Really, if you're seriously into biking and being car-free , would you really want to hang out with or date someone who would think less of you for it? That said, I think there is a social stigma in our society around not owning a car, not driving--I see it in negative comments made about people who rely on public transportation, for example. But, there's a lot of social stigma in our culture about being different or out-of-the-mainstream in lots of ways. I was visiting a friend not long ago and happened to have a bunch of groceries (I'd stopped on the way to shop) strapped and tied to my bike, and my friend told me later that one of her neighbors asked her if I was homeless! Just because I was grocery shopping using my bike, as if that's the only conceivable reason anyone would do such a thing, if they were forced to by unfortunate circumstances. It just made me laugh.

I think it's really unimaginable to the average car-strapped American that anyone would deliberately choose not to own and drive a car.

I think the social stigma is worse, probably, for younger people, and yes, for males. My son is eighteen and has never had a driver's license, gets around on a bike, and I think there are some girls who wouldn't consider dating such a person.

As a purely practical matter, I know that for me, not owning a car limits me socially in some ways. I'm 49 and female, and I'm simply not going to ride my bike to an evening social event that is several miles across town, for example, and would have me riding home at ten or eleven at night; it doesn't feel safe to me (although I'm sure there are those on this forum who do it, and that's fine, too), and public transportation in the evening in my neighborhood is very limited--on my street the bus stops running about 6 p.m., and the next nearest bus line that runs later is a half-mile walk away.

But, I have hermit tendencies anyhow, don't socialize a lot, and so right now it's far from being something that I consider a huge problem. If there was something I felt I really wanted to attend and could not safely get to by bike or public transportation, I'd probably try to arrange a ride with someone else, or, worst case, I'd just take a cab. Not a big deal.

So, yes, I think there definitely is some social stigma, and some practical difficulties that do arise in certain situations and have to be dealt with if you choose a car-free life for whatever reason. However, I'm happy to put up with it, it's totally worth it to me, and I think for most people, as you get older, you really stop caring so much what other people--especially people you don't even know--think about you. In fact, there's a lot of pleasure and self-satisfaction in being an individual, in being different from the herd, and knowing that maybe you'll cause the odd person to see life in a new and different way.