[demosthenes14]

This isn't true, talk to folks in downtown Seattle. Anecdotally, I have a group of 5 that rents a car to go hiking about every other weekend. Splitting $70 between 5 people twice a month beats buying a car by... a lot. Know tons of others that do this.

[rrix2]

On the subject of Seattle, there are county transit busses which go to some trailheads: https://trailheaddirect.org/