Open Street Map for Android: OsmAnd

[whatthefunk]

Omg I don't feel so out of place! I don't own or drive, either. Google does have public transport down pat here in Savannah, too, now that the city took back operating the buses and provides better route data.

Other maps/nav options are always welcome.

Sent from my Droid DNA using Tapatalk, like that really matters

Me too. Havent had a car in over ten years. My local public transport company makes its own app for smartphones with a huge amount of info so thankfully I dont need google for that.

[Qqmike]

What I find interesting is that 3 of you have said you don't drive or own a car? How can you do that? How do you shop for food and necessities? or how do you get to doctor/dentist appointments? or how do you take a drive to a nearby city for pleasure on a weekend? I'm serious here. Fact is, I like driving, just as my dad did who drove to job sites every day as an architect. I would feel lost if I couldn't drive (as I did recently for 2 weeks after an eye operation). But maybe I'm jealous. I think ... wouldn't it be nice to be free of the mental "need" that you HAVE to drive? Not to speak of the expense, hassles, and risk to health. The idea is fascinating. I'm genuinely curious about this ... since you have mentioned it.

[Buddlespit]

I've tried all of the other mapping/routing software on my android, and I'll have to say that Google Maps does the job I need it to. It updates the maps very quickly to highlight traffic, construction and new roads. It even shows me a picture of the house I'm looking for (I'm a refrigerator tech for Sears). Plus it remembers all of the addresses I put in it. So if I have to return to install a part, the house number will usually pull up the entire address. I can cache an entire city, so I can still use it if data (4g) is weak or down.

[whatthefunk]

What I find interesting is that 3 of you have said you don't drive or own a car? How can you do that? How do you shop for food and necessities? or how do you get to doctor/dentist appointments? or how do you take a drive to a nearby city for pleasure on a weekend? I'm serious here. Fact is, I like driving, just as my dad did who drove to job sites every day as an architect. I would feel lost if I couldn't drive (as I did recently for 2 weeks after an eye operation). But maybe I'm jealous. I think ... wouldn't it be nice to be free of the mental "need" that you HAVE to drive? Not to speak of the expense, hassles, and risk to health. The idea is fascinating. I'm genuinely curious about this ... since you have mentioned it.

I ride my bike and use public transport. I ride my bike to work every day, rain or shine. Per week, it turns out to be about 75 miles so thats also my exercise. No more going to the gym or boring exercise machines for me For shopping, I have an ancient bike with a basket on the front. Theres a supermarket not far from me so I ride down there once a week for a main haul and then go to a smaller supermarket down the road for other things. For other shopping (clothes etc) I use public transportation. Doctor/dentists etc....I either ride my bike or use public transportation.

Weekend getaways are an issue. I can take public transport to a lot of places, but certainly not everywhere. For this, you can rent a car. Renting a car for a day costs something like $20 - $30...renting a car once every couple months is nothing compared to the massive amount that car owners spend per year.

Which brings us to cost. Buying a car, putting gas in it, maintaining it, and paying for insurance is a major drain on your budget. I have two bikes...a nice one that I ride to work and an old junker for general getting around and shopping. The nice one was expensive (about $1,000), but the old one I bought for $50. Once bought, they cost next to nothing. I do all my own maintenance so I only have to buy new parts, which doesnt cost much. New tires, chains ext cost a bit, but nothing compared to the cost of a car. Plus, my work reimburses employees for transportation costs. If I didnt ride my bike, I would cost my company about $100 a month. My boss really likes that I dont spend this and so has agreed to give me half ($50 a month) for riding my bike. So I actually make an extra $600 a year by riding my bike

[oshunluvr]

Oh look: I've found a pic of whatthefunk:

http://www.yalerecord.com/gab_galler...michael-palin/

[Feathers McGraw]

Lol!

[Qqmike]

whatthefunk, well, it mostly makes sense to me. I can relate to the exercise benefits. I don't get 75 mi/wk, but I do get 30-45 min/day brisk walking--rain, shine, snow, and reasonable wind (not good on the eyes, and large goggles look a little funny for a walk-er, but some of the old people here do just that). Car ownership is a hassle, including registration renewal, pollution control inspections, insurance,operating expenses and all ownership expenses. (Here, we are paying for and testing our Hondas and Toyotas for pollution control when the Chinese are burying us in smog, now they think all the way over to our West coast.) Depends on the assumptions one makes, but it is not difficult to postulate a typical usage model that results in TOTAL costs of $250 USD/month (and that assumes you buy an average, lower-priced car around $20,000 USD). I ran my new 1991 Corolla into the ground for 18 years, then bought a new Honda Civic ("value package" for $16,500), so by American standards, MY car-ownership costs are lower than average. The US gov't now, I believe, allows something like 50 or 60 cents per mile driven, for business expense write-off; but whatever the exact number is, that high number tells you something about what it costs nowadays to drive. When it was 30 cents/mi, I made some money driving that Corolla. Average American use now is 18,000 mi/yr (it used to be 15,000 mi/yr). What I have done lately is to greatly reduce my driving, by choice, walking within a mile to nearby stores, the post office, and places I have to go. Maybe I'll learn to ride our buses here.

[oshunluvr]

I've often told my kids that car ownership is the single largest expense of a lifetime. Some people argue that home ownership is, but I've made $100,000s of dollars selling homes, but never a car. Insurance, parking, tyres, oil service, gas, washes, roadside assistance = and all that if nothing goes wrong! Unfortunately for me, at the moment I live in Southern California. Driving is not only required, it's expected. For a little while, I lived in downtown San Diego where at least I only had to drive to work. This year, we're moving to the North Carolina coast and a car is needed there too. Oh well, maybe I'll still have a chance to retire to Paris and leave the cars behind.

[richb]

Cigars are my biggest expense.

[Feathers McGraw]

Cigars are my biggest expense.

Lol. At the moment, mine is probably gin... unless my girlfriend counts?

[SteveRiley]

Lol. At the moment, mine is probably gin...

Ah, a man after my own liver, I see.

[SteveRiley]

What I find interesting is that 3 of you have said you don't drive or own a car? How can you do that? How do you shop for food and necessities? or how do you get to doctor/dentist appointments? or how do you take a drive to a nearby city for pleasure on a weekend? I'm serious here. Fact is, I like driving, just as my dad did who drove to job sites every day as an architect. I would feel lost if I couldn't drive (as I did recently for 2 weeks after an eye operation). But maybe I'm jealous. I think ... wouldn't it be nice to be free of the mental "need" that you HAVE to drive? Not to speak of the expense, hassles, and risk to health. The idea is fascinating. I'm genuinely curious about this ... since you have mentioned it.

When my wife and I bought our first house in 1995, we each had a car. The house was two miles from my office. Because parking the car was a pain, I got into the habit of riding my bike or the bus. A couple years later I sold my car (1985 Mustang GT convertible, roar) and we managed with one car. The three years we lived in Denver were the same: me mostly on my bike or the bus, while only occasionally driving. I hate to drive -- the sustained concentration annoys me. Moving yet again to Seattle made it even less of a hassle to continue living with only one car and me not doing any driving, as the public transport here is pretty good. Eventually in 2007 I turned in my driver license and removed myself from our insurance policy. I don't miss being behind the wheel at all.

So we still have one car, which my wife drives exclusively. That's how we take care of the shopping and such, and also for ferrying the family around. I use Metro for everything that I need to get to on my own, including rehearsals, concerts, doctor, office, whatever. The freedom of getting off the bus near $LOCATION and not having to hassle with parking is wonderful. Yes, total transport time might be longer, but I get a fair amount of reading done and music listened to. Overall, I think it's more personally productive than parking my ass in the left chair and doing nothing else with my brain. Our son, now 17, has showed little interest in driving (yay) because he, too, putters about town on Metro.

[Qqmike]

@whatthefunk, yes, renting a car as needed makes sense to me. As my 1991 Corolla became more unreliable, I stretched its useful life by keeping it in town and renting a car if we went out of town for a day trip or weekend. In fact, I rented from a local Toyota dealer, new Toyotas, about $26/day at the time, unlimited mileage. Pay the tab, walk away, what a deal.

@S-R, I have noticed sometimes--more 'often' than seldom--that driving can make one crazy, crazy in a not-so-good way. It can really upset your harmony and balance and productivity for the day. It's a hectic, competitive, fast-paced, and sometimes dangerous activity to sit behind that wheel for much longer than 5-10 minutes at a time. Time: It takes me about 10-12 minutes to drive to and from the local Post Office. I can walk there and back in about 18 minutes, peacefully, with no hassle. The PO parking lot and turn-in is one of the more dangerous areas in this part of town, 50 cars competing for 30 spaces.

[whatthefunk]

@S-R, I have noticed sometimes--more 'often' than seldom--that driving can make one crazy, crazy in a not-so-good way. It can really upset your harmony and balance and productivity for the day. It's a hectic, competitive, fast-paced, and sometimes dangerous activity to sit behind that wheel for much longer than 5-10 minutes at a time. Time: It takes me about 10-12 minutes to drive to and from the local Post Office. I can walk there and back in about 18 minutes, peacefully, with no hassle. The PO parking lot and turn-in is one of the more dangerous areas in this part of town, 50 cars competing for 30 spaces.

Yep same here. Usually, riding my bike is actually faster than driving or taking public transport. Driving downtown would take about 15 minutes, but then you have to drive around looking for a parking spot for 10 minutes and usually pay a couple bucks an hour. I can ride my bike there in 20 min and park in the bike parking lot which always has open spots and only costs $1 a day. Driving to work in the morning would take forever because of traffic, which I cruise past in the bike lane.

Also, riding my bike is excellent stress relief. After a bad day of work, a half hour of peddling kills all stress and I feel good by the time I get home. Sitting in traffic after a day of work just makes it worse.

[richb]

Another viewpoint, driving in the country on a beautiful sunny day can be very relaxing. The open road, the top down, wind in your hair, well not mine.