Want To Live Car-Free In The Home You Buy? 3 Things To Prioritize Within The Neighborhood
Most homes come with a driveway and garage, which are designed for vehicle storage. But, you may want to go against the norm and live without a vehicle in your household. This is not an easy thing to accomplish, and for some people, it is essentially impossible due to the location of their home. So, when you are ready to become a homeowner, you really have to prioritize certain neighborhood qualities to make it work.
Business Proximity
If you expect to get by through days, weeks, months, and years, you need to have access to just about everything you need within a reasonable distance of walking or biking. There is also public transportation, which includes buses, light rails, trains, street cars, ferries, and even airplanes for long-distance travel. But, the neighborhood that you buy a house in must provide you with decent business proximity. An easy way to figure this out is to use your "Walk Score", which is a number that you will be given when you put in a given address. It gathers the proximity of all nearby businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, parks, shopping, and more, to come up with a score that can help you with your decision-making.
Bike Lanes
Some people like walking while others prefer biking. If you want to cover more distance, you will appreciate what biking is able to accomplish as a 10-mile commute to work is not an unreasonable distance. It is important to prioritize neighborhoods with bike lanes on main streets as you want to be safe. Without them, you will either have to make the decision to ride on the sidewalk or gamble in the street. Both are not ideal, so it is best to avoid the neighborhoods that are just not meant for biking.
Sidewalks
When you are able to walk on sidewalks everywhere you go, you are twice as less likely to be involved in a vehicle crash compared to those who live and walk around in places that do not have any sidewalks. So, you should make it a top priority to live in areas that have sidewalks. Another detail that you should consider is whether the city or neighborhood offers a 50/50 program for sidewalk repairs. These programs have the city handle the repairs and simply bill the homeowner for half the cost. This is greatly beneficial because these areas are more likely to have maintained sidewalks.
When you take these details into consideration while shopping for a home, you should have no problem finding a home inside a neighborhood that makes it easy to live without having to own a vehicle.