https://maxmautner.com/2026/10/11/how-fast-is-a-car.html
The median American worker earns $23.80/hour, or ~$19 after taxes. A used car driven the US average of ~10,900 miles a year costs ~$8,200, counting $1,700 a year for a parking space at home. That is ~430 hours of work before the car moves. A new car takes ~700 hours. A $999 e-bike ridden 3,000 miles a year takes ~25 hours.
I no longer live in the suburubs, but our household had two cars when we did, and it would not have been safe or possible to do our commutes or errands on our bikes. Now we live in the city, and have zero cars.
I bus to work quite often, and I’ll probably do it in the winter more often. Not because of the weather, but because it’s so dark in the morning now, and so I don’t feel safe riding on some sections of my commute. Getting into the industrial park where I work involves a section of strode with no shoulder, and I can easily imagine getting splattered by a semi truck who drifted a few feet off the road.
We have baskets and panniers on our bikes, as well as a kid’s bike trailer which has a little extra storage in the back. We typically shop for groceries twice a week.
We share a Coscto card with a family member, so we’ll go maybe once a month with them and buy a bunch of stuff in bulk. So in terms in terms of total volume of groceries, there’s an appreciable amount that we transport by car.
We make pretty much all our meals at home too, we’re not suplementing with restaurants or deliveries (who can afford that?!). I see the Grocery Transport Issue being brought up a lot, but it hasn’t been an issue for us.