More Australians are looking to ditch their cars. But the alternatives haven’t quite arrived

Nathan Mackie rides his ebike on the bike track next to Ruthven station, but says it’s not ‘the most accessible thing if people are struggling to get by’. Photograph: Nadir Kinani/The Guardian

In mid-February, Nathan Mackie and his wife sold their car. It had become too expensive to keep.

“We just had this hole in our budget,” Mackie says. “We were spending $1,400 on insurance a year, and before we got a concession it was $850 for rego. Plus the cost of diesel.”