The Amish & Cars (6 Surprising Facts)

Here’s a look at six surprising facts about the Amish and cars. Contrary to some belief, the Amish do make use of cars – just not as drivers.

They are often passengers in cars, may hire non-Amish to drive them, and in some cases even own their own vehicles (e.g., for work purposes).

This article answers questions including:

• What is an “Amish taxi“?
• Do the Amish ever own or drive cars?
• How do the most conservative Amish travel?
• Why do Amish use the horse-and-buggy?
• What about Uber?

Although we associate them with simpler modes of travel, many Amish depend heavily on car transport. Read on, or check out the video above, for more on the role that motor vehicles play in the lives of the Amish.

1. Can Amish ride in cars?

So the question is, can Amish ride in cars? So the answer for most Amish is “yes”. Amish do ride in cars. That can be, for example, hiring an Amish taxi, which is basically just a non-Amish driver with a vehicle.

Often, they make a living driving the Amish places, driving them to the store, errands, when they need to go somewhere further than it’s convenient for a horse-and-buggy trip.

Maybe someone needs to go to the doctor, Costco, or Walmart in the neighboring town and do a big sort of grocery run for your family, which is something that Amish ladies will get together and do fairly regularly.

Amish even hire drivers to take them to other Amish communities, sometimes many miles away, sometimes out of state.

With all the different Amish communities out there, they often have relatives or friends or family or sometimes the youth travel. Your brother may have moved from Pennsylvania to Indiana, or someone’s getting married in Wisconsin, and so that’s pretty common.

Drawbacks to the Amish taxi

When you’re hiring an Amish taxi, it’s pretty expensive.

And it’s not always that convenient. Usually, you have to book the taxi driver in advance, unless you have a regular arrangement. Sometimes you can’t find a taxi driver that easily. So these are all discouraging factors preventing “overusing” Amish taxi services.

Given the above, they’ll also accept rides from friends. I often drive my Amish friends places.

2. Amish don’t drive – but some own vehicles now

You know, they don’t generally don’t own cars, although some Amish business people are now owning their work vehicles – even though they don’t personally drive them.

An Amish contractor owning a work truck is a good example of that. So that’s not, widespread, but that’s something that more Amish are doing now.

Why do Amish object to driving cars?

The Amish use the horse-and-buggy, and reject car-driving, for several different reasons.

1. Driving would weaken the community

The car was seen as something very modern when it came in. The car makes travel easier. It makes it easier to leave your community, to leave your family, to go to more distant places – and in turn, you become less tied to or dependent on the community.

This is one perceived drawback of car ownership and use. For the Amish, the community and the family and the church are very important things. It’s the basis of their society.

It should be noted that they don’t think technology is “evil”. They don’t think cars are evil. They feel cars are useful. They also don’t “look down” on non-Amish people for having cars. It’s just a different lifestyle. It’s a different set of choices on how to live and the outcome that you want to get from those choices.

2. The car represents “the world”

The Amish are known for the horse and buggy. That’s kind of the primary, form of transportation, even though in some communities, some Amish only use the horse and buggy maybe on Sundays going to church.

That’s the case in some larger settlements, some more business oriented settlements, some of the more progressive settlements.

The car is modern. It’s fast. It’s high-tech. It’s represents progress.

3. The horse-and-buggy is a core part of Amish identity

The car and the buggy are also both quite symbolic. The buggy is in some ways symbolic of a more methodical, thoughtful form of transportation.

Amish have specific styles of buggies that are connected with certain communities. The buggy has a lot to do with their identity.

It’s one core way that they distinguish themselves from modernity and the fast-paced world which is often incongruous with their values.

3. In very rare cases, Amish have permitted driving vehicles

There’s at least one community I’m aware of that permits members of the church to drive cars for work purposes. There’s a community in Kansas that fits that bill. They don’t own the cars, and they don’t drive them for personal purposes.

But for example, a work truck, if an Amishman has a job in that particular quite small settlement, he could be permitted to drive that and use that for traveling to the job, hauling tools, etc.

And there have been some past examples of that in the Arthur, Illinois community, starting in the 1950s, where some Amish men began getting driver’s licenses for the purpose of driving for work. But that’s basically died out there.

4. Conservative Amish who don’t hire drivers must use other transport

As it tends to be the case with the Amish, there are often exceptions. The plainest of the Amish, for example, the Swartzentruber Amish, do not hire Amish taxis.

They’re willing to hire cars or ride in cars only in emergency situations. That’s one group that is very resistant to change.

As for those Amish who don’t ride in cars and that aren’t able to hire an Amish taxi, say, to visit another community in another state – how do they get around?

Many will take a train if possible, or a Greyhound bus. So if you see Amish in a Greyhound station, those are often the most traditional Amish. Not always the case, but it often is.

For example, some years back, a reporter did an interview with an Amishman that was waiting in an Amtrak station in Alabama. The man was living in North Carolina and was traveling to his original home community in Mississippi.

5. Some Amish youth will own and drive cars

Some Amish youth will get cars. When you choose to be baptized is when you’re officially a member of the church, and you don’t have to be baptized.

For a lot of the youth, in the period called Rumspringa, when they’re in their teens and early twenties, they’re not members of the church yet.

They choose when and if they want to be baptized, so many live in a kind of in-between state for some time. Old enough to drive, technically adults, but not fully under the strictures of the Amish church yet.

So they have greater latitude. For some, if they want to use more technology, or dress in a non-Amish way, get a non-Amish haircut, use a smartphone, and so on, it’s possible to do that.

And some of them will get driver’s licenses and will have their own cars. You can sometimes see cars parked behind Amish barns. Sometimes in some Amish families, their sons are something like their de facto drivers, when they’re in that period of time before they join church.

Not all Amish would be okay with their children doing that. Rumspringa for that matter is usually not as wild and crazy as it’s frequently portrayed in the media. There are some Amish that do maybe fit the bill, of the wild behavior. They’re not all necessarily angels in that period.

But if they’re living at home with their parents, which most Amish youth do when they’re in that period, then there’s also house rules they have to respect – like in any home.

So it’s not a free-for-all in that sense. But in the more progressive communities especially, it’s not unheard of or even that uncommon for Amish youth to drive.

6. Some Amish are using Uber now

Finally, I am aware of some Amish using Uber. So how did that happen? Well, simply put, just like any other people use Uber. Some Amish have smartphones and use them to use Uber.

And Amish approach this in different ways. It’s a gray area in some places. And it’s forbidden in other places.

For instance, I spoke with one Pennsylvania Amishman who uses Uber. And he sounded pretty excited about it. He was like, “oh, it’s it’s so easy.”

Uber is a pretty handy solution, and and he felt so too. And if you think about it, Uber’s a pretty good solution for those Amish who are okay with hiring Amish taxis. So there is some Uber usage among the Amish.

For more, see:

• 5 Surprising Modern Conveniences Amish Use
• The Amish Buggy (All About Plain Transportation)
• 5 Reasons Why Gas Prices Affect Amish Too
• 10 “Exceptions” To Amish Rules

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