Originally Posted by
gerv
I'm just wondering how others out there accomplish this? I have pretty much illustrated to everyone in my family that you can use a bicycle for about 90% of your urban transportation needs. I bike to work, shopping, entertainment....
Still, they seem to linger on with a dependency on the car. My wife, for example, has an excellent commuter style bike, but seems unwilling to join me on a bike-to-shop trip. My sons seem likewise disposed to bike for pleasure, but seldom for transportation.
Anyone here work their way through this?
Your wife is not dumb. If she's got the physical strength to walk to the store and carry groceries home, it's a good bet her bike is not safe for the job. She may not know why, but there is a reason. And well, if she can't handle groceries by walking, it's a safe bet that a bike wouldn't be any better. She's not strong enough. If it's not safe to walk to the grocery store well... there's your answer also. It takes a fairly confident cyclist to manage heavy traffic. (I'm presuming the grocery store of choice has a safe place for bike lockup, that she's got panniers or baskets that will handle the needed cargo volume, and her bike is comfortable for 20 miles or more of riding.)
Typical 1x a week load of groceries for 2 adults is in the 30-50 lb range, depending on how many staples need to be restocked and on how much they buy in the way of beverages. A gallon of milk is roughly 10lbs. With teenagers, figure that weight estimate doubles. More if they're the sort of teenager that drinks milk like water or is at the HUNGRY phase. So unless a bike is well designed for loaded touring, one woman getting groceries by bike when she's got teenagers is just going to say "screw this" and get in the car. If it's at all hilly, with the usual idiocy of stop signs and stoplights at the bottom of hills, she's likely to go "screw it" even if the bike is a well designed loaded tourer.
When you look at the problem in those terms, she's got at least one good reason why she's not getting groceries by bike. If you are serious about going car free, talk with her and find out why.