@Nrdsb4 Yes, but that’s a very familiar risk. I take it every time I get on my bicycle.
Spaceship was Born to Be Wild.
“@busdriver11: What’s a hacker house?”
@VeryHappy, it’s generally a large house with many bedrooms, with a number of people sharing each room. It appeals to techies who are living in high cost areas, in more of a temporary situation. Very social, plenty going on, but lots of work happening too. Kind of like a dorm/frat for working tech types.
Ahhh. Thanks.
@stugace I think about choppers when I hear that song. Not really my speed. It’s too much power for what I want to do.
@busdriver11 I won’t discount it as an option. It comes down to weighing how much money I want to spend for how much personal space versus how much I want to be able to stay in the city and not have a vehicle and/or a long commute. I can’t say up front what my answer to that is. It might be that the hacker house works just right for me. Might be that I’m happier with a larger apartment outside the city and using BART or a moped/motorcycle.
@spaceship all you are looking at is the cost savings and the ‘cool’ aspects of zipping around on a motorcycle or moped. As a young person, you are totally discounting that anything will happen to you. Listen to the experience on this thread.
A gal called in to Dave Ramsey maybe a year ago - she had maybe $20,000 in medical, was laid up from anything, her motorcycle was wrecked.
It is clear you cannot afford to be laid up and do not want to delay school. Find a way using public transportation and finding housing that works. Use the time to look instead of trying to convince us nay-sayers who agree with grandma.
It’s clear that nothing bad will ever happen to the OP. Please get off his back with your old fogey worries.
@spaceship:
It all depends on how and where you will be riding as well. When you ride a bike, most of the time I would assume that is on city streets, where cars are driving 25, 30 mph, and likely if you are riding a bike there it is going to be safer, because people driving cars have more time to react.The other thing is, with city congestion, it is likely cars may not even be doing the limit…and bike lanes are safer because, they are bike only, so the main fear is an accident with another cyclist. Not to mention that if you get hit and are thrown from a bike, you are not travelling as fast as you would be if hit on a motorcycle, and I can tell you from experience it is a lot easier to recover on a bike fall then one happening on a much heavier motorcycle. The other thing is based on your original post, you were talking riding from San Jose to SF, so you are talking a long distance ride, which increases your risk. If you told me you were going to get a motorcyle to be able to get to a bart station or some such, I would tell you that would be a different story, but riding a motorcycle long distance would be risky.
Here is something else to consider: Who will take care of you should you be severely disabled? If you end up in a wheelchair or needing long term, expensive care, that is a HUGE financial, emotional and physical burden to place on an elderly relative.
If you are going to do it, please take out a life insurance and a long term disability insurance policy. It would be selfish and cruel to not only go against your grandmothers wishes but also make her bear the burden of your foolish choices.
When you add up life insurance, disability and long term care policy costs to the costs of owning a motorcycle or similar, it’s really a LOT cheaper to consider other options–public transit, living close to campus and work, or switching to a U closer to where you live.