Cities like Seattle and Boston have generally OK public transit. But pretty much everyone I know personally (tends towards older) in Boston still owns a car because they do frequent weekend activities and regularly visit friends outside the city.
I (French) lived in Boston for 9 months and I was pleasantly surprised how good the city is for cycling, there was not that many dedicated infrastructures (except along the Charles river, which still help a lot) but the reasonable density of the left bank means there's lots of small streets with very few cars and you can go pretty easily from one place to another: I was commuting from center Somerville to Chinatown and except during the few months with 2 meters of snow everywhere, cycling was much more pleasant and faster than public transport, and I would never have considered driving a car there given the cost and traffic.
Oh I didn't know it was a only French thing to name places this way. TIL
To add to that, the rate of car ownership has actually been increasing here, although I should acknowledge Boston’s percentage of young professionals is greater than in previous decades. Also, our MBTA ridership is still below pre-pandemic levels
You're probably right about young professionals. I'd guess that relatively few mid-career+ professionals don't own a car. But I know a number of recent hires at my company who were typically interns at a university in the city and quite a few are basically continuing their college lifestyle for now (including leaning on their friends who do own cars).
I think last time I looked, both T and commuter rail ridership were still way down. Maybe a bit over 50%. I know when I take the train in a train that would be packed standing room only starting at at least Waltham there are almost always empty seats today.