Spend 5K on a really nice commuter electric bicycle. You'll be doing a solid for the Environment and you'll have an EV that makes you fitter.
I don't know that I'd do it again. The number of avoided-death-by-split-second close calls that I racked up in about five years is just too high... Now that I'm a bit older and have children, seems irresponsible.
This is in a city with relatively developed bike infrastructure, including separated lanes in some places. (Some) drivers just don't give a damn, and while I wish it was different, I don't see it changing any time soon either.
(Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Malmö)
Something else is the problem. Maybe infrastructure or terrain.
I use one of these: https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/electric-boda-boda/
A relative uses one of these in the Boston area, year round:
https://www.ternbicycles.com/us/bikes/472/gsd
A friend loves this for their family:
https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/packster-70/
Not cheap, but an order of magnitude less than a car ($10k/year by AAA’s numbers) over the lifetime of the bike.
It wasn’t cheap initially ($7000 CAD), but the cost per km drops enormously every year while the bike still rides as well as ever. The kids have all loved it, too. My youngest is disappointed when we drive places - he wants to walk or ride all year.
We do have a temperate climate which helps. Our cold days in winter are typically around 5 degrees outside of cold snaps, but even then we rarely dip below 0.
It’s a major quality of life improvement for us. They’re amazing grocery getters, you don’t get all sweaty on them, kids tend to love it, and they’re quite a bit easier to buy, maintain, and park than a car.
We went with the spicy curry because of its insane cargo capacity (we’ve used it for its full capacity many times, especially while bike camping), but you can spend far less if you don’t need to carry that weight.
When you weigh the pros and cons though, the condo can be alright. It's not my ideal at all but the things like the yuba can make that lifestyle so much more livable. More time with the family, more time to get out of the home if we want to, quick grocery shops, less money on commuting, etc - I think it could be alright. We fortunately live in a small city where you're only an hour drive from nature, so I suppose we could turn that into our "yard".
The last thing I want is my kids sitting in a car for 30-60 minutes every morning on their way to school. Or on a public transit bus, transferring and rushing around so they can sit in school for 6 hours only to bus back the same way. I know plenty of kids do it and they're fine, it's all fine, but it's not what I want for them. I wouldn't want it for myself. There's something to be said about shedding ideals (especially with living situations) but letting my kids be kids is one I don't want to compromise on.
And that's to say nothing of the opportunistic catalytic converter thefts if you park your car on the street overnight.
With a bike you don't expect it to be there after locking it in the street for more than 15 minutes. I don't know anybody personally whose car was stolen.
Is there similar plans in the US or at least some states?