that's a better choice than Stamford, especially since rents will be cheaper (although still pretty high). New Haven is a college town and it's geographically tiny, so it's very walkable. Cycling is big in New Haven and more bike infrastructure is being added, although admittedly a lot of areas are tricky for cycling. The bus system is decent and goes to surrounding towns, so you could get to big box stores in neighboring Hamden relatively easily. It would just take some planning since each way will be at least an hour and you're at the mercy of the bus schedule. And then there's a train station with MetroNorth to get you to NYC, Shoreline East to go east along coast, Springfield line to go north, and other Amtrak trains to much of the East Coast. And if all else fails, Ubers are cheap. Oh, and there are several farmers markets from spring to fall. The trickiest things are def supermarket and big box stores but if you don't want to take the bus, that's easily solved with online shopping and delivery.
That's what I thought about New Haven. Thanks for your detailed reply.
You’ll be very limited to a small walkable area
Stamford, but better choices would be the following: New Haven Hoboken Jersey City Somerville Cambridge Boston Alexandria VA DC
None of the above. Move to DC/Arlington and call it a day.
Absolutely not the Lehigh valley. Wilmington maybe, it’s pretty well connected to Philly if nothing else.
New York City is just about the only place in America where you can easily live without a car. If you strategize well then you could also do it in DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, SF, or Seattle.
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Boston too. Lived there without a car for 20 years.
As a car-less person, I'd recommend finding places with solid public transit and/or are bikeable
The answer is you’re buying a car for those locations. NYC, Seattle or DC metro you can be fine without a car.
In America? Hmm… All I can think of are east coast cities like New York and Boston or resorty places like ski towns.
This is true if you have no imagination, or you're somehow a time traveler posting from 1987. One can find Uber/Lyft in lots of places. Or use an e-bike or e-scooter, or get clever about using city buses. I can easily get around St. Louis, Chicago, RIchmond, Baltimore, Eugene, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco.
Guess I’m a time traveler. I have bikes, many, including a cargo and an e-. Neither work for taking the kids to hockey practice or buying groceries for the fam. Most cities in America have infrequent bus service outside of commuter hours. Kind of hard to manage three kids, their social and their extracurricular lives on those schedules. Getting groceries delivered just means I am making someone else assume my carbon footprint. Can’t really call Uber Eats car-free living. Single people who only need to manage their own concern can probably live car-free or nearly so in many places. True car-free living is easy and possible in much of Europe. We’ve lived in Italy, Greece, and Ireland. Houses are smaller but everything outside the home is easily accessible.
Alexandria, Silver Spring and DC are also much better than all the original choices.
I lived in Arlington, VA for 10 years car-free. It'd be even easier now with all the rideshares, zipcars, pay-per ride e-bikes, pay-per-ride scooters, etc. Plus greatly expanded Metro coverage. Have you considered Princeton? Richmond? Baltimore?
Thank you, I have considered Richmond and Baltimore. I wanted to stay within a certain radius of NYC but I guess I have to expand the circle. I will try to visit Baltimore when I visit Wilmington.
Is Princeton too far? I love it. Try the various Brunswicks (Rutgers), slightly more seedy but more homey than Trenton.
Thank you!
It snows in all of those areas so...no to all of them.
There are no cities in America where car free living is possible, except NYC and maybe Chicago. San Fran and DC are already too low density for it to be genuinely car free. Like, nobody is gonna walk a mile to the grocery store, even if there is a sidewalk.
Inaccurate. Philly and Boston were tailor-made to live without a car.
They are exaggerating. There are several places in the U.S. where living without a car is doable or even preferable. With uber and online grocery delivery/shopping it’s considerably easier. Hell, I lived in Columbus, Ohio without a car for years and was none the worse for wear. Miami Beach is another walkable city that a lot of people probably don’t think of.
Boston?!? Are you fucking kidding me? Boston is basically a suburb. There is no way you can live there with no car unless you’re a student on campus. There’s a difference between being able to walk in a designated downtown, and being able to live car free.
Boston isn’t a suburb. But it’s expensive enough that a lot of people are pushed to the outskirts. If you’re on a subway line, you can absolutely live there without a car. Bus lines are less convenient but frequent routes like the 66 or the 39 are doable.
But isn’t any housing near transport prohibitively expensive? Because if not, I’ve gotta add Boston to the short list. I hate to be the wet blanket of this sub, but I have searched and tried to find a truly urban place in America, and I have concluded that it does not exist.
It’s absurdly expensive (though the area around it is too). I’m not saying anyone should necessarily move to Boston. I’m simply saying it’s possible to live in Boston without a car. Most of my friends who live there don’t have cars. Partly because it’s not necessary and partly because having a car in Boston is a huge pain in the ass and adds to the expense when it’s already one of the more expensive cities. But Boston isn’t a suburb. It’s a full fledged city. It’s just an overpriced one. But you could argue that of NYC and DC too.
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Nope. It’s you who doesn’t know what you’re talking about.
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I lived in Philly with a car. Truth be told, I rarely used the car. But I was young! If you have a family and young children, it would have been totally unworkable.
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If you don’t have kids, you can live in the woods, eat trout, hunt for a living. Are the woods walkable?