A third of Estonians already live without a car. Why does a car-free life still seem impossible?

06.08.2026

Most Estonians don't want to give up their cars. And no one is forcing them to.

A much more interesting question is why a car often seems like the only reasonable choice in Estonia, even for those who would happily use the train, bus, or bicycle sometimes.

This is exactly what the Opinion Festival will be looking for an answer to on Friday.

Elise Jalonen, a junior researcher in mobility studies at the University of Tartu, draws attention to a fact that is rarely talked about: a large number of people already live in Estonia whose daily lives are car-free.

"If we take all the young people who are not yet adults, they live a car-free life. Then add to that adults, nearly thirty percent of whom do not even have a driver's license. And the elderly, among whom there are also many who can no longer drive. We already have thirty percent of the Estonian population living a car-free life," says Jalonen.

The question is therefore not just how to get people to give up their cars. It is much more important to ask why it is still so difficult to move around without a car in Estonia.

Architect and urban planner Tõnis Savi – one of the participants in the discussion “On the possibility of a car-free life in Estonia” at the opinion festival – believes that the wrong concept is used from the very beginning when talking about car freedom. “Car freedom does not mean that there are no cars or that they should not be used, but rather it is a question of compulsion,” he says. “Car use generates distances that can only be covered by a car.”

This means that the more shops are concentrated in shopping malls, services in the outskirts of cities, and schools in places that are inaccessible by foot or bike, the more natural it becomes to use a car. Not because people necessarily want to, but because there is no other choice.

This is a question that is being debated today in cities all over the world – from Paris to Melbourne. Are cities built for cars or for people? In Estonia, there is another, much more complex question: how to ensure mobility in sparsely populated rural areas?

Even if the sustainability leader comes by car

Theory becomes real life when people try to get around without a car themselves

Rail Baltic Estonia Sustainability Manager Kärt Mae admits that before the Arvamusfestival, he decided to investigate whether it would be possible to reach Paide by public transport only. “I started looking into whether I could come here to the Arvamusfestival without a car. And then it turned out that I could get to Türin by train and the time between its arrival and the departure of the Paide bus is three minutes. I don’t know if I dare to take that risk,” he observed.

According to Mae, giving up a car does not only depend on whether there is a train or bus. It is the connections between different modes of transport – from train to bus, from bike to train, or from tram to pedestrian – that often determine whether a person can manage without a car or not.

Does public transport have to be profitable?

While cities talk about bike paths and transfers, a completely different question arises in rural areas: how much is society willing to pay to make it possible to do without a car even in smaller places?

Go Group CEO Jüri Etverk believes there are no easy answers. “If you want good public transport, move or have children. Either way, the math works,” he says provocatively, suggesting that population decline is setting inevitable limits on public transport.

At the same time, he emphasizes that the issue is not just about economics, but about social agreement. "If this is so important to society for us, that it shows whether the Estonian state exists or not, whether you can get there by bus, then we have to keep these bus lines alive somehow."

This will be the central dilemma of Friday's discussion: is public transport a service that must pay for itself economically, or part of the state's promise that people can live anywhere in Estonia?

Therefore, the discussion on "The Possibility of a Car-Free Life in Estonia" on Friday will probably not seek an answer to whether cars are good or bad.

The much more important question is whether a person uses a car because they want to or because they have no other choice. And that determines what kind of life is possible in Estonia.

Come listen to the discussion on Friday, August 7, 2026 at 2:00 PM at the Opinion Festival in Paide.

You can find the panel discussion Facebook event here. from here.

You can check out the entire festival program at: https://arvamusfestival.ee/