Depending on the city you're in, there might be shared-ride taxi programs, busses, or shuttles. However, if your vision is good enough that you could get a vision waiver, but you're just uncomfortable driving a car, you could also consider a bicycle. When I was a kid, I went to a summer school program for the blind and they had all us kids on these big tricycle things, which were actually pretty fun and easy to ride around on. However, that might not work so well in winter or inclement weather. The upside is you don't have to worry about a license, just what the route is like for cyclists.


Otherwise, if taking a bus, tram/subway/monorail or other big-city transit option isn't available, the only options I can think of are getting rides from people you know by carpooling, paying them, etc.

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Best of luck, OP.

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I live in a metro area (St Louis) and completely stopped driving about 1.5 years ago since my vision is getting worse. For my purposes, I found Uber/Lyft to actually work out to be less than half on what I was paying on my car note and insurance.

Try it for a week or two. Lyft is competing hard with Uber and will throw 25%-50% coupons at you all the time if you maintain a 5 star passenger rating.

Also, I'm on Lyft's subscription plan. It basically works out to $300 a month for $450 worth of rides (depending on a few factors).

I have actually been pleasantly surprised on how easy the transition has been. I do have to plan my trips a little better in order to maintain efficiency, but it's not too hard once you get the hang of it.

I do miss some of the freedom but all in all, it's really not as hard and expensive as I thought it would be.

Uber/Lyft for me. Busses when I got time to kill.

I was born legally blind and my vision further decreased over the years, hence driving a car or even a motorbike was never an option for me. I remember as a I wanted to get a license for a small motorcycle really, really badly but it simply was not possible. That was very painful.

Fortunately, I am from Switzerland where we have perhaps the best public transport system in the world. Especially trains are extremely popular in my country and even the tiniest mountain village has its own little train station and good connections to the nearby villages and larger towns. On top of that there is a very dense network of busses and trams (mostly within cities), post cars (between villages), publicly operated ships on the lakes and funiculars in the mountains. Because the country is relatively small and the public transport system is so good, it is very common for Swiss people to live in one city but work in another one. Or live in the countryside but work in the city. For example I live in a different city than the one where my university is located and I commute whenever I need to go there. The bus stop is a 5-minute walk from my apartment away. From there it takes me 8 minutes to the city main station. Depending on the train connection I choose, it takes me between 20-25 minutes to the other city. There I get off the train and walk another 5 minutes to the tram stop. The tram ride takes about 10 minutes. When I get off the tram, I'm standing pretty much right in front of my university. It's very convenient, also for me as a blind person.

There were times in my early 20s when I was incredibly frustrated about the fact that everyone around me was allowed to drive a car while I was excluded from this fun activity. However, I don't feel that way anymore. The truth is that owning a car in this country is rather useless because there is no single location, no matter how remote, that I wouldn't be able to reach by public transport. In fact, I am now married and my wife has never bothered to get a driver's license despite being fully sighted. Not owning a car has become kind of a trend among millennials in Switzerland; it's now almost considered cool to use public transport. I'm very happy about that because it means the government continues to fund our public transport system well. Contrary to the US, public transport is not something exclusively used by poor people in Switzerland. Everyone travels by bus, tram and train here. Even our Federal Councils (equivalent to the President in the US) use public transport to go to work (I once sat nearby one of them on the train to Bern).

I must say that living in the US would be extremely difficult for me already for this one reason. Sure some cities have good subway and bus systems but still, there are so many places you can't go as a blind person. Or you just have to pay yourself to death by using taxis all the time. It feels quite discriminating to me to be honest. I know it's not intended to be discriminating against blind folks but that is the effect. It makes me sad to think that Woody Guthrie sang "this land is for you and me" but if you're a blind person in, say, Wyoming or Montana, you're just screwed. You have to depend on the kindness of other people to drive you around and that really sucks. At least I know I would really hate that.

Where are you moving if you feel comfortable sharing?

Since I live near a major city, and I’m able to get free public transportation, I take city buses, or the metro. I also take Uber if I am in a hurry or if I’m lost and I don’t know where I am.

Uber and spouse, mostly. My city turned me down for assisted transport because they feel like I can ride the bus with my cane. I'd have to cross an insane four lane road with no cross walk, so, nope.

the bus

the taxi occasionally

my mom driving me sometimes

I personally like my longboard