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What sets me apart in the US? I’m car-free by choice | Arwa Mahdawi

I get tons of incidental exercise, save money and don’t have to worry about parking. But other people look at me aghast

My wife and I tick a lot of “minority” boxes: we’re a same-sex Jewish-Palestinian couple with an ethnically ambiguous child. But you know what really makes us stand out? You know what always seems to cause people to look aghast at our lifestyle? The fact that we don’t own a car.

Being car-free was nothing unusual when we lived in New York, an outlier in the US when it comes to vehicle ownership. But when we moved to Philadelphia (one of the most walkable cities in the US), it set us apart. Whenever our lack of a car comes up, people do a double take. You can almost see the wheels turning in their head. Are they financially destitute? Are they radical environmental activists? Are they just weird?

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