dcrowell

We all know that planning ahead makes living car-free easier. Well, I'm still adjusting.

My dogs need dog food. The pet supply store has limited hours, but is close to my workplace. That means I've got to drag the trailer to work. That means I ride the other bike. That bike is partially disassembled.

I'm just lazy today. I need to do the dishes, air up tires on the trailer, re-assemble the bike and still get to bed on time. Instead, I'm poking around on Bike Forums.

zeppinger

Ya, planning ahead helps but so does trying new, different ways to solve your problems rather than treating your bike like a car replacement. How about having your big heavy dog food delivered from Amazon or safeway or cosco ect? How about making it yourself at home? How about trading in the dog for a smaller, more fuel efficient model?

Ok, that last one was a joke. You get the idea though right? The problem is you need dog food, not that you need to take the trailer to work and your bike is broken.

gerv 

If possible, I pick up whatever I need from the grocery store. I have a cat and the grocery store cat food and litter is more expensive than Petco, but I'm not into making special trips just to pick up pet supplies.

I'm painting my house currently and, luckily, I did find a quality paint at Walmart. It's actually the closest hardware store, so I was glad to get it there. I buy just one gallon at a time. When that runs out, I make the decision whether to buy another gallon or wait till next year to finish the job.

dcrowell

I've done my dishes and put the bike back together. I'll take care of the trailer in the morning.

My dogs used to eat plain old Purina from the grocery store, but my old yellow lab, Candy, has skin issues if she doesn't get her Nutro food. I did experiment with the raw-food diet for a while, and it worked well, except for the expense. So I'm not going to the pet store to save money, but to save her skin.

I assumed that I couldn't get Nutro on Amazon... I can, but it's a lot more expensive and $20 for shipping? Ack!

I'll deal with the trailer.

dcrowell

Oh, going to the hardware store is wonderful. Mine is less than two blocks away. I just walk. It's a small neighborhood place too. I love my location.

zeppinger

Of course I dont know where you live but there are a number of different chain stores that do delivery. When I worked as a delivery driver for Safeway.com in university the charge was $5 for any delivery over $50 total. I know you probably dont have safeway out there but there might be somethign similiar? Costco delivers for sure, but might not have that brand. Can you buy in bulk from Amazon for a discount of the delivery? Does dog food every go bad?

bragi

You may want to reconsider buying from Amazon. Apparently, the management there, from the top all the way down to warehouse managers, think it's totally OK to treat their workers with contempt:

https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...rehouse25.html

ro-monster

There are a number of online pet supply stores you could try. I like to get the 50-pound boxes of hay (for my rabbit) shipped to me; they're pretty unwieldy to bring home from the store on foot! The cost is similar either way. For dog stuff, a kennel supply house that caters to show dog owners usually has the best prices.

Ratchet

Now, to be fair, I don't know your personal reasons for going carfree, but if it is to make a smaller footprint, as seems to be the case for many outspoken car-free folks, then isn't this exactly the opposite of what you would want to do? Using a bike, even if it requires planning, and doing the dishes, and reassembling a bike would still be preferable to shipping yet another item and delivering it with a gas-guzzling UPS truck, right?

If that is the OP's prime motive, too, then yes, his problem seems to me to be that his bike is broken.

zeppinger

You know all that crap is delivered to the store with a "gas-guzzling truck" right?

dcrowell

Not only that, but if I have something delivered via UPS, the trucks are in the neighborhood everyday anyway. It's the expense of delivery that bothers me.

ro-monster

My thinking on having things delivered is that one delivery truck on the road, making a number of deliveries in the same neighborhood, is preferable to a bunch of cars each driving separately to the store to pick something up, so getting more people to order things online is a good thing overall.

Ridefreemc

That plane that is extremely inefficient and polluting is also already flying where I want to go so what's the problem with flying?

Sorry, off my sarcastic soap box now. You are right, it is more efficent than going out on your own in a car and getting it. Besides, we spend so much effort discussing gas mileage that we forget (or didn't know in the first place) that 2/3s of a car's pollution is in its manufacture and disposal.

Trailer is great for my 35 pounds of dogs food or 50 pounds of chicken feed, but it is a hassle getting it in and out of the elevator at work (for pickup on the way home). Need to make two trips and the other billion office workers think I am nuts, but I'm the one having all the fun!

Hippiebrian

Ahh, the voice of sanity. I dream of the day when the only motor vehicles you see are emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles. +1000

Ratchet

Except that the OP was going to ride his BICYCLE, not his car. And the number of delivery vans sent over 100 miles to deliver a single item is staggering...
See, this is where it breaks down for me, sorry if I am dense and just can't see the logic. It seems to me that many people (not necessarily anyone on this thread) are hippocritical in that they speak a good game in lowering the "carbon footprint" and the use of their own gasoline, but they'll easily ask someone else to use it/do it, and believe that because they didn't personally put the gasoline in a car, it wasn't their fault. I think attempting to live car-free is a great thing, and bless anyone who tries it, but I doubt that the tiny number of people who are doing so, and continuing to order things to be delivered, etc... are truly making much of a difference. In their own lives, yes, but in the grand scheme, until the majority of the people stop driving SUV's with 6 empty seats 5 miles away to their jobs, etc, not much is really changing. This isn't to say that they shouldn't continue, because it's those who are living it now who may inspire more people to try it. That and almost $4/gallon gasoline, that's probably helping.
I commute to work everyday. It most likely isn't changing my footprint a whole lot, since I am not car-free, but I am saving money on my own gasoline and happier when I get to work. I hope that more people will see me out there, and consider trying it themselves. Both for the impact on our planet and for their own health, emotional and physical.

zeppinger

I don't see your point. If we follow that logic then if we wish to make our footprint smaller in a "meaningful" way then we would all have to grow our own food in our gardens and ride llamas to work. Everything in industrial society is made and transported using dirty fuels. You can't get around that. So if you don't want to use fuel at all you would have to stop buying everything, including bikes and no one has suggested that. However, of course you can make your footprint smaller by not using a private car for every little thing. Eventually those gas guzzling delivery trucks could become electric and run on solar and wind power. For now though... you get the idea right?

Ratchet

What I am saying, to be quite blunt, is that if you think that you are making a difference to the planet by ordering from Amazon so that YOU don't have to ride your bicycle to the store to pick it up and YOU don't have to put gasoline in your own car, then YOU, specifically, are a hypocrite. Straight up.

gerv 

Mea culpa... I agree that the delivery van is eating up lots of fuel. The box from Amazon is always way to over-wrapped. Something just isn't right here.

As to the hypocricy... well... there's lots of that going around. I think all I can do is correct what I can and get on with it.

Roody

But don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

zeppinger

First of all, the OP never stated that he is car-free for environmental reasons. I am carfree for many reasons, one of them is environmental but the main one is social. Furthermore, if the inability to go get dog food by bicycle is the OPs only reason for owning a car then it would seem wise to me to have it delivered while doing everything else by bike, as a good compromise.

Roody

Gosh, zepp, where did you get so wise? In the Mongolian desert or something?

dcrowell

My reasons for living car-free were not discussed in this post. That wasn't the point. Getting dog food is not a reason to have a car. If I *had* too I could walk a mile to the nearest grocery store and buy a smaller bag.

My point was planning. Whether we ride a bike, walk, or take public transit, it takes more planning to get around, especially while hauling things. I'm still new at this car-free thing, and I was venting frustration at my own lack of planning.

Roody

And it's a good point. People talk about getting their bodies in shape for all the riding, but you have to get your mind in shape also. After a while the planning becomes second nature, and also you work out systems to make your life more efficient.

One thing that bugs me is the preparation time necessary for bike trips. You have to find all the things everybody needs like wallet, keys and and phone. You need to find your lights, locks, bike computer, mini-pump, emergency tools, and other bike gear. Remember to put air in the tires, carry the bike downstairs and outside. and so forth. It seems like it takes longer to get ready to ride than it does to ride somewhere!

chandltp

If I had to do that, I'd never ride. Sometimes locking the bike up at a stop feels like it takes longer than it should. Everything stays on my bike, except my wallet, keys, and phone. Those are in a small bag I carry with me.