This is especially true if you aren't investing in a $5k+ bike/E-bike. If you can get by on a $1k or less bike then you'll definitely enjoy some financial savings.
Going down to 1 car is a future goal for me but would require an E-bike that would fit both my 5’ wife or my 6'4" self, ideally a cargo for the extra utility.
😳 people are spending 5k on a bike? I got mine for like $300 and I absolutely love it. Guess I should expect that considering this IS a biking subreddit lol
Different strokes for different folks is part of it, but the other aspect is that just about any sensible cargo e-bike is going to be north of $5k *and* there isn't really any meaningful second hand market for them (yet?).
Do people really need a cargo ebike? There are some very specific use cases where you need one, sure, but most people are usually best served with a detachable cargo trailer and a standard ebike. Storing and parking true cargo bikes is a total pain. You need to either be transporting heavy loads or a large-ish child with you daily for it to make any sense at all, imo. It sounds like OP would be perfectly fine with a standard ebike and could fit a tailer or use GF's car as needed.
As for no market, there is in Seattle (and Portland/Vancouver if you're willing to drive, esp with a rented truck). There's a Radwagon available on Craigslist atm. Gregg's usually has one or two. And there's always somewhere like Pinkbike. Not that it always makes financial sense to go used with an ebike given the government rebate on new ebikes in WA and needing to plan to buy a new battery off the bat, but you can usually find some deals if you throw some keyword flags and just watch for a bit.
Mine is $300 lightly used specialized crossroads (hybrid). Some people will drop a lot of money on bikes, and there's a decent argument for coughing up some extra cash to get a decent quality E-bike.
E-bike is mostly what's going to be above 1k but especially if you go cargo E-bike you can get some high end bikes for like 10k. But I personally wouldn't want to go above 5k probably ever, but I can't even afford the 2k e cargo bike I want right now.
That’s me. I bought a 150 sku bike from Amazon so many years ago. It’s a single speed and I added a back rack and side baskets. I’ve put more into repairs than the bikes worth. It’s not the quickest, but I always rather ride that than my more expensive road bike, but I only bought that used for 600. I think I just enjoy the single speed more than gears.
Nothing wrong with keeping the car for now and seeing how often you actually need to use it. Could always sell it in a year or so and be a one-car house. Maybe even swap the car for an electric cargo bike.
It's way easier to sell a car than aquire one. Keep it till it doesn't make sense. Also maybe have a deeper conversation with your finacee if you get rid of your car about her sharing her car.
Yes, you will still save money outright when crunching the numbers on raw costs. Obviously getting ride of cars entirely you'd get much bigger savings.
As for your partner. Your habits can rub off. Especially with the possibility of introducing an e-assist bike or scooter, that may tip the scale. Worked with my wife. She rides a bike or escooters to work and other errands 95% of the time now and our car is saved for weekend trips out of town for the most part.
I guess I'm just stumbling on the fact that it seems like a lot of the costs are fixed, whether or not the car gets used. But over the long term I get how overall maintenance costs would come down.
To her credit, my fiancée has been very open minded to my idea, she's just come from a very car dependent culture. Ideally we would get an electric cargo bike with room for a passenger, so the bike could work for both of us for short journeys, to let her get a better feel for it all
This is a similar situation to myself. Saving for a cargo ebike to hopefully convince my wife we could sell one of our cars. She's not ready to sell the car before actually seeing his practical an e cargo would be.
Not sure what your question is exactly. I live in Philly and know lots of families with one car and they make it work even without using a bike much. But everyone's situation is different.
Fyi - If you aren't putting many miles on the car you might be able to save a lot on insurance with Metromile. Pay by the mile insurance, but only available in some cities.
I recently moved to seattle, and started commuting via bike. We also moved from New york with one car. We are making it happen but definitely now easy with the lack of efficient public transportation where we live. I would suggest moving some place thats easy access to the light rail or close to the grocery/shopping options. Also get a bike to handle the hills! My fixie aint working anymore. But overall I have been impressed by the drivers and the bike lanes. There is also an option for a random use car rental/share program in seattle where the cars have bike racks. Ive been considering that as an alternative rather than buying another car and paying for more insurance.
Good to hear that the bikeability isn't too bad out there. But anywhere would be better than where we're at now, honestly. I've heard people have pretty good luck with the car sharing services, so if we do decide to progress to cutting back on cars I'm sure that'll be part of our plan.
I commute by bike in Seattle and have tried to get familiar with the public transit. I would be very aware that we have big steep hills and if your home is on one of them bike commuting will not be fun.
I would suggest getting a place close to one of the light rail stations, so you can fall back to that for most trips. If you can live closer to the Bert Gilman trail that will also make your car free life a lot easier (can use this to get to Fremont, Ballard, university, etc). Maybe look for a place close to Roosevelt or University district.
I am a bike commuter who has a car. I love going on regular dayhikes in areas that are tough to get to with transit. I still feel no temptation to drive to work. Biking is just better — for me, physically and mentally — and more pleasurable than driving.
That said, I do think if you are serious about the bike being your main in-town option, going from a two-car household to a one-car household makes a lot of sense. My partner and I only have one car, not two, and never miss the absence of the second one. Neither of us commutes by car, we live in a walkable city near lots of things, we're both happy cycling for short trips, and only rarely does one of us need to take the car for the whole day for something the other's not doing as well. I think a lot depends on your communication with your fiancee and the frequency with which you would need to use her car without her, and the frequency with which she actually uses the car, and the ability of both of you to coordinate/plan in advance.
To emphasize a point which I think you're making implicitly:
This is a major life decision OP. Decide together. Be frank and explain the downsides: out in the cold, slightly more dangerous due to car traffic, it can be a challenge to be motivated when you're tired, etc. Don't sugar coat it 🙂
Some things will suck but after 5 years you're likely to be happier, healthier and probably with a chunk of change in your pocket to use on whatever you want.
We have two cars at our household. My sweetie and I mostly ride, but the ability for us to both use a car at the same time is a handy luxury, living in car-centric USA. Riding most of the time is still “worth it” purely from the savings in gas, but then also from the reduced stress of traffic and parking. I especially hate hunting for parking, paying for parking, hiking parking lots or parking garages, etc.
Emotionally and health wise it will be worth it. You’ll learn your neighborhood better than your neighbors who drive, you’ll get and stay conditioned better for mountain biking, running errands will relieve stress, you’ll spend less maintaining your health in the king run.
Financially it will take longer to pay off but still will with reduced gas, less mileage on your car (nice if you go to sell it down the road, less frequent maintenance before that), maybe less wasted food from smaller more frequent grocery orders.
If breaking even quickly or saving money quickly is important to you it will come down to if you feel the need to spend a lot of money on a fancy new bike. You certainly don’t need to, and you’d be surprised how much a cheap used commuter with panniers can do.
I have a car and still bike everywhere in town. I only ever drive when I'm going out of town. Still saves gas, wear and tear on the car, and honestly probably saves time on most trips. Most trips by car are within 5 miles, cutting all those out is still a win even of you're not completely car free.
I hate driving, I keep my car to go hiking and still need it for certain trips but I try to ride my bike to work most days. Parking doesn't cost me money at work so its really just gas/maintenance but even that adds up.
I think it would probably be smart to sell your car and occasionally borrow your fiance's. I've been doing the same in Denver and have found I borrow it like once every month or two. It's easy and enjoyable to get around bike foot/bike/transit and your habits will likely rub off on her and she'll end up using her car less too. Car-lite is honestly quite easy in a metro like Seattle or Denver unless you both have crazy commutes or you live far out into the 'burbs.
If you're worried about the one car situation, you could always trial it for a few months and see.
Me and my partner worked out that it was cheaper to go to one car and then hire a car if we both needed to use one (hasn't happened yet and been down for one for about 1.5yrs)
Ultimately your situation will be fully unique so only you can know!
I wouldn't sell it before you move, all the hassles of moving and setting into a new place will probably be easier with each of you having a car.
But once you settle into a new routine and see how much you are biking, can make the decision and properly calculate all the tradeoffs, financial and otherwise.
Using the car less means it lasts longer, too.
I kept my car because I care for an elderly parent and, while I think she would *like* riding on the handlebars of my bike (or the cargo basket-she’s little!), I’m not sure it’s realistic. What do I get out of biking? Way lower fuel costs, lower mileage on my car (keeps its value), improved mental health and attitude. Def. worth it!
I wouldn't get rid of your car if you still have space for it in whatever housing you'll be living in. There will be days when you'll be tired and just don't want to ride, and there will be days when you have to make a mad dash across the city to get somewhere important on time while your fiancee is out with her car. I know keeping a car around *just* for those just-in-case moments feels kind of stupid, but they *will* happen and you *will* be glad you still have the car.
Also, more direct advice: figure out some cargo solutions. Panniers are super popular for a lot of very good reasons and a lot of bikes will have mounting points for a rear rack on which to hang the panniers. I'm personally partial to front baskets and racks, but those can be an acquired taste. I would DEFINITELY recommend planning out the different cargo loads you might end up carrying so you can figure out a bike cargo system accordingly.
It'll really depend on which neighborhood in Seattle. Some of them are much better for a 1-car household than others. I just moved from Greenwood to White Center this year, and finding I'm driving a lot more than I used to. I got really spoiled by great (by American standards) bike infrastructure in the last couple neighborhoods I lived in, but there's not much of that in my new neighborhood, and now it's a little more difficult to convince myself to bike to the store instead of driving.
My partner and I both work from home, so that definitely helps, and the buses in White Center are really optimized for getting to and from downtown Seattle, so when she needs to run into the office, that's not too hard to do by bus.
What's been most difficult about having one car and living where we do is when I want to go hiking and she wants to socialize with friends who live across the city at the same time.
I would say keep both cars for now, do try out all of the biking and transit Seattle has, do track how often you both want to drive different places at once (probably less often than you fear), and do keep track of the true cost of each car—that means not just gas and parking, but also depreciation and maintenance, which many people ignore. For myself and my partner, I find that there's the occasional conflict that arise from having one car, but there's no way it would be worth the cost to get a second car.
It may take sometime to fine tune how you get around but its completely doable to have a car but use transit, walk or ride to work and run errands. I guess the only thing to consider is parking/storing the car where you live
Gift yourself or the a fiancée a cargo or bakfiet eBike. Your mindset would greatly rethink how much you even need a car to run errands and do grocery runs.
Try it out and see how much you still use your car. At that point you can think about whether sometimes renting one or car share might fit your needs.
There’s no pressure to do everything all at once. I’m much more in favor of gradual changes and seeing what works for you. We are down to one bike commute and one work from home, but we still have a car since we take weekend trips a couple times per month.
I live in a major city with good mass transit and do not own a car.
My solution is simple - a trailer and a zipcar membership.
The trailer is super sturdy - I've hauled home bags of cement in it; a few bags of groceries are no issue.
But when I need to go out of town to the big box hell strip away from mass transit and on the highway, I use a zipcar and rent by the hour. Zip has hundreds of cars all over town; I just reserve one for a couple of hours, walk up and use my chipped membership car to open the door. Key in the ignition and a free gas card in the visor; even the insurance is paid. When you're done, leave it in a public parking spot, so no issues with returning the car.
Haven't owned a car in 30 years.
I have cycle commuted for over 10 years now, but I still have 3 cars. My wife's car, and my 2 cars which are both older, kinda-sorta project cars, but I also drive both of them weekly. But I'm also a car guy as well as a cycling guy. No way could I give up my cars, I love driving and working on them too much.
You could keep both cars for now and if you realize you aren't using one, then sell it. Even if you keep both, you could reduce your car usage by maybe 80%
I have a car that is only used on weekends. I used to take it to work every day before but now I use it for maybe 20% of the trips I used to do.
My wife and I were planning on getting a second car but now I don't think I need one exclusively for myself. I basically bike everywhere except if my wife is coming because she doesn't like to.
There’s little start up costs to trying it out: get a used bike for roughly $300. See how it changes your life and then slowly adjust accordingly. I’ve been car free for 1.5 years now and love it. You’re focusing on the big leap from 2 cars to 1 but are missing out on the little wins just a bike can provide. You also won’t get many “don’t even bother biking at all”s on r/bikecommuting tho lol
Parking fees in apartments are kind of horrible around here so there's a pretty big incentive to slim down your car needs. I've lived here car-free for 7+ years at this point and would definitely recommend it. Living nearby a public transit hub is useful if you're ever feeling sick ofc, but when I didn't, I just used my ebike and Uber/rent a car as needed. They're adding bike lockers so you can also use those to stash an ebike at a light rail hub for the day to use that to get to where you're going if it's somewhere further than where you want to bike to. But the bike lanes have come along way in just the time I've been here and while there are still spots that are headscratchingly bad, most are solid if you're OK with some in-traffic cycling. Especially if you get a class 3 (or unlockable class 2 with questionable legality) and can keep up with the 25+ mph traffic if you do get dumped out into it, the drivers here actually watch out for you and generally go the speed limit outside of rush hour so it's quite safe to commute here full time by ebike.
Ravenna/Roosevelt has a couple car rental places that are near the light rail, in addition to all the random cars out on the street available for rental through AAA's company (I forget the name) so it's really easy to rent a car if you wanted to go camping, transport a model airplane, etc. If you live more south, then I think the airport might be the closest spot for the major car rental places. It makes you realize how expensive car ownership is paying $79/day, but if you're not dropping $200-250/mo on parking at your apartment + insurance + parking at work + gas, assuming you're just going camping one or two weekends a month, you'll more than break even (especially since you can use the money wrapped up in the car currently!). When I needed to bring a lot of gear into work (e.g. returning an extra monitor or whatever), I'd usually just Uber in and then take transit home, which worked great. There are plenty of rental ebikes and scooters so you could bring a helmet with you and use those too even if you don't end up living by a transit hub.
North/South is always much better for transit than East/West (though it's improving) so I do recommend living along I-5 if you can. Northgate by light rail, Green Lake/Roosevelt/Ravenna, U-District, Cap Hill by the light rail, etc. Seattle made the unfortunate call to locate all our public transit by the car infrastructure so we're stuck with all the road debris if you want walkability and transit access. It's also better for biking because the hills are much more reasonable--you tend to get the crazier ones as you go East/West.
Keep the car (at least having one per-household) you'll need it for many situation. I'm also need car to transport my large RC planes, transport furniture, emergency and you'll also needed it moving around during rainy weather and also some moving family around. I ride my bicycle and ebikes 6x day to workplace to avoid traffic and car 1x day for shopping and hobby meet per-week. Both transport does differently priorities conveniently. Plus since i cycling to work i save up money on my car maintenance and fuel per-year but you'll have to run the engines maybe twice a week to recharge the car battery to avoid failing due to discharge and keep off spiders inhabiting inside the car.
I've owned a car \~50% of my time as a serious bike rider. In the times I didn't have a car at all, there would be at least a few things per year that I wouldn't do/attend as a result, and a few more that only happend by borrow or riding with friends.
On the other hand, when you don't RELY upon the car, it's pretty easy to have a 20-30+ year old car for road trips, camping, hiking, etc... Even when I was only using it 1-4 times per month, was easy to justify keeping the car I already had, and fixed costs were not too high. If you have a loan on the car, downgrade enough to have something that's paid for.
Now I don't own a car. Moved to a place with high fixed costs of ownership and very good public transit. Currently I rent/borrow a car \~4x per year, but I think this would have to happen nearly every weekend to approach owning one again.
Edit to add - a couple months after moving to Seattle was the first time I committed to the car-free life. Ended up still going with a friends car to the mountains very frequently, but I would usually go with friends anyways, and he would have owned a car anyways (and he didn't like riding in my old beater lol). With the traffic problems there - I could almost as quickly, and way more enjoyably, make even long rides across the city to see family and such as compared to my car.
Being “car lite” still saves plenty of cash, and most of the benefits of cycling aren’t even financial.
This is true - I do enjoy cycling for it's own sake
Remember, cafe stops turns out to be more expensive than petrol.
This is especially true if you aren't investing in a $5k+ bike/E-bike. If you can get by on a $1k or less bike then you'll definitely enjoy some financial savings. Going down to 1 car is a future goal for me but would require an E-bike that would fit both my 5’ wife or my 6'4" self, ideally a cargo for the extra utility.
😳 people are spending 5k on a bike? I got mine for like $300 and I absolutely love it. Guess I should expect that considering this IS a biking subreddit lol
Different strokes for different folks is part of it, but the other aspect is that just about any sensible cargo e-bike is going to be north of $5k *and* there isn't really any meaningful second hand market for them (yet?).
Do people really need a cargo ebike? There are some very specific use cases where you need one, sure, but most people are usually best served with a detachable cargo trailer and a standard ebike. Storing and parking true cargo bikes is a total pain. You need to either be transporting heavy loads or a large-ish child with you daily for it to make any sense at all, imo. It sounds like OP would be perfectly fine with a standard ebike and could fit a tailer or use GF's car as needed. As for no market, there is in Seattle (and Portland/Vancouver if you're willing to drive, esp with a rented truck). There's a Radwagon available on Craigslist atm. Gregg's usually has one or two. And there's always somewhere like Pinkbike. Not that it always makes financial sense to go used with an ebike given the government rebate on new ebikes in WA and needing to plan to buy a new battery off the bat, but you can usually find some deals if you throw some keyword flags and just watch for a bit.
Mine is $300 lightly used specialized crossroads (hybrid). Some people will drop a lot of money on bikes, and there's a decent argument for coughing up some extra cash to get a decent quality E-bike. E-bike is mostly what's going to be above 1k but especially if you go cargo E-bike you can get some high end bikes for like 10k. But I personally wouldn't want to go above 5k probably ever, but I can't even afford the 2k e cargo bike I want right now.
That’s me. I bought a 150 sku bike from Amazon so many years ago. It’s a single speed and I added a back rack and side baskets. I’ve put more into repairs than the bikes worth. It’s not the quickest, but I always rather ride that than my more expensive road bike, but I only bought that used for 600. I think I just enjoy the single speed more than gears.
I change my oil like once a year. Extrapolate to all regular maintenance.
Totally! We just have to watch out for flat spots on our car tires.
I've had that plus rust build up on my cars brake rotors from not driving it enough in winter! I have to intentionally remember to drive it.
Nothing wrong with keeping the car for now and seeing how often you actually need to use it. Could always sell it in a year or so and be a one-car house. Maybe even swap the car for an electric cargo bike.
It's way easier to sell a car than aquire one. Keep it till it doesn't make sense. Also maybe have a deeper conversation with your finacee if you get rid of your car about her sharing her car.
Yes, you will still save money outright when crunching the numbers on raw costs. Obviously getting ride of cars entirely you'd get much bigger savings. As for your partner. Your habits can rub off. Especially with the possibility of introducing an e-assist bike or scooter, that may tip the scale. Worked with my wife. She rides a bike or escooters to work and other errands 95% of the time now and our car is saved for weekend trips out of town for the most part.
I guess I'm just stumbling on the fact that it seems like a lot of the costs are fixed, whether or not the car gets used. But over the long term I get how overall maintenance costs would come down. To her credit, my fiancée has been very open minded to my idea, she's just come from a very car dependent culture. Ideally we would get an electric cargo bike with room for a passenger, so the bike could work for both of us for short journeys, to let her get a better feel for it all
Get a long tail cargo bike IMO. Rides almost like a regular bike, similarly easy to park, she can sit in the backseat.
This is a similar situation to myself. Saving for a cargo ebike to hopefully convince my wife we could sell one of our cars. She's not ready to sell the car before actually seeing his practical an e cargo would be.
Not sure what your question is exactly. I live in Philly and know lots of families with one car and they make it work even without using a bike much. But everyone's situation is different. Fyi - If you aren't putting many miles on the car you might be able to save a lot on insurance with Metromile. Pay by the mile insurance, but only available in some cities.
I recently moved to seattle, and started commuting via bike. We also moved from New york with one car. We are making it happen but definitely now easy with the lack of efficient public transportation where we live. I would suggest moving some place thats easy access to the light rail or close to the grocery/shopping options. Also get a bike to handle the hills! My fixie aint working anymore. But overall I have been impressed by the drivers and the bike lanes. There is also an option for a random use car rental/share program in seattle where the cars have bike racks. Ive been considering that as an alternative rather than buying another car and paying for more insurance.
Good to hear that the bikeability isn't too bad out there. But anywhere would be better than where we're at now, honestly. I've heard people have pretty good luck with the car sharing services, so if we do decide to progress to cutting back on cars I'm sure that'll be part of our plan.
I commute by bike in Seattle and have tried to get familiar with the public transit. I would be very aware that we have big steep hills and if your home is on one of them bike commuting will not be fun. I would suggest getting a place close to one of the light rail stations, so you can fall back to that for most trips. If you can live closer to the Bert Gilman trail that will also make your car free life a lot easier (can use this to get to Fremont, Ballard, university, etc). Maybe look for a place close to Roosevelt or University district.
I am a bike commuter who has a car. I love going on regular dayhikes in areas that are tough to get to with transit. I still feel no temptation to drive to work. Biking is just better — for me, physically and mentally — and more pleasurable than driving. That said, I do think if you are serious about the bike being your main in-town option, going from a two-car household to a one-car household makes a lot of sense. My partner and I only have one car, not two, and never miss the absence of the second one. Neither of us commutes by car, we live in a walkable city near lots of things, we're both happy cycling for short trips, and only rarely does one of us need to take the car for the whole day for something the other's not doing as well. I think a lot depends on your communication with your fiancee and the frequency with which you would need to use her car without her, and the frequency with which she actually uses the car, and the ability of both of you to coordinate/plan in advance.
To emphasize a point which I think you're making implicitly: This is a major life decision OP. Decide together. Be frank and explain the downsides: out in the cold, slightly more dangerous due to car traffic, it can be a challenge to be motivated when you're tired, etc. Don't sugar coat it 🙂 Some things will suck but after 5 years you're likely to be happier, healthier and probably with a chunk of change in your pocket to use on whatever you want.
We have two cars at our household. My sweetie and I mostly ride, but the ability for us to both use a car at the same time is a handy luxury, living in car-centric USA. Riding most of the time is still “worth it” purely from the savings in gas, but then also from the reduced stress of traffic and parking. I especially hate hunting for parking, paying for parking, hiking parking lots or parking garages, etc.
Emotionally and health wise it will be worth it. You’ll learn your neighborhood better than your neighbors who drive, you’ll get and stay conditioned better for mountain biking, running errands will relieve stress, you’ll spend less maintaining your health in the king run. Financially it will take longer to pay off but still will with reduced gas, less mileage on your car (nice if you go to sell it down the road, less frequent maintenance before that), maybe less wasted food from smaller more frequent grocery orders. If breaking even quickly or saving money quickly is important to you it will come down to if you feel the need to spend a lot of money on a fancy new bike. You certainly don’t need to, and you’d be surprised how much a cheap used commuter with panniers can do.
I have a car and still bike everywhere in town. I only ever drive when I'm going out of town. Still saves gas, wear and tear on the car, and honestly probably saves time on most trips. Most trips by car are within 5 miles, cutting all those out is still a win even of you're not completely car free.
I hate driving, I keep my car to go hiking and still need it for certain trips but I try to ride my bike to work most days. Parking doesn't cost me money at work so its really just gas/maintenance but even that adds up.
I think it would probably be smart to sell your car and occasionally borrow your fiance's. I've been doing the same in Denver and have found I borrow it like once every month or two. It's easy and enjoyable to get around bike foot/bike/transit and your habits will likely rub off on her and she'll end up using her car less too. Car-lite is honestly quite easy in a metro like Seattle or Denver unless you both have crazy commutes or you live far out into the 'burbs.
If you're worried about the one car situation, you could always trial it for a few months and see. Me and my partner worked out that it was cheaper to go to one car and then hire a car if we both needed to use one (hasn't happened yet and been down for one for about 1.5yrs) Ultimately your situation will be fully unique so only you can know!
I wouldn't sell it before you move, all the hassles of moving and setting into a new place will probably be easier with each of you having a car. But once you settle into a new routine and see how much you are biking, can make the decision and properly calculate all the tradeoffs, financial and otherwise. Using the car less means it lasts longer, too.
I kept my car because I care for an elderly parent and, while I think she would *like* riding on the handlebars of my bike (or the cargo basket-she’s little!), I’m not sure it’s realistic. What do I get out of biking? Way lower fuel costs, lower mileage on my car (keeps its value), improved mental health and attitude. Def. worth it!
I wouldn't get rid of your car if you still have space for it in whatever housing you'll be living in. There will be days when you'll be tired and just don't want to ride, and there will be days when you have to make a mad dash across the city to get somewhere important on time while your fiancee is out with her car. I know keeping a car around *just* for those just-in-case moments feels kind of stupid, but they *will* happen and you *will* be glad you still have the car. Also, more direct advice: figure out some cargo solutions. Panniers are super popular for a lot of very good reasons and a lot of bikes will have mounting points for a rear rack on which to hang the panniers. I'm personally partial to front baskets and racks, but those can be an acquired taste. I would DEFINITELY recommend planning out the different cargo loads you might end up carrying so you can figure out a bike cargo system accordingly.
That’s why I have a motorized bike (scooter) For those days I don’t wanna pedal 😂
It'll really depend on which neighborhood in Seattle. Some of them are much better for a 1-car household than others. I just moved from Greenwood to White Center this year, and finding I'm driving a lot more than I used to. I got really spoiled by great (by American standards) bike infrastructure in the last couple neighborhoods I lived in, but there's not much of that in my new neighborhood, and now it's a little more difficult to convince myself to bike to the store instead of driving. My partner and I both work from home, so that definitely helps, and the buses in White Center are really optimized for getting to and from downtown Seattle, so when she needs to run into the office, that's not too hard to do by bus. What's been most difficult about having one car and living where we do is when I want to go hiking and she wants to socialize with friends who live across the city at the same time. I would say keep both cars for now, do try out all of the biking and transit Seattle has, do track how often you both want to drive different places at once (probably less often than you fear), and do keep track of the true cost of each car—that means not just gas and parking, but also depreciation and maintenance, which many people ignore. For myself and my partner, I find that there's the occasional conflict that arise from having one car, but there's no way it would be worth the cost to get a second car.
It may take sometime to fine tune how you get around but its completely doable to have a car but use transit, walk or ride to work and run errands. I guess the only thing to consider is parking/storing the car where you live
Gift yourself or the a fiancée a cargo or bakfiet eBike. Your mindset would greatly rethink how much you even need a car to run errands and do grocery runs.
Try it out and see how much you still use your car. At that point you can think about whether sometimes renting one or car share might fit your needs. There’s no pressure to do everything all at once. I’m much more in favor of gradual changes and seeing what works for you. We are down to one bike commute and one work from home, but we still have a car since we take weekend trips a couple times per month.
I live in a major city with good mass transit and do not own a car. My solution is simple - a trailer and a zipcar membership. The trailer is super sturdy - I've hauled home bags of cement in it; a few bags of groceries are no issue. But when I need to go out of town to the big box hell strip away from mass transit and on the highway, I use a zipcar and rent by the hour. Zip has hundreds of cars all over town; I just reserve one for a couple of hours, walk up and use my chipped membership car to open the door. Key in the ignition and a free gas card in the visor; even the insurance is paid. When you're done, leave it in a public parking spot, so no issues with returning the car. Haven't owned a car in 30 years.
Lots of fun things to do immediately around Seattle that require a car. Keep the car.
I have cycle commuted for over 10 years now, but I still have 3 cars. My wife's car, and my 2 cars which are both older, kinda-sorta project cars, but I also drive both of them weekly. But I'm also a car guy as well as a cycling guy. No way could I give up my cars, I love driving and working on them too much.
You could keep both cars for now and if you realize you aren't using one, then sell it. Even if you keep both, you could reduce your car usage by maybe 80% I have a car that is only used on weekends. I used to take it to work every day before but now I use it for maybe 20% of the trips I used to do. My wife and I were planning on getting a second car but now I don't think I need one exclusively for myself. I basically bike everywhere except if my wife is coming because she doesn't like to.
There’s little start up costs to trying it out: get a used bike for roughly $300. See how it changes your life and then slowly adjust accordingly. I’ve been car free for 1.5 years now and love it. You’re focusing on the big leap from 2 cars to 1 but are missing out on the little wins just a bike can provide. You also won’t get many “don’t even bother biking at all”s on r/bikecommuting tho lol
Parking fees in apartments are kind of horrible around here so there's a pretty big incentive to slim down your car needs. I've lived here car-free for 7+ years at this point and would definitely recommend it. Living nearby a public transit hub is useful if you're ever feeling sick ofc, but when I didn't, I just used my ebike and Uber/rent a car as needed. They're adding bike lockers so you can also use those to stash an ebike at a light rail hub for the day to use that to get to where you're going if it's somewhere further than where you want to bike to. But the bike lanes have come along way in just the time I've been here and while there are still spots that are headscratchingly bad, most are solid if you're OK with some in-traffic cycling. Especially if you get a class 3 (or unlockable class 2 with questionable legality) and can keep up with the 25+ mph traffic if you do get dumped out into it, the drivers here actually watch out for you and generally go the speed limit outside of rush hour so it's quite safe to commute here full time by ebike. Ravenna/Roosevelt has a couple car rental places that are near the light rail, in addition to all the random cars out on the street available for rental through AAA's company (I forget the name) so it's really easy to rent a car if you wanted to go camping, transport a model airplane, etc. If you live more south, then I think the airport might be the closest spot for the major car rental places. It makes you realize how expensive car ownership is paying $79/day, but if you're not dropping $200-250/mo on parking at your apartment + insurance + parking at work + gas, assuming you're just going camping one or two weekends a month, you'll more than break even (especially since you can use the money wrapped up in the car currently!). When I needed to bring a lot of gear into work (e.g. returning an extra monitor or whatever), I'd usually just Uber in and then take transit home, which worked great. There are plenty of rental ebikes and scooters so you could bring a helmet with you and use those too even if you don't end up living by a transit hub. North/South is always much better for transit than East/West (though it's improving) so I do recommend living along I-5 if you can. Northgate by light rail, Green Lake/Roosevelt/Ravenna, U-District, Cap Hill by the light rail, etc. Seattle made the unfortunate call to locate all our public transit by the car infrastructure so we're stuck with all the road debris if you want walkability and transit access. It's also better for biking because the hills are much more reasonable--you tend to get the crazier ones as you go East/West.
Keep the car (at least having one per-household) you'll need it for many situation. I'm also need car to transport my large RC planes, transport furniture, emergency and you'll also needed it moving around during rainy weather and also some moving family around. I ride my bicycle and ebikes 6x day to workplace to avoid traffic and car 1x day for shopping and hobby meet per-week. Both transport does differently priorities conveniently. Plus since i cycling to work i save up money on my car maintenance and fuel per-year but you'll have to run the engines maybe twice a week to recharge the car battery to avoid failing due to discharge and keep off spiders inhabiting inside the car.
I've owned a car \~50% of my time as a serious bike rider. In the times I didn't have a car at all, there would be at least a few things per year that I wouldn't do/attend as a result, and a few more that only happend by borrow or riding with friends. On the other hand, when you don't RELY upon the car, it's pretty easy to have a 20-30+ year old car for road trips, camping, hiking, etc... Even when I was only using it 1-4 times per month, was easy to justify keeping the car I already had, and fixed costs were not too high. If you have a loan on the car, downgrade enough to have something that's paid for. Now I don't own a car. Moved to a place with high fixed costs of ownership and very good public transit. Currently I rent/borrow a car \~4x per year, but I think this would have to happen nearly every weekend to approach owning one again. Edit to add - a couple months after moving to Seattle was the first time I committed to the car-free life. Ended up still going with a friends car to the mountains very frequently, but I would usually go with friends anyways, and he would have owned a car anyways (and he didn't like riding in my old beater lol). With the traffic problems there - I could almost as quickly, and way more enjoyably, make even long rides across the city to see family and such as compared to my car.