People of lemmy, would you live in a rural area? Why or why not?
Grew up in the middle of nowhere. No bus. No shop. No pub. It was hell. Left home for the city at the first opportunity and will never go back. I don’t want to be dependent on a car ever again.
Honestly I feel like I’m going in your direction just want from middle of nowhere Vermont to Florida for college and man its nice not having to pack water and food to bike 30 miles up and down mountains I’m still amazed by my determination as a kid to get anywhere on bike fr I continued doing that even after I got a car
I’m torn between affordable land and going to ideological war with rural neighbors.
That was my thought too. I’m guessing you’re American. Rural Americans are especially bigoted for some reason. I’ve been to rural areas in other countries and they’re not this bad. People openly stare at you in rural America if you’re not white.
Not quite, but it’s very similar. I have an old friend that lived for a couple decades in a VERY progressive, urban area, recently moved closer to me in a smaller town, so I went to see him and, while we are definitely still friends, there were some very dangerous conversation topics covered (carbon climate, EVs which are easy to get me going on). It’s like a conservative brain worm infected him sometime in the past few months, very strange.
Could it be that he was finally exposed to alternative viewpoints after leaving, as you described it, a VERY progressive, urban area?
I wouldn’t call that a brain worm. If anything, he probably made a correction toward center after leaving an area saturated in blue.
Ahhh yes, the most galaxy brain of galaxy brain political ideologies.
Enlightened Centrism.
If you’re rural enough, there are no neighbors.
I would and do. It’s quiet and peaceful, I have forest all around me, no traffic, cost of living is lower.
Rural meaning wilderness, yes.
Rural meaning farming communities, no.
I currently live in a small city surrounded by wilderness. Transit could be better, but there’s tons of culture I can walk to and I can escape to solitude in 15 minutes and it’s divine.
This weekend I’m going to PAX. Last week I saw Japanese Breakfast. Next week I’m seeing John Oliver do standup. Went to a Mariners game last week too. Got Sounders tix coming up, and hockey starts soon.
Rural is nice for a weekend. Urban is where the action is.
Sounds like urban is where the money’s spent 😋
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What does traffic have to do with living in the city? You don’t drive when you live in the city, the traffic is from people in the suburbs coming into the city - you’re already here there’s no reason to drive. 
Traffic has a lot to do with living in the city. I’m about 6 miles away from major destinations downtown. I mostly work remote, but when I go into the office, it’s about 7 miles away in one of the suburbs.
“What about the bus?” you might ask. Well, around here that’s kind of a sick joke. It works OK for commuting – but it turns my 15 minute drive into an hour on the bus with at least one transfer. And what if I’m trying to go to a party that a friend is hosting in the suburbs? In many cases, I’d have to arrange to stay overnight because bus service to that area just stops until morning.
That very much depends on the city. I live in Los Angeles. It’s giant, and most people have to do quite a bit of driving. My personal commute is only 15 minutes by surface streets, but almost everyone I know has to take the freeways. My doctor is 15 miles, and traffic can change that from 20 minutes into an hour and a half.
So much walking, but in a good way. I used to work for the city doing IT work and would walk between most city buildings blocks apart, would put in like 7 miles a day.
The city has too much traffic but you like walking…
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I live in a city (sf) and I’m usually walking or occasionally bus/train. Traffic rarely affects my day-to-day life.
I think that’s the connection they’re pointing out, anyway - colored with my own experience of course.
Even for not drivers traffic is anoying. It’s loud and takes way to much space. I like living in the city, but in the last few years I got realy anti cars. They have nothing to do in cities. If you live in rural areas ofcourse you need one, but the second there is a good public transport grid cars shouldn’t be allowed to drive there.
Oh by no means do I disagree.
I meant- in a practical sense, my travel is not impeded by car traffic.
Just to clarify, I’m from a European country
Nah, I’d rather just live in towns that are well connected to cities (like bus stops going to that city) while also having rural areas not too far from there
In the US these would be suburbs that are shit holes of land management and zoning.
I do and have for most of my life. I lived on an island where my SO and I were the only permanent residents for 8 years.
I have lived in the suburbs of a couple of large towns/small cities for some years too - and in the centre of an all-but-city and although there is some convenience in those, I’d choose rural any day. The peace, proximity to nature and the ease of getting out for enjoyable walks beats convenience every time for me.
I feel like “Would you move to a rural area?” and “Would you live on a private island?” are completely different questions. 😂
A) - it wasn’t private - it was a nature reserve and I was the warden and B) - I kinda intended this in an “…and I EVEN lived on an island…” way.
I live in a town of about 2000 people. It has a grocery, a liquor store, and a hardware store. It’s rural enough. I would never live anywhere I can’t walk to get a bag of chips. Rural sounds good until the power goes out in a snow storm and your lane way is 7 miles long and the plow guy ain’t coming.
If you have a 7 mile driveway, and the plow guy isn’t you, you fucked up.
No, I’ve done it before. It’s awful being dependent on a car to go anywhere, there’s less to do.
Absolutely. The beauty of nature is incredible, and being able to enjoy it is important to me. Not to mention there’s not as many people around to mess things up, make things loud/dirty, or be crowded by.
Give me good public transport and good internet on the country side and I’m all for it.
In a lot of places the internet is there, but realistically the public transport never will be. It would cost so much to provide a service in every rural area that 3 people use that its totally infeasible. I think this is the situation where cars make sense, for people where public transport isn’t a realistic option.
Cars make sense because the public transport hasn’t been built out. Trams could be used without the need to employ drivers until self-driving cars come around.
There’s a lot that can be done if the will were there.
Your mentioning of trams makes me wonder if your thinking the same kind of rural as everyone else like ah yes let’s build a tram track to this one random dudes house nevermind the animals and rocks that would damage them on top of how id probably just be going over already made roads because you can’t really put a track through someone’s field especially when it’s a graseing field and when it comes to mountains and cliffs the road is the only road you can make and at that point why not just let the guy drive a car they guys out there are already rich enough to live in the middle of a forest so they for sure can afford a car that goes wherever the hell they feel like
Where there’s an asphalt road, a tram can be put. Many places have a main road that’s asphalted. Public transport doesn’t mean “Build a stop in front of my house”. If I can walk of bike to the tram, train, or bus station in under 30 minutes, it’s accessible.
Also, in mountains there are gondolas. Trams are able to go up crazy inclinations too. Just go to Switzerland, Portugal, San Fransisco or other places with steep roads that have tramways.
It’s all possible, but the will is lacking.
Totally agree. Plenty of places outside the US that have decent rural public transport.
good public transport
HA! Good one!
Rural public transport: Paved road[1] and two feet!
[1]: Paved road optional
Prior to her posting at Fort Knox, my wife was stationed in Queens, NY. We spent 3.5 long years living in Long Island. We now live in a town of about 3K people, and it’s lovely and rural and I live it.
I grew up in what was a rural area that suburbanized as I got older. Even then, it would still be around 15-20 minutes to get anywhere by car, including the grocery store. There wasn’t much to do that didn’t involve church, so if I wanted to do something like go to the movies it would be about a 30 minute drive with good traffic. Where I’m at now is in the middle of a moderate size city, where I can walk to restaurants and bars, and I can get to several grocery stores or movies or the mall within 10 minutes. I like living in the city better, I don’t want to live far away from stuff anymore.
