Published August 16, 2026 03:39AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s 7 A.M. on a Tuesday, and I\u2019m biking into town to drop off my primary ballot, not because I necessarily want to, but because I don\u2019t have a car. Not today, at least. I\u2019ll stop by the community garden to check on my tomatoes on the way, and maybe I\u2019ll grab a coffee. I dodge sprinklers and grind uphill, which I\u2019m not particularly good at. I\u2019m on the only bike I own, my mountain bike. Tomorrow, my husband will take his turn biking, riding 14 miles to work, navigating rec paths and bike lanes and the warehouse district outside of Denver, Colorado. We\u2019re a one-car household.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not particularly athletic. I love hiking and skiing, but I frequently walk my bike uphill. My husband is a bike guy now, but when our one-car adventure started, he was trying not to puke on the long ride to work.<\/p>\n
Saying that downsizing didn\u2019t come naturally to us would be an understatement. Both sets of our parents have four vehicles per household<\/i>. Living with one car felt like something we could only swing if we lived in a city with good urban design and rarely left it.<\/p>\n
But then we moved to Croatia in 2023, and it changed the way I looked at everything. In Europe, we only had one car. Neither one of us was commuting to work, and in an entirely new culture and place, few things ever separated us. Before we went abroad, we sold one of our cars to save on insurance and storage costs, but when we returned to America, I assumed that buying a second vehicle would be the first thing on our agenda. Three years later, I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how many times we circled underneath the towering walls of the Roman amphitheater in our new home, Pula, Croatia, fruitlessly searching for parking and eventually giving up, until the idea of walking to the farmers market dawned on us one day. Pula was not Paris, the kind of place I\u2019d always imagined a car-free life possible. The sidewalks were narrow or non-existent, often with cars parked halfway on them, and the delivery drivers on mopeds navigated the maze of one-way streets like rally drivers. It didn\u2019t feel very pedestrian-friendly, yet we soon noticed that everyone walked. Teens and grandmas and now, the two of us with our big, fluffy dog, strolled to get groceries, to go to the visa office, or to grab a coffee. More often than not, our car stayed parked at our apartment building until we were ready to go on an adventure. It turned out that pedestrians thrived in the chaotic streets; drivers were more hostile to cars. We walked down the center of the road, the drivers on red alert for pedestrians and street cats alike. I never once felt like I was going to get hit.<\/p>\n The train didn\u2019t connect our town with the endless places across the continent we wanted to visit so we found ourselves on frequent weekend road trips to places like Switzerland or the Mediterranean Sea. But once we got to where we were going, we put our new learnings into practice. We\u2019d find a garage on the edge of town, park, and forget our car for the weekend. We walked, or rode trains and trams, buses and ferries and funiculars to get around, our dog included. It took me just six months to wear through a pair of tennis shoes.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve traveled abroad, this is likely the point you\u2019ll be rolling your eyes at me. Of course<\/i> it\u2019s easy to get around without a car in Europe, where the cities were designed for horses and carts, not American-sized pickup trucks.<\/p>\n But when we moved back in 2025, we found we weren\u2019t quite so eager to sign a car loan. It turns out, having one car in America is not just doable; for our family, it\u2019s helped us thrive in our new home. The benefits have been rambling and surprising, much like my new bike commute. Here\u2019s what we learned.<\/p>\n Much of my personal and professional life revolves around exploring places that are hard, if not impossible, to get to under human power or public transportation. That means I drive, a lot. It\u2019s not uncommon for my husband and me to road trip six hours each way for a long weekend in the desert or a work trip in Wyoming. Our single car, a 2014 Subaru Crosstrek, has 230,000 miles on it. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I calculated how much we reduced our carbon footprint by downsizing to one car and commuting by bike more often.<\/p>\n My husband commutes at least two days each week (more in the summer, less in the winter) by bike to his workplace, 16 miles by car from home. According to Stanford\u2019s commute calculator<\/a>, it saves us 539 pounds of CO2 emissions each year. I work from home, but I find myself skipping many one-off errands, doing them by bike or carpooling with friends heading the same direction at least three times each week. If those errands used to average five miles, I\u2019m saving another 126 pounds of carbon emissions each year. Our biggest carbon savings, however, comes from not purchasing a new vehicle at all. According to a 2011 report<\/a> by clean transportation advocacy group Zemo Partnership, it costs 12,346 pounds of carbon to manufacture a vehicle.<\/p>\n While reducing my personal carbon footprint amid the chaos of a burning world fuels my cognitive dissonance in the same way ordering a side salad for the table does at an indulgent meal, it\u2019s not the only benefit I\u2019ve found to downsizing.<\/p>\n We\u2019d gotten used to our one-car lifestyle in Europe, but the main reason we didn\u2019t immediately pull the trigger on a second vehicle when we moved home was that cars had gotten seriously expensive. Perusing loans for a new Subaru, I was humbled to realize it would cost me at minimum $600 per month. Auto insurance for one vehicle currently costs me $1,500 per year, which I can only imagine would double with a second car. And, according to Stanford\u2019s transportation calculator, we\u2019re saving $750 a year on gas and \u201chidden commute costs\u201d like maintenance, repair, registration, and taxes for those trips we\u2019re skipping by car. That\u2019s $9,450 per year we\u2019re saving.<\/p>\n It\u2019s obvious that bike commuting more also increases our outside time, but I\u2019ve found that I\u2019m spending more hours each day outdoors aside from transportation. I\u2019m prone to cabin fever since I work from home every day. In my past life, I\u2019d log off and make up a random errand to run to get me out of the house. Now that I don\u2019t have no-brainer access to a car, I\u2019m less likely to find myself wandering Target after work and more likely to bring a blanket to a nearby park to read a book. This often devolves into a picnic dinner or grilling on the patio because it\u2019s hard to say goodbye to the fresh air.<\/p>\n Being the spouse who works from home means that more often than not I\u2019m the one without the car. It\u2019s made me focus on hobbies and community closer to home. One day shortly after we moved back, I was on a long walk and noticed a community garden. Though my thumb had thus far been decidedly brown, we joined on a whim, and it\u2019s become one of my favorite hobbies. I love growing my own food, but I also love being plugged into my community. I\u2019m privy to neighborhood gossip, I meet people from all walks of life I wouldn\u2019t have crossed paths with otherwise, and I even volunteered to start a kids program.<\/p>\n As an introvert, I\u2019ve never been good at reaching out, but often having no wheels has forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I\u2019ve tried new activities I wouldn\u2019t have otherwise, made friends with neighbors so my dog can have easy play dates and, most importantly, deepened my ties with my close friends who live nearby as we share rides and washing machines and swap chores when somebody\u2019s out of town.<\/p>\n One day I know my Subaru will decide it\u2019s done climbing mountain passes and we\u2019ll have to go car shopping. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever be as reliant as we once were on multiple vehicles. Being a one-car household is not just doable in America, it\u2019s gratifying. Here\u2019s how you can do it, too.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MR-bike-commute.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\"\/)
I\u2019ve Seriously Lowered My Carbon Footprint<\/h2>\n
I\u2019ve Saved Almost $10K Per Year<\/h2>\n
I\u2019ve Increased My Time Spent Outside<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"Bikes](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bikes-at-Community-Garden.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\"\/)
I\u2019ve Gotten More Plugged Into My Local Community<\/h2>\n
My Tips on How to Downsize to a One-Car Household<\/h2>\n
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