I really admire those who can do without a car. With our rubbish public transportation I just don't know how I would get home from work without my car, especially in the winter when it is dark and the village I live in is only accessible by narrow winding roads. I don't think I would be alive for very long using my bike to commute.

Moonfroggy if you do are forced to join "the dark side" and get a car then I have found my Smarty really cheap to run.
It does 50-60miles per gallon if you drive it sensibly (so I get 40mpg!). I'm not sure how insurance works in the US but in the UK cars are classed in groups from 1 (cheapest) to 20 (crazy expensive Ferraris) and the smart is only in group 2 so is one of the cheapest cars. My car cost £6500 which I think is about $12,000? but the UK is one of the most expensive places to buy cars so they might be even cheaper when they go to the US.

The best thing is that the body panels can be removed in about 2 hours so you can swap with other people if you fancy changing the colour for a while!