I read things like this and scratch my head. The vast majority of people who don't own a car aren't car free because they're making some kind of statement, they don't own one because cars cost a lot of money. It was a total financial decision for me; it was dumb to pay that much money for something that would sit unused for weeks at a time. For what insurance and parking and basic maintenance costs, you can buy a lot of subway tokens, cab rides, and car share/rentals. I imagine if a decent carsharing program didn't exist in Philadelphia I'd probably eventually get a car, but as long as one does I'm quite happy to not fork over a bunch of money for car insurance every month.
