Is that true? I live in Ballard, a pretty damn residential neighborhood of Seattle, which is only a medium-density city. I live perfectly comfortably without a car. I have heard of people living comfortably without a car in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and I'm sure others that I'm forgetting.
I even did so myself in Tucson for a year, though I'll grant that that was pretty annoying.
I'm guessing you don't have kids and do work in downtown Seattle? And rarely visit Lake City or West Seattle or anywhere south of Seattle? Or anywhere requiring a transfer outside of commuting hours?
Because those are all significantly (hours more) to take mass transit than to drive.
I live near Lake City - getting to Ballard is not under an hour by mass transit - it's something like 20 minutes by car. Very frustrating! I hope the new light rail will create more E-W bus routes.
Where do you live that Ballard is an hour away from Lake City? I live at 125th/Lake City Way and the 41 to the 40 at Northgate is 40 minutes. If you really want to take an hour, you could get on the 65 and ride where it turns into the 32 to go to south Ballard via Fremont. Though I do agree, I really hope the station gets properly built at 130th so that hours from the 41 (and maybe even 522) can be diverted to a bus that goes from Fred Meyer west to connect to RapidRide D.
Down by 85th. The connections towards Ballard are either at 125th or 65th. There might be a sweet linkage of routes that Google or my wife hasn't found though. :-/
Not the op - but I do have a kid and don't have a car in Wallingford (Seattle) and it's very pleasant. But I don't travel beyond one transfer, and rarely that. And I do use car2go, or hertz, or my bike, if such travel is required.
As a Pittsburgher, I know some people who live here without cars but I wouldn't describe it as comfortably.
There are a few decent neighborhoods where one could make due without an automobile but they're pretty expensive (by Pittsburgh standards) to live in. Shadyside and Oakland are two such places. There are a few Hipster enclaves where a fair number of people do it but they're not very common. Outside of neighborhoods like these and especially outside of The City proper, it's a nightmare to try getting around without a car.
I've lived car-free in Chicago for 4 years. The only thing it'd be nice (for me, a child-free 20 something) would be to visit Michigan, which I just take Amtrak.
Instacart does my groceries and it's only about an hour or so going from the North side to the West side on the "L". Pretty great.
I even did so myself in Tucson for a year, though I'll grant that that was pretty annoying.