The other day I was at an older relative's birthday party and I was chatting with a friend of the birthday boy about college life and life in DC. In the conversation I mentioned that I don't have a car and she asked me "then how do you date in college?" At first I was surprised because I had never considered the idea that being carless could hurt my romantic life. True, as my brother said "want to hop into the backseat of my bike just doesn't have the same romantic ring to it," and not having a car makes it harder to go pick up a date and neck on lover's lane. But I do live in a city with a great public transit system so getting around the city is not a problem so you could just meet a date at a certain spot and not pick them up in the car.
We can break down the bike vs. car in a city debate while on the subject of dating into a few categories (I will exclude using cabs or carshare programs from the carfree side as the issue is with using cars not owning them)
1. Getting to/from date location
2. Getting to/from your date
3. Transit for the date
4. privacy *wink*
5. Appearance of biker/driver and physical desirability
6. Flirting while using your vehicle
-----
1. Since I don't have a car I can only go on dates to certain places. Places that are either walkable or bikable from my house or places by public transit. But since I live in DC and am an avid biker I can get to pretty much any part of the city in half an hour. So there are few date locations I cannot go to because of my car-free status. However, there are safety issues as there are many parts of DC I where I wouldn't want to bike at night or leave my bike locked up for a while (I had a bike seat stolen on a date in U street once, that was not fun). So you learn to get to those places by other means. In the end, with a little planning and creativity being carless should not alter your dating mobility and choice of locations to visit while on a date. Traffic is a huge issue in cities often making it faster to bike or take mass transit to most places than drive there (especially considering parking time) and since being perpetually late because you were stuck in traffic can seriously ruin your chances with someone, I'm going to chalk this up to to being car-free
Advantage: Bike
2. An issue in dating is "geographical desirability". You may like the guy/girl but if they live way on the other side of town (and you are lazy) it might be hard to hang out all the time. Living car-free does limit your zone of geographically desirability encouraging you to date local (and adding a whole new meaning to the word locavore). But since I live in a city with relatively high population density, and as people tend to hang out close to their homes the odds of falling for someone geographically undesirable is low.
Advantage: Even
3. Sometimes while on a date you want to go to a certain restaurant followed by an event at a venue across town, if this is the case having a car is an advantage. Yes parking fees are annoying and traffic can be stressful and make you irritable (never good on a date) but in the end it's easiest to hope in your car to drive to the Kennedy Center from dinner in Adams Morgan than to take the Metro and walk. If you are car-free you can adapt to that and keep the date-time travel at a minimum but that is a concession.
Advantage: Car
4. Ok, this one is going to have to go to the Car as well. You can do more intimate things in a car than on a bike (you can try but I don't think that would be very safe nor private). I'm not saying it is or is not classy to do certain things in a car, I am just saying you can do it.
Advantage: Car
5. This is the most complicated and subjective of the categories. First we'll look at appearance while using the vehicle. Is having a car a sign of wealth and power? What does it say about a guy (for this I'm going to use gender stereotypes, I know I shouldn't but I am) who drives a BMW? Are women (or other men) going to think he is wealthy and thus desirable or will they think it's silly to have a car in the city and thus not like him. Will a girl/guy see a guy in a F-350 in a city and think he's manly or will they think he's compensating? Does a guy in a helmet look dorky or does he look sexy and responsible since you know he'll always put on his helmet before he goes for a ride?
Next there is a question of physical appearance. Biking is a form of exercise and someone who bikes around all day is likely to be a little trimmer than someone who drives around all day. Yes there are fat bikers and thin drivers and yes sexiness is not a matter of fat vs. thin but their are social constructs that (etc I'm not getting into that now). There is also the sweat issue but that can be easily handled by the biker (and some people look good when they're sweaty) so that's not a big problem. Also, some people look really good in those biking suits. Also if you are a bad driver and parker (I cannot parallel park) you can look like a grade A fool on a date.
Advantage: Bike
6. I think it is mad sketchy when some driver pulls up to someone else and tries to flirt. It doesn't work and it's super awkward (and I can imagine frightening for the pedestrian). I think it might be because it is obvious that someone is the pursuer and the other is being pursued (or you can say predator and prey if you want to make it sound worse) and the whole threat of kidnapping. On the other hand a biker can always use the excuse of taking a short rest to chat with someone and since it would be very hard to kidnap someone and make off on a bike, both parties are more relaxed when it comes to flirting on a bike. Yes this does tie back to #4, but if you are a driver and you are flirting with someone for the first time and the issue of #4 is relevant you either are the slickest person alive or money is being exchanged and that's not cool.
Advantage: Bike
So the (shocking and very unbiased) results are Biking 3, Car 2 and a tie when it comes to dating. So go ahead, ditch your car, hop on your bike and paint the town red. Just remember to always wear a helmet and try to avoid causing any accidents.