The choices you make every day determine how you live your life. For instance, if you decide to go to college to get a degree, you will likely have more job opportunities than if you choose not to. If you elect to go on a date with someone, that person could end up being your spouse a couple of years down the line.

Your transportation choices can also affect your lifestyle quite a bit. You might not think about that at first, but the more you dissect the transportation methods you choose, the more you’ll see they make a great deal of difference.

Let’s break down five of the reasons why they matter.

You Are Less Likely to Get in a Car Accident if You Don’t Drive

Let’s say you live in a city where there are trains and buses. You might decide not to get a car, and you can take those trains or buses to work instead.

If you do that, there is much less of a chance you’ll get in a car accident. You might decide to use public transportation for that reason alone.

That decision matters. In Kentucky, in 2019, 731 people died in fatal traffic collisions.

Of course, a fatal bus or train collision might occur as well. However, if you’re on a bus or train, you’re probably a lot safer than you’d be in a car. You’re in a much larger conveyance, and if another vehicle collides with a train or bus, the public transit vehicle will probably get the better end of it.

If You Take Public Transportation, It Will Likely Cost Less

These days, many people don’t have as much money as they would like. Maybe you are not getting as many hours at work as you used to, or perhaps you have depleted your savings.

If you buy a car, even if it’s a used one, you’ll probably need to put a significant chunk of money down. You will have your monthly vehicle payments. You must also pay for insurance and maintenance. You’ll need to pay for gas unless it’s an electric vehicle.

If you take public transportation, you don’t need to pay for any of that. It’s more than likely that a bus pass will cost far less than you’d pay to get yourself a car.

You Won’t Have to Get Yourself a License

If you decide you don’t need a car and you can use public transportation instead, that also means you don’t need to get yourself a driver’s license. You still can if you’d like, but some people prefer not to drive.

Not having a driver’s license can be both negative and positive. On the positive side of things, you never have to bother taking driving classes. However, you won’t be able to use your driver’s license as an identification form. You’ll have to use some other document or license if you want to get into a bar or club, buy liquor, etc.

You Might Annoy Your Relatives and Friends

If you don’t have a vehicle, you might irritate your friends or relatives if you continuously ask them for rides to different places. Perhaps you have to pick your kids up after school. You can only do so if you borrow a friend or relative’s car.

They might get sick of that pretty quickly. If there’s always someone around with a car you can borrow, that’s ideal, since you get vehicle ownership perks without any of the costs. In most cases, though, the vehicle’s owner won’t like the idea of lending it to you every couple of days.

You Can Go Where You Want at All Times

If you don’t own a vehicle, it also restricts your movements in other ways. If you have your own car, you might take it to the grocery store or a doctor’s appointment whenever you need to. You can’t easily do that if you don’t have a vehicle sitting in your garage at all hours, ready for action.

You also can’t decide to drive across the country at a moment’s notice. It’s true that most people don’t do that anyway, but if you have your own vehicle, you do have that option if you’re ever feeling restless.

When deciding whether you want your own car, you’ll have to think about things like cost and practicality. There are certainly some valid vehicle ownership reasons, but there are just as many reasons to avoid purchasing one.