For many of us in the Unites States, it's just all that easy to go car-free. Large part of the country simply do not have the public transportation infrastructure needed to make that very viable, including where I live and work. I used to be able to walk to work when I lived in downtown Indianapolis, but I still needed a car to get around for other things. Indianapolis's public transport is a good 20 years (or more) behind where it needs to be for a city of this size and population. While it is possible to get around by bike, the downtown is surrounded by a ring in nearly every direction of crime ridden neighborhoods. Safety issues aside, the roads are in horrible shape and extremely congested. Even the MUT that goes from downtown to the northside of the city isn't a great option--although I've used it many a time--as their are regular attacks along it and is home to packs of stray dogs. The current plan is to build a light high-speed rail network, but I'll believe it when I see it. The city's bus system is otherwise the pits.

Now I live 25 miles south of where I work. While I have a higher tolerance than some for riding on busy roads, there is no safe way for me to commute by bike (even if I could handle a daily 50-mile bike commute, which I can't). We moved to the town where we now live because it's equi-distant from my job to the north and my husband's job to the south. I don't like having a commute that long, but the alternative was for one of to have one hell of a commute or to find different jobs. Neither was appealing in the least. We both are well settled at our current employers, and I could have easily taken a 50 percent decrease in salary had I taken a job in the city where my husband works.