First time responder here. Hey.
We went car-free when the
Car Repairs of Damocles came crashing down. We didn't so much prepare to live car-free as much as I stumbled and ignored our way into it. Luckily, we had bikes in storage that only took a little bit of refurbishing to get them rolling.
The combination of a bike and a monthly bus pass get me just about anywhere I need to go in the greater Bay Area. I live in Oakland and work as a catering bartender all over the place, so I'm constantly rolling to gigs with a change of clothes in my Chrome bag, a ziploc full of baby wipes, and a microfiber camp towel.
Yeah, I suck exhaust fumes while pedaling. So what? Are you telling me you've got some hermetically-sealed air-filter system in our gas burner? At least you're exercising on a bike while you breathe urban air.
Overall, MUCH BETTER LIFESTYLE! No gas to buy, no broken windows to fix, no insurance, no EXPENSIVE REPAIRS, tighter ass an over all improving health (including better, more frequent sex), I feel so much more in tune with my environment. I stop into store and explore new neighborhoods rather than burning dinosaurs and pushing a ton of steel around just so I can be kept isolated in my box till I arrive at my destination.
The world is a smaller, healthier, less stressful, more interesting place on a bike.
The median price for a new car today is HALF the median income for a US Family. And we're fighting wars in Mesopotamia over what's left of the dinosaur juice in the ground.
I say ditch the car as soon as you can and get a bike. Not only will you feel healthier, but ask yourself if you really can afford all that gas and insurance and broken windows and car payments and pollution and war and soft, jiggly, jelly-like unexercised butt you get from sitting on it all day, even when running errands?