Going car-free (ownership at least) isn’t difficult, it’s just inconvenient and would require changes to peoples lives that they don’t want to do. Simple as that really.

It’s a lot easier if you start from scratch though. Live near to sustainable transport links, don’t commute too far etc.

Its very easy to be car free in the Netherlands. We were. Totally impossible here for us in the UK to do the same living a very similar life.

Incidentally my wife (dutch) is on a business trip back to Holland right now and when she got there her boss (english) hired a car to get to the office and she hired a bike….different mindset.

Even in cities, transport is only good for some things

I live in North London, on the edge. Transport is amazing going in and out of Central London. If you want to travel east or west a few miles you need buses

Buses are great when you’re stopping on a particular route, but if you’re not then changing buses is a PITA

We’re going down to 1 car very soon as we don’t need 2. I ride most places locally, plus I have a motorbike. Car is needed for day to day stuff like seeing family, stuff with the kids etc.

To be fair if we didn’t have a car we probably wouldn’t do a lot of that stuff, and change what we do. But having no car at all would be a real pain.

(I personally don’t really like buses, but I can cycle to most places so I’m generally fine)

We live in central Bristol. The public transport is barely adequate and a car-only mindset would be a recipe for frustration here (limited parking, massive traffic queues), but we walk and cycle a lot and are therefore fine.

A taste for travel and visiting family means that we still need a vehicle of some sort. I can’t imagine how it would be economic or practical to get a family of four to relatives in the countryside without one – although it can of course be done.

We’ve had just one car until recently, but the arrival of a campervan means I’ve taken on my parents’ 12-year-old Clio as a 2nd runabout. I’d like to just use the van, but my wife would far rather drive a 3.7m-long car around town than a 5m van.

Intresting programme on R4 about the sharing economy and the preparations car manufacturers are making for the decline of private car ownership.