I'll start!
In my current community, living car-free is quite uncommon...but there are a good number of car-light households (families with two adults and one household vehicle). That said, there are a good number of 8-month bicycle commuters, and perhaps even more who commute on foot. I also notice a number of families transporting children to school by bicycle, either with a trailer or an attachment.
I think that the main deterrent is the harsh winters, but since the city itself is not particularly large, families are able to work out ride sharing reasonably well during the bad months (December-March or so). The other deterrent is that some of the good factory jobs are in locations that are not easily accessible through alternative transit.