Katrina Massey

We basically traded in our car for our cargo bike last fall. It’s got the box in front, so the kids can hear me when I’m talking to them. It’s also got electric assist and a rain cover, which is really important on the island.

We can walk to the grocery store, although more often we cycle. We live really close to all that stuff. We don’t do daycare and we don’t do school. But we do have swimming lessons and art lessons that we travel to.

It makes sense for so many different reasons. Economically, I am a photographer but first and foremost I am a mom who is home with her kids. We are essentially a single-income family. I know how much people spend on cars. Gas prices were going higher and higher, and [switching to cycling] cut out a major expense.

It also builds physical activity into our everyday life without us having to think about it. We’re not wasting hours at a gym on an exercise bike. Of course we’re concerned about environmental issues, especially having kids, as well as our quality of life. But I just didn’t want to sit in a car all day trying to get somewhere.

Even when we are travelling for an hour to go somewhere, we take our time with it. If my kids need something, we stop and meet the need. I didn’t want my kids growing up stuck in traffic.

I’m happier when I’m on a bike than when I’m in a car. It costs less money. It’s better for me. It’s better for the environment. It’s better for the city I live in. It promotes human interaction instead of people honking their horns at each other. All of those things combined just made it a no-brainer for us.

We overconsume mobility when we have a vehicle. We drive places we don’t have to.

Not owning a car doesn’t mean you don’t have access to a car if you need one. But if you add up how much you’re spending on your car for a year so that if you maybe want to take a road trip twice a year, you could easily rent a car or join a car-share program.

The only thing is that my partner’s work is downtown. I would prefer to live where we work but right now it’s too expensive to live downtown. He rides most days. This year we got a bus pass for most of the winter.

Strangers are impressed and baffled by it. People give us more props than we probably deserve because they think it’s this grand sacrifice.

It’s not hard. It’s just what we do. We enjoy it. It’s not something we’re suffering through because we’re these diehard environmentalists who just couldn’t possibly own a car. I’m happy on my bike.

The only thing that irritates me is when people think it’s a risky thing that I bike with my kids. Everything else I’m fine with. When people say I’m brave or that it’s risky, I think: Do you know how many children are injured or killed every year in motor-vehicle accidents? If biking is unsafe in any way, it’s an infrastructure issue; it’s not an issue with cycling.