I know plenty of people in pretty affluent (well, relative to the earth, absurdly affluent) areas who have kids, a car, and still schlep their kids around by bi

I know plenty of people in pretty affluent (well, relative to the earth, absurdly affluent) areas who have kids, a car, and still schlep their kids around by bike / train / (rarely) bus. When I lived there I had an old honda scooter I'd use to get around. Where I live now there are enough myopic elderly people driving champagne toyota camrys playing bumper cars that I don't feel safe operating a 2 wheeled vehicle. This is the "boston / oakland / summerville / cambridge" hipster zone. Some stick it out and some move to Marin or Andover. [edit] I should say -- I feel far safer putting my kid on a train than I would letting him carpool to school with other kids his age. Even with the very lethal street crossing. Kids are terrible drivers, especially if you put more than one of them in the car at the same time.