How many residents need a car?

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Lothric

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Hey,

How many residents need a car in order to get to the hospital?

This would be a burden for me financially (don't want it to hamper my goal of paying off loans completely during residency) so I'm hoping for low numbers.
 
Lothric said:
Hey,

How many residents need a car in order to get to the hospital?

This would be a burden for me financially (don't want it to hamper my goal of paying off loans completely during residency) so I'm hoping for low numbers.
Click to expand...
It's easy in some cases, hard in others. Outside of NYC and maybe SF, Boston and Chicago, you shouldn't rely on public transit being able to get you where you need to be when you need to be there. So that leaves you with human powered transportation (i.e. your own 2 feet, or a bike). To do this, you need to be able to live close enough to the hospital that this is practical. What that means for you may be different than what it means for me.

FWIW, I biked to residency and fellowship every single day for 6 years, except for the half dozen days I had to walk due to snow and the two months I had off site rotations which were 8 and 15 miles away (where I biked about half the time anyway). I had a car, but didn't want to drive/park if I could avoid it. I prioritized programs that had only 1 location, or if more than one, they were close enough to each other that I could live (safely) close enough to both of them. There are plenty of programs out there that will allow you to do so.
 
Lothric said:
Hey,

How many residents need a car in order to get to the hospital?

This would be a burden for me financially (don't want it to hamper my goal of paying off loans completely during residency) so I'm hoping for low numbers.
Click to expand...

Unless you live somewhere that had extensive public transportation like NYC or Chicago, you will need a car. So what, 95% of all residents in the US?
 
ThoracicGuy said:
Unless you live somewhere that had extensive public transportation like NYC or Chicago, you will need a car. So what, 95% of all residents in the US?
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But what about the other places? Don't residents typically live close to the hospital so that only your legs/a bike is enough? If you account for these groups too, what does the percentage drop down to?
 
Lothric said:
But what about the other places? Don't residents typically live close to the hospital so that only your legs/a bike is enough? If you account for these groups too, what does the percentage drop down to?
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I don't have exact percentages, but I don't think that this is "typical" for residents. Particularly since most large hospital systems are located in major cities, and more and more residents now have families/children (and so want to live in the suburbs). Plus, this isn't accounting for the fact that many programs now send their residents out to multiple satellite sites.
 
Lothric said:
But what about the other places? Don't residents typically live close to the hospital so that only your legs/a bike is enough? If you account for these groups too, what does the percentage drop down to?
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Maybe 90%? Most residents in most places have a car. Surely you can get a beater if you match somewhere that you need to drive... If it means delaying paying off med school loans by a year or so, that's not going to be that big of a burden.
 
ThoracicGuy said:
Surely you can get a beater if you match somewhere that you need to drive... If it means delaying paying off med school loans by a year or so, that's not going to be that big of a burden.
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Agree with this. I'd argue it's a bigger burden to try to figure out how to get to your satellite site for your rotation every day, than just pay for a POS car.

OP, you MAY get lucky and find people who own cars and are willing to carpool with you (of course, providing that you agree to reimburse for some of the gas!). I wouldn't bank on this, though, as you may end up having to wait for them if they finish late, or vice versa.
 
Yeah, for most non-NYC/boston/SF/Chicago locations, public transit is not that reliable. And if you do match in those places, cost of living will likely prevent you from paying down your loans entirely in residency anyways.

It's a worthy goal to be financially responsible and pay down your loans as soon as possible, but don't be so extreme about it that you cannot reliably make it to work on time.
 
Raryn said:
Many programs are at large urban hospitals that are located in less than ideal neighborhoods, so even when you can live right across the street you very well might not want to.
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I remember interviewing for a program, that was not in a great neighborhood.

My mother, however, was rooting for it because, "I noticed those great little townhouses across the street! They looked new. They were so close, you could live there and just walk to the hospital!"

My mother is not, in case you couldn't tell, the most street-smart woman in the world. "Mom, those are housing projects. Low-income housing."

She changed her mind quickly after hearing that. :laugh:
 
When I first moved for residency I lived very close to the hospital and on most days either walked or biked to work. Even so, like others have mentioned I needed a car for months when I was at a satellite site (mostly electives), and when I’ve needed to get to the hospital to clinic - biking not feasible on busy inpatient days. Now that I live a little farther away I’m certainly glad that I have the car we have.

I do not live in a city with reliable transportation.

I’ll be paying off loans well after residency so I say just bite the bullet and make a car payment. Or live in a big city with a solid transit system.

Lothric said:
Hey,

How many residents need a car in order to get to the hospital?

This would be a burden for me financially (don't want it to hamper my goal of paying off loans completely during residency) so I'm hoping for low numbers.
Click to expand...
 
togaedere said:
When I first moved for residency I lived very close to the hospital and on most days either walked or biked to work. Even so, like others have mentioned I needed a car for months when I was at a satellite site (mostly electives), and when I’ve needed to get to the hospital to clinic - biking not feasible on busy inpatient days. Now that I live a little farther away I’m certainly glad that I have the car we have.

I do not live in a city with reliable transportation.

I’ll be paying off loans well after residency so I say just bite the bullet and make a car payment. Or live in a big city with a solid transit system.
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Eh, I mean I don't even like cars. I'll buy one for 2-3 grand (hopefully it'll be enough for my residency-fellowship time).
 
Lothric said:
Eh, I mean I don't even like cars. I'll buy one for 2-3 grand (hopefully it'll be enough for my residency-fellowship time).
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Uber/Lyft? Car2go/ReachNow? There are lots of ways to avoid owning a car or driving these days.

I should also point out that the car I mentioned above was a 20 year old Toyota Corolla that I bought from my brother in law for $400 and sold 3 years later for $350 to the mechanic that wanted $500 to replace the radiator, water pump and fan belt. Total win on my part. That car was as close to free as you can get.
 
It’s not just about the main hospital either - don’t forget about off-site clinics and/or surgery centers (can’t see any specialties where you avoid this.. path?), or other hospitals you might rotate at like the VA.

For 95+%, a car is mandatory.
 
Even if you have reasonable public transportation, you may be coming and going at irregular hours. For me, it wasn't worth the risk of getting mugged (or worse) on the way home late at night, which was a real possibility based on the area around the hospital and the neighborhoods I'd have to go thru via public transit to get home. Plus, the frequency of trains, etc. was less favorable at certain hours as well. Time away from the hospital is precious and I did not want to get up extra early or wait a while after work for a train if driving was faster door-to-door.
 
AdmiralChz said:
It’s not just about the main hospital either - don’t forget about off-site clinics and/or surgery centers (can’t see any specialties where you avoid this.. path?), or other hospitals you might rotate at like the VA.

For 95+%, a car is mandatory.
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It's not just about work either--if you can walk to work, great, but what are you going to do for shopping, entertainment, etc.? Only a handful of the very largest cities are big, and dense, enough that you can walk or take public transportation to a variety of stores, restaurants, museums, concert venues, parks, things like that. In even the toughest residencies, you have an occasional weekend off. What are you going to do with it if you don't have a car?
 
Lothric said:
Play video-games
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sdnbruh
 
Ladholyman said:
Nothing wrong with playing video games when it's pouring rain outside and you feel like staying inside.
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No one's saying that there's anything wrong with video games. My husband plays video games after a long day in clinic, and it helps him unwind.

However, it's not the only thing that he does. We go to the movies, and concerts, and the occasional restaurant. Without a car, though, that's pretty much the only thing that you can do in most cities - stay home and watch TV/play video games. Most people like to occasionally socialize and possibly even date...which makes a car useful, if not necessary.
 
As a resident, 100% needed a car to get to the children's hospital. Smaller city, poor public transit, housing nearby not safe to walk. (The grounds of the hospital were good but get much more than a block out that radius, it was a sketchy neighborhood). The non pediatric residents could live close enough to the University hospital to manage probably but would have severely limited social life...and the majority of them still needed to get to rotations at the children's hospital.

As a fellow in a major metro with great public transit and an embrace of the idea of walkability, I never used my car to get to the hospital. Plus parking was ridiculously expensive.

So the bottom line, is, find programs in NYC, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia or DC and you can likely manage. Anywhere else it's impossible. Even in those cities, depending on where you live and what your call coverage is like (eg covering multiple hospitals during each shift), it might be impossible without a car because of late nights needing to go from place to place (though uber/lyft and cab service have a higher degree of reliability in those cities, even at 4am)
 
BigRedBeta said:
As a resident, 100% needed a car to get to the children's hospital. Smaller city, poor public transit, housing nearby not safe to walk. (The grounds of the hospital were good but get much more than a block out that radius, it was a sketchy neighborhood). The non pediatric residents could live close enough to the University hospital to manage probably but would have severely limited social life...and the majority of them still needed to get to rotations at the children's hospital.

As a fellow in a major metro with great public transit and an embrace of the idea of walkability, I never used my car to get to the hospital. Plus parking was ridiculously expensive.

So the bottom line, is, find programs in NYC, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia or DC and you can likely manage. Anywhere else it's impossible. Even in those cities, depending on where you live and what your call coverage is like (eg covering multiple hospitals during each shift), it might be impossible without a car because of late nights needing to go from place to place (though uber/lyft and cab service have a higher degree of reliability in those cities, even at 4am)
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I live in Sweden and we don't talk about "unsafe neighbourhoods". What does that mean? Like can you get shot out of nowhere? Is that what is meant?
 
Lothric said:
I live in Sweden and we don't talk about "unsafe neighbourhoods". What does that mean? Like can you get shot out of nowhere? Is that what is meant?
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Yes. Or stabbed. Or just mugged. This is certainly not true at every program (maybe not even most), but something tells me you may be in for a major culture-shock if you come to residency in the US.

I'll also add that you're assuming that all your residency rotations will be at the same hospital. I'm at an academic program but we have rotations at 3 hospitals and about 1/3 of our rotations are not at the main academic center (one of the others is a VA, one is where we do some of our outpt rotations). One of the hospitals is only about a 15 minute drive from the academic center, the other is about 45 minutes away. So a car is needed at my program. Will also add my program is in a pretty large metro (2 mil+ in the metro area).
 
Lothric said:
I live in Sweden and we don't talk about "unsafe neighbourhoods". What does that mean? Like can you get shot out of nowhere? Is that what is meant?
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uh...you have loans for medical school?

and as others have said...you are in a bit of a culture shock if you have no idea what is an unsafe neighborhood...many residencies are in urban areas with higher crime rates...living close usually not the safest of options. Otherwise safer places are in the middle of nowhere and there is very little in way of public transport...Americans love their cars and if you plan to live here, you will m/l need a car...buy something cheap.
 
After living in Europe I was 100% ready to ditch my car, unfortunately that’s not really an option in most of the US.

There are a few people in my residency who walk/bike to work. But I’m pretty sure they all have cars for if they have to go to an off-site clinic, grocery shopping, etc. (One is a couple who only have one car between them and that works out fine.) We also often take Ubers to socialise so we don’t have to worry about parking in certain busy areas and/or so that nobody has to be the designated driver. But taking an Uber to work every day would add up fast. The few times I’ve had to get rides to work due to car issues have been a total PITA between finding someone willing to wake up earlier, who lives close enough to me, and who’s on a relatively similar schedule.
 
Lothric said:
lol and pull in 90k/year pretax as a specialist? No thanks! 🙂
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But you will also have to pay malpractice, health insurance, day care. Safe housing will be more than what you get in Sweden. Depending on your metro area additional costs for children's education. Add the cost of retirement income, college costs, travel home. Sweden tends to top US in all quality of life studies, and you may feel that.
 
I got to this late and did not read all the input but...
All the residencies at our medical center in a mid-sized Midwestern city REQUIRE a car as a condition of employment.
 
Lothric said:
I live in Sweden and we don't talk about "unsafe neighbourhoods". What does that mean? Like can you get shot out of nowhere? Is that what is meant?
Click to expand...

Other's have hit on it, but more likely mugged/robbed than anything else, and of course, unfortunately, women are at higher risk of sexual assaults as well.
As with anything, it's all relative risk and we all have to manage that risk in various ways. You live in Area A where the crime rate is higher than that in Area B and you're more likely to be exposed to/victimized in a crime. Doesn't mean that it is inevitable, but if you want to mitigate the risk, you choose to live in Area B instead.
 
smq123 said:
I remember interviewing for a program, that was not in a great neighborhood.

My mother, however, was rooting for it because, "I noticed those great little townhouses across the street! They looked new. They were so close, you could live there and just walk to the hospital!"

My mother is not, in case you couldn't tell, the most street-smart woman in the world. "Mom, those are housing projects. Low-income housing."

She changed her mind quickly after hearing that. :laugh:
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I had a co-resident who got completely screwed by a landlord intern year. She reserved an apartment, and was told that "it wasn't ready yet" when she arrived to start the year, so the landlord put her and her bf up in another "nearby" building that was brand new. Of course the construction of the place was shoddy as hell, she was the only non-section 8 tenant in the building, and her boyfriend's car that was parked in the building's lot got the wheels stolen off of it the first week he moved in with her.

Though at the same time I've seen some residents who live in some serious WTF neighborhoods. My chief resident/attending during one of my IM months lived near the hospital on a corner where you almost never don't see people openly selling drugs on the streetcorner, and yet she still walked to work every day for 4 years.
 
I think I just read a thread where the OP ask if it’s possible to make 500k+ in Manhattan working in either IM/pulm-crit/heme-onc

So, i don’t think you really I understand the US system. And I would say 100% need a car. All my friends in NYC, Chicago, and San Fran needed a car. They were in GI, IM and cards.
 
Kakoy said:
I think I just read a thread where the OP ask if it’s possible to make 500k+ in Manhattan working in either IM/pulm-crit/heme-onc

So, i don’t think you really I understand the US system. And I would say 100% need a car. All my friends in NYC, Chicago, and San Fran needed a car. They were in GI, IM and cards.
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Manhattan is probably the only place in the country you can get away without a car more often than not.
 
Ironspy said:
This is correct but you're also not saving tons of money by living in NYC even without a car.
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Of course not. You're paying a freaking fortune in that scenario. I'm just saying that it is one of the few places out there with a transportation infrastructure which is robust enough that you absolutely don't need a car. One of the previous posters indicated that you would, and that simply isn't true.
 
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