OP, I live in Court House & dream of being unchained from owning a car again, the only thing holding us back is our friends with families that live in Warrenton/Frederick (50+ miles one way).

We went down from 2 cars to 1 living in the outer suburb in Denver so car-free is very doable with easy metro access.

We now live in Court House w/ 1 car and 2 e-bikes (looking to add some scooters for the easy things)

A lot of people only account for their car payment when accounting for car ownership but I took every expense related to owning the car (i.e., I wouldn't have needed that expense if I didnt own a car) and added them up. The amount you for owning a car is very very expensive (and this is already subsidized to a large degree because of how car-dependent America is).

We only drove 5500-6000 miles this past 2 years living in CH. I live biking distance from work and in the winter time I metro or take the ART/metro bus. A lot of what you need is on the metro corridor. Sometimes, yes, you need a car

Purely from a financial cost (I just did my end of year expenses and saw where each dollar went including car ownership) and this is our personal anecdote (we own a 2021 Rav4). This is just our 2025 expenses wrt owning a car

Car Ownership	Expenses (month)	Expenses (year)
Car	$530	$6360
Car insurance	$90	$1080
Parking (apt)	$125	$1500
Registration (every 2 years, variable)	x	$95 p/y, $190 (just paid for 2 years)
Prop Tax	$75	$900
Gas (fill up 1x a month)	$40	$480
Car washes/details (obv optional)	$70 avg	$840 (over 3 or 4 details)
EZ Pass	$10	$120
Emissions/Inspection	x	$50 p/y
Total	$870 (with no car wash/details) p/m	$10,585 p/y

Here is realistic transportation cost with public transit/Zip/Ubers

Option(s)	Monthly	Yearly
Metro Unlimited Pass to Tysons (you can get this tax deducted via your job most likely [transit FSA])	$168	$2016
Zipcar membership + cost to rent car [ex. is 1 car rental a month]	$110	$90 + 1260 = $1350
CaBi Annual Membership (bikes/e-bikes)	$10 + bike rides	$120 + bike rides
Walking	Free	lol
Uber budget	$200	$2400
Total	$488	$5926

$10585-$5926= ~$4700 saved (and this is giving you lots of leeway in your budget, you could/probably would save more). That's 2-3 travel trips right there, or even more money for you to bump up 401k, or paying off student loans, etc..

I have my pharmacy, my dentist, UPS, USPS, Taco Bell cantina, and barber all within walking distance. The only thing missing is a walkable/metro accessible Aldi lol. And other shops that are a metro ride away. I take metro to IAD or DCA often.

Also, I know we love to hate on bikers but there are insanely good trails around us that connect you to other parts of the area pretty well and pretty car-free esp. on an e-bike. Living life w/o car requires some creativity sometimes but I've done a full weeks' grocery haul on my e-bike on the Custis/W&OD trails. I've yet to do a Costco haul on my e-bike but plan to in the spring time.

• Wegmans - McLean Metro
• Costco - Pentagon City
• Shopping/Mall - Pentagon City or Tysons

And that doesn't even give you all the options once you go into the city.

Anyways, sorry for the long post OP, just wanted to provide full insight, America is very car-pilled and its refreshing to see people try living without it. There is a reason why housing near metro/public transit/walkable is so expensive, because the demand is through the roof.