How to Make a One-Car Household Actually Work

It’s 7 A.M. on a Tuesday, and I’m biking into town to drop off my primary ballot, not because I necessarily want to, but because I don’t have a car. Not today, at least. I’ll stop by the community garden to check on my tomatoes on the way, and maybe I’ll grab a coffee. I dodge sprinklers and grind uphill, which I’m not particularly good at. I’m 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’re a one-car household.

I’m 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.

Saying that downsizing didn’t come naturally to us would be an understatement. Both sets of our parents have four vehicles per household. 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.

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’t have been more wrong.

I don’t 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’d 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’t 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.

The train didn’t 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’d 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.

If you’ve traveled abroad, this is likely the point you’ll be rolling your eyes at me. Of course it’s easy to get around without a car in Europe, where the cities were designed for horses and carts, not American-sized pickup trucks.

But when we moved back in 2025, we found we weren’t quite so eager to sign a car loan. It turns out, having one car in America is not just doable; for our family, it’s helped us thrive in our new home. The benefits have been rambling and surprising, much like my new bike commute. Here’s what we learned.

I’ve Seriously Lowered My Carbon Footprint

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’s 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.

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’s commute calculator, 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’m 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 by clean transportation advocacy group Zemo Partnership, it costs 12,346 pounds of carbon to manufacture a vehicle.

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’s not the only benefit I’ve found to downsizing.

I’ve Saved Almost $10K Per Year

We’d gotten used to our one-car lifestyle in Europe, but the main reason we didn’t 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’s transportation calculator, we’re saving $750 a year on gas and “hidden commute costs” like maintenance, repair, registration, and taxes for those trips we’re skipping by car. That’s $9,450 per year we’re saving.

I’ve Increased My Time Spent Outside

It’s obvious that bike commuting more also increases our outside time, but I’ve found that I’m spending more hours each day outdoors aside from transportation. I’m prone to cabin fever since I work from home every day. In my past life, I’d log off and make up a random errand to run to get me out of the house. Now that I don’t have no-brainer access to a car, I’m 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’s hard to say goodbye to the fresh air.

I’ve Gotten More Plugged Into My Local Community

Being the spouse who works from home means that more often than not I’m the one without the car. It’s 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’s become one of my favorite hobbies. I love growing my own food, but I also love being plugged into my community. I’m privy to neighborhood gossip, I meet people from all walks of life I wouldn’t have crossed paths with otherwise, and I even volunteered to start a kids program.

As an introvert, I’ve never been good at reaching out, but often having no wheels has forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve tried new activities I wouldn’t 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’s out of town.

One day I know my Subaru will decide it’s done climbing mountain passes and we’ll have to go car shopping. But I don’t think we’ll ever be as reliant as we once were on multiple vehicles. Being a one-car household is not just doable in America, it’s gratifying. Here’s how you can do it, too.

My Tips on How to Downsize to a One-Car Household

• Prioritize access to trails and/or public transit when deciding where to live. It’s rare (and often expensive) to find a truly walkable community here in the U.S., but easy access to a good trail system or local public transportation will help make a one-car lifestyle more accessible. We accidentally moved right beside a great trail that takes us into our small town or easily connects to other trails to get around Denver. It was the best decision we could have made, and now I’ll add it to my non-negotiable list for any future moves.

• Move close to your people. We made it a priority to move within 15 minutes of our core group of friends and it strengthened our sense of community and has made it much easier to only have one car. I know I have a network of people I can ask for a ride, or to grab something for me when they go to the store. If I get stuck somewhere longer than anticipated, I know my friends can let my dog out, or be there for me in case of an emergency.

• Localize your life. As a travel writer and editor, I’m guilty of the mindset that I need to find the best of everything, which can mean driving across the city for something as trivial as coffee. Having only one car has made me focus on my neighborhood much more. It turns out, my favorite brewery is three miles down the bike path from my apartment. My local coffee shop is just fine, and I’ve made the switch to a dentist, hair stylist and pottery class I can bike to. I’ve even discovered an incredible local butcher shop and farm market I would once have overlooked for the trendy spots I save on Instagram.
• Give yourself grace. Our transition happened overnight, but yours might not. Practice first. Challenge yourself to get somewhere on your bike, or by foot. Leave your car parked in the driveway. And when you do make the switch, know that there’s never any shame in calling an Uber, even if you have to load your bike in the back in the rain.