Can you make it to the market on a bike?

"Bill Z." wrote in message
...
"Jack May" writes:

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

Multiple trips (e.g., on separate days) to "bring back a small amount of
food" means the food you eat is fresher. It's a "quality of life" thing.
Plus, you get some exercise, and most people don't get enough.

Not to mention, if you buy a week's worth of groceries or more at a time,
the chances go up that something will happen that you didn't plan on that
will mean that you don't use one or more days' allocation of groceries. If
you count the money wasted and the environmental cost of buying food you are
not going to eat, buying 1-2 days' perishables makes sense. If you have to
work an extra hour a week due to buying food you're not eating, then you
could have spent the time shopping and have fresher food to boot.

On Jul 24, 8:25 pm, "Amy Blankenship"
wrote:
"Bill Z." wrote in message

...

"Jack May" writes:

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

Multiple trips (e.g., on separate days) to "bring back a small amount of
food" means the food you eat is fresher. It's a "quality of life" thing.
Plus, you get some exercise, and most people don't get enough.

Not to mention, if you buy a week's worth of groceries or more at a time,
the chances go up that something will happen that you didn't plan on that
will mean that you don't use one or more days' allocation of groceries. If
you count the money wasted and the environmental cost of buying food you are
not going to eat, buying 1-2 days' perishables makes sense. If you have to
work an extra hour a week due to buying food you're not eating, then you
could have spent the time shopping and have fresher food to boot.

Excellent points, Bill and Amy. I've become so accustomed to shopping
this way I didn't even list those benefits. Another bonus for meat
eaters is if you're in your local butcher shop every couple of days,
they remember you and will do extra cuts for you without a hassle.

On Jul 24, 10:23 am, "Jack May" wrote:

I will NEVER drive my car in town. I use it strictly for going to other
towns in the vicinity. You can go anywhere in this town of Worthington,
Minnesota (12,000 pop.) in 15 minutes by bicycle at the most. Why the hell
would anyone except an idiot want to drive these very small distances. And
yet, EVERYONE does!

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense

What you do with your time is a matter of preference. Some join the
rat race, and some simply refuse. For the latter a bike makes sense.

On Jul 24, 4:29 pm, "Jack May" wrote:
"Peter Clinch" wrote in message

...





Jack May wrote:

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

Which is why I use a bigger bike. I've carried a two seater sofa on my
freight bike with no great trouble, and it easily fits a trolley load of
groceries. Doesn't take significantly longer, and any degree which it is
longer is easily repaid by me being fitter and healthier and not spending
so much on the car, so I lose less time elsewhere.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

There's more to time than the immediate short term trip. But even if that
is all there is to it then a bike will often be quicker. Bikes routinely
work quicker than cars in congested urban settings: if that weren't the
case, cycle couriers wouldn't exist.

But very few of us live in a congested urban area.

If we ride the bike to the store, there is usually no place to lock it up
making it vulnerable to being stolen and making it a very expensive trip.-

Simply try not to shop there --and let them know.

On Jul 24, 5:08 pm, "Edward Dolan" wrote:

But you are not far from wrong. Essentially, it is NEVER 100% safe to be on
the road with motor vehicles. That is why I am such a proponent of bike
paths. Why there are not more of them is one of the eternal mysteries of
life.

I think it has to with the lions considering the frugal bikes mere
peanuts.They are still important to the monkey though...

RIDING A BIKE COSTS PEANUTS

OK, since the lion (for whom "peanuts" is not important) refuses to
listen to the monkey asking for bike facilities,* let's scrutinize the
secrets ($$$) of the political jungle, where "democracy" is the word
of choice...

"The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom'
nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of
participation" -A. d. Benoist

Then I'd assume that 50% of the American public and 80% of the young
who don't vote do not live in democracy. Or perhaps they see it as a
waste of time --and money.

"Remember the Golden Rule: Those with the Gold, Rule" (saying)

"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (title of book)

And this one...

"Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the
government listens" -Alastair Farrugia

Which explains why bike lanes won't happen in the foreseeable future.

On Jul 24, 1:29 pm, "Jack May" wrote:
"Peter Clinch" wrote in message


There's more to time than the immediate short term trip. But even if that
is all there is to it then a bike will often be quicker. Bikes routinely
work quicker than cars in congested urban settings: if that weren't the
case, cycle couriers wouldn't exist.

But very few of us live in a congested urban area.

True, perhaps. But for short enough trips, the other benefits of
cycling are worth the slight extra time, in my view. Certainly, up to
about two miles - if level terrain - the increased time is negligible.


If we ride the bike to the store, there is usually no place to lock it up
making it vulnerable to being stolen and making it a very expensive trip.

There may be no _official_ place to lock it up, but IME there's always
_some_ place I can lock it. You just have to be a little creative.

- Frank Krygowski

"Jack May" wrote in message
. ..

If we ride the bike to the store, there is usually no place to lock it up
making it vulnerable to being stolen and making it a very expensive trip.

That would be terrible. I ride my bike on errands, to sporting events, to
the market, and to lunch or dinner in our local entertainment districts. In
every area I've found places to park my bike. And in all those areas it is
closer than where I would have parked my car. You should complain to your
city transportation committee.

"donquijote1954" wrote in message
ps.com...
Well, I thought I'd never live long enough to do such a thing in
America. It keeps me fit, and hungry enough to enjoy all that great
(and not so great) food, as well as keeps me away from the crowd that
uses an SUV to go and get a gallon of milk --or worse, cigarettes.
Luckily in my new place I can do such a thing, if not by design by
chance. I can ride leisurely my cruiser with huge baskets to the
supermaket through some quiet, safe streets, about 0.7 mile. I bet
most American are not so lucky, and I don't think the share of bicycle
use for shopping and similar real life errands is any higher than the
percentage that commutes by bike, about 1% or so, right?

Regrettably, my happiness ends at this point as going any further
places me right on major roads, where the major predators rule. And
that's a jungle that makes me nervous. Great places are within biking
distance, up to 15 miles, along parks, beaches and scenic places, but
NO BIKE LANES are provided, and I just play it safe. As a matter of
fact the need to enjoy all this made me found another way to get out
there in the open air without being at the very bottom of the food
chain. So I just got a scooter that allows me to drive with traffic,
if not strictly pollution free, at least rewarding me with a good
80MPG.

So this is my modest effort to fight Global Warming, and I hope I live
long enough in these Darwinian roads to tell my offspring. And now off
I go with my bike (buying nothing in particular, just going to the
market for the hell of it)...

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

BIKE FOR PEACE
http://webspawner.com/users/bikeforpeace


what do you do with a gallon of milk - sounds much more dangerous than
cycling?

Jack May wrote:

But very few of us live in a congested urban area.

For some values of "us". Actually, millions live in such areas, it's
entirely normal for a large slice of the population.

If we ride the bike to the store, there is usually no place to lock it up
making it vulnerable to being stolen and making it a very expensive trip.

For some values of "usually". I can't think of any stores round here
where I can't lock my bike. Do the stores round your way have no
signposts, lampposts, fenceposts? At the main grocery store I can lock
my bike right by the door: can't park anywhere near that close unless
you're disabled, so I'll be on my way while most people are wheeling
their trolleys over the parking lot.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"donquijote1954" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think it has to with the lions considering the frugal bikes mere
peanuts.They are still important to the monkey though...

RIDING A BIKE COSTS PEANUTS

OK, since the lion (for whom "peanuts" is not important) refuses to
listen to the monkey asking for bike facilities,* let's scrutinize the
secrets ($$$) of the political jungle, where "democracy" is the word
of choice...

"The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom'
nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the highest measure of
participation" -A. d. Benoist

Then I'd assume that 50% of the American public and 80% of the young
who don't vote do not live in democracy. Or perhaps they see it as a
waste of time --and money.

"Remember the Golden Rule: Those with the Gold, Rule" (saying)

"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (title of book)

And this one...

"Freedom is when the people can speak, democracy is when the
government listens" -Alastair Farrugia

Which explains why bike lanes won't happen in the foreseeable future.

Your idiotic platitudes aside, the reason why bike lanes won't happen is
because of democracy, the vast majority of people do not bike and therefor
do not demand bike lanes. Democracy in action.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm for bike lanes because they're a lot cheaper
than mass transit that probably will not be used. Bike riding is the perfect
antidote to many of our's, and society's, problems and I wish the naysays
would not lump this one in with the rest of what idiotic greens spout off.