Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Obviously that mentality won't change overnight, but I do think it's starting to, beginning with the many under 30s who are indifferent to driving and often don't bother getting licenses... as compared to the boomer and gen X era when turning 16 and getting a license was practically a sacred rite of passage.
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Look, I get that in Canada's larger cities, owning a car is actually a pain, with congested roadways, absent parking and no gas stations downtown, and that public transit options such as subways and regional rail make car ownership not entirely necessary, but I think that the 12 million Canadians or so who live in our larger cities forget that the other 99.5% of Canada's land mass is entirely different.
In many places car ownership is a necessity. In most of Canada, including the smaller cities, driving is stress free and enjoyable. This is where I'm from, and this is where I grew up. My paradigm is entirely different from yours.
If I ever chose to live in Toronto in retirement, I would probably choose public transit much more often than not. Anytime I visit Toronto, I routinely take the subway to navigate the city. Even if I owned a car in Toronto, I would probably only use it on the weekends for errands or for adventures in the countryside. This sort of behaviour is specific to the situation though. If I retired in the Okanagan instead, you can be damned sure I would still retain my car, and I would be driving it all through the mountain ranges in order to view and enjoy the spectacular scenery out there. Individual car ownership is not going to go away, and most people would want to retain the option of manual control of their vehicles. It's the freedom of the thing. The ability to be independent and to be the master of your own course in life. I know you may not get this, but it is the truth...…...