Our family cargo bike just rolled over to 10,000 miles. It took three years as our primary mode of kid transportation to get there.

Even as much as I talk up how great an electric cargo bike can be as a family-hauling vehicle, I may still be underselling it. 3,333 miles per year is equivalent to biking from Seattle to Florida every year. And we’re just getting around town, buying groceries, doing school drop-off, etc. Doing all this by the average US car would burn about 150 gallons of gas. Sure, in the grand scheme of global climate change, 150 gallons is barely anything. But at the same time, 150 gallons is a shit load of gasoline.

Better yet, we are having a blast. We all love this bike (a Tern GSD). Riding around this beautiful city, rain or shine, is a joyful part of each day. It is possible to be a car-free family without a cargo bike. We take transit often, and you all know I love our buses and trains. But the cargo bike makes so many tasks so much easier, and the electric assist means we choose the bike even when I’m feeling tired.

Want to shake up your life and stop spending so much time looking at the taillights in front of you or planning your life around freeway closures and major event traffic? Get yourself an electric cargo bike (or any bike). You might just find that you didn’t actually need your car as much as you thought you did, and you’ll discover a world of joy and adventure in its place.