Driving a car in the Concrete Jungle can be a quite fulfilling experience for most of us. Especially in a city where we have access to lots of movie theaters, restaurants, schools, and other places of satisfaction. A couple of weeks after my 20th birthday, I bought my first car which wasn’t all that great, but it was convenient enough to get me from point A to point B and back. It was a 2006 Kia Rio, or as they call them back in my day, a “hooptie”. However, as much as I enjoyed driving myself around the city every day, whether, in the A/C or Heat, I didn’t enjoy the fact that my finances were plummeting. Hence, I sold my car. With that being said, I will convey the most pivotal reasons that drove me to reach this decision.

1. Constantly Refilling Gas

Now, this may be the norm to many New Yorkers, but it was a bit much for me to keep up with. Being that I live in one of the five boroughs that operate via subway, having a metro card was a must for me. I would pay for not only gas every other day, but spend another fortune every week for unlimited Metrocards. As a result, the gas had to go, and the MetroCard bills stayed.

2. Repairs, Oil Changes & Mechanics

For those of you who have been driving a long time, you might know that taking care of a car is much like taking care of a baby--you have to accommodate to the days where your car cries. Except when your car cries, a light on the dashboard will most likely appear. This means constant oil changes, frequent visits to the mechanic, buying new tires often, and fixing other parts of the car as well. I mean, I remember this instance where my brake light was on once, and after getting it fixed, an engine light appeared the following week.

3. Parking Tickets, Meters, Toll Bills, Tunnels & Bridges

The beautiful thing about driving in New York City is that it is very easy to commute from one place to another--with a cost! Granted, if I revealed to you the total amount I was charged for parking tickets, you’d go nuts! This was the petty nuances most New Yorkers may understand, such as, being an inch too close to the fire hydrant, or not feeding the meter when it had only expired 50 seconds ago. I remember receiving many toll bills for not having the accurate amount of cash on me, and forgetting that the Tunnel and Bridge workers do not have Chase ATM machines on sight. All in all, the high volume of tickets and other driving expenses were accumulating. Not to say that I am a person who hated spending money on my car, rather, that the demand of finances for my car were becoming extremely difficult for me to keep up with.

4. Traffic! Traffic! Traffic! (And those taxi drivers, oh boy!)

Many people, whether from the tri-state area or not, will complain about the heavy duty, non-stop traffic that goes through New York City every single day. When I had my car, I would set my alarm an hour earlier than my normal wake-up time, just so I could hit the road and avoid all the commercial trucks cornering me on the I- 278. However, that was no more annoying than the daily competition of who will merge into the BQE highway lane first--only to find out that everyone eventually merged. My worst experience was getting stuck in a traffic jam at the FDR Drive, where I was melting under the hot sun, in the same spot for two whole hours. It was that moment when I realized that I needed a break from all the road drama.

I do not mean to discourage any one of you from experiencing the thrill of driving in the New York region. By all means, this is one of those experiences that every young adult should encounter. I am merely reminiscing my own experiences with driving in the city, and highlighting why I prefer taking the subway instead. Don’t get me wrong, there are many troublesome factors about the New York City buses and trains as well that I’m sure most New Yorkers are aware of, but for right now, I’ll stick with the MTA until I’m ready to jump back into the driving game again.