Originally Posted by
lasauge
Specific to your situation, it sounds to me like you haven't reached the point yet where going places by bike is easy - when you reach for the bike you hesitate because it involves some discomfort or extra effort. The first issue is the simplest to address: once you have good equipment (panniers or otherwise) that allow you to run errands and carry necessary items without discomfort, that will be one less thing to discourage you.
Riding to most places is fairly easy so far. The city itself is somewhat bike friendly, until you get out to where I live. Higher speed roads, minimal bike lanes, so the sidewalk becomes your route and personally I try to avoid that at all costs. If I head east which is most of the time, there is an MUP that leads to bike lanes and a bike friendlier area. It is when I head south that it becomes less and less friendly.
But perhaps more important is the willpower/habit aspect: riding places is tougher at first because you have to make a special effort to plan your route, schedule, equipment, etc. The good news is that once you get used to riding places, you'll be able to grab the bike and go much more easily because you'll instinctively know how long it takes to cover a given distance, what to wear, and what to expect en route. But when starting out, there's no real alternative to making a commitment to yourself that the bike will be your primary mode of travel, maybe at least three days per week to start, and as you gain experience you'll grow into being car-light and using the car only when it's actually necessary, and not because you're not comfortable riding instead.
As mentioned, I am a pretty seasoned commuter so this part of it I have covered. I work second shift so I can leave earlier and stop at places like the bank, etc. at my leisure. The grocery store here is a 24 hour operation so on my commutes home I often will stop and pick up stuff as needed to avoid a major haul like I did yesterday.
Originally Posted by
CliffordK
An option might be to be seasonally car-free.
Say car-light December to March, and then drop the insurance for April through November (no driving without insurance). Or you could discover that you just don't need the car.
Unfortunately the car is not paid off, so I don't think that I can legally drop insurance on it. If I could store it, I would consider it, but that becomes an added cost. There has been some consideration into selling it and getting a beater pick up truck or something that I really won't want to drive.