My bank lets me deposit checks at ATMs. There are a few ATMs that have deposit envelopes that you fill out, put a check in, and deposit at an ATM. I just stop on my way home from work and deposit like that. I haven't actually set foot in a bank in about 6 months.


Really all errands can be taken care of on the way home. All of my 'stuff' (clothes, lunch, papers, etc.) are carried in one pannier, so when I know I need to run errands I bring both panniers as well as a trunk bag. There are a few adjustments...I get groceries at least once a week so I can get smaller loads that fit on the bike.

Another possibility -- since it doesn't seem like the answer to the question "how do we encourage people not to drive" is "buy us a car" -- would be to make some useful services available in the workplace or office park or whatever. Find out what errands people need to do, and find ways to provide them onsite. I've worked in office buildings or office parks with ATMs, bank branches, small satellite post offices, salons, convenience stores and florists.

You could try to get your workplace to switch to flex time schedule or something like 9-80 schedule. I work 9-80 which means in a two week payperiod we work eight 9-hour days (on mon-thurs), one 8-hour day (friday), and then that's 80 hours so the second friday is off! The office is split into two groups so that half the people are there on each friday. Because of this I have a weekday to take care of errands that are best done on weekdays.

I do'nt think I implied owning a second car solely to leave at work. I don't know the OP's circumstances, but my wife and I are a two car family. It's just very hard to not be, but the one car doesn't get a lot of use from April through October. If OP is married and they own two cars, the suggestion of leaving one at work might be an option. I do it, often.

I don't have anything constructive to add, but this is one of my biggest problems to. Except for it's "How do I go to lunch with people (from an old job)?" We both barely have time to fit lunch into the hour break with a car, and we aren't particularly close - it's so annoying when they call me out of the blue to ask about going to lunch and I'm like "I, uh, don't have a car today".

I'm fortunate enough to have a car sharing service right next to my work place as well as a metro transit center with plenty of buses. I can understand how this can be frustrating for a lot of folks.

I am able to do most of my errands on the way in or more often on the way home.
I can do the following on the way home with little or no detour ..... I'm lucky
Home depot
Bev and more
library
drugstore
safeway

I typically work through lunch, but occaisonally will run an errand......

I just skimmed the thread, but I use direct deposit, I would think a gov't agency could do this. I do nearly all my banking on line. I can't remember the last time I wrote a check. How about prescriptions by mail? We have Kaiser and my wife gets meds by mail. Also, order stuff off of the internet. That might take more up front planning. I guess the point I'm trying to make is use the internet more and let someone else do the driving.

As far as haircuts, maybe shave your head once a week on Sunday? J.K.

Zipcars are a neat idea, but there aren't any around here. I'd need to drive quite a ways to get a Zipcar!

The problem with NJ (one of them), is that if you don't live directly in the NYC-Philly corridor, mass transit is nearly non-existant. Like someone else said, it's partly about lifestyle choices. I hate cities and urban areas - just not for me. So I have to deal with suburban sprawl.

Perhaps some program where they give you a some coupon or some such for the cab company for x number of non-car days?

Most of my non day off errands are done on the way home from work. A haircut wouldn't be one of them since I would be well drenched before I got to my barber so I do that on the weekend.

I guess it is good there is nothing near my work where I want to or need to go. If I need to do an appointment of some kind I take time off and work a half day or not at all. Things come up that need to be handled during the week that is what personal days were given to us by the company I work for. While many people are able to take off an hour early or take a long lunch and such and save their personal days to extend their vacation time that wasn't he intention, and for those who can't take off an hour early or take a long lunch it amount to workplace issues.

That probably isn't going to help you with the question though. I am at the point where I have a real problem using any special accomidations because I ride my bike but it may be because in my job I"m just a bitter hr person which deals with people abusing accomidatations or complaining about others that get preferential treatment and other ethical violations so I'm in the no one gets anything zone.

My employer does offer a compressed workweek program. It has been extremely popular over the years. I was on it for over ten years. I got one weekday off every two weeks. Recently, with labor disputes, management's onging dislike for the compressed workweeks (can never schedule meetings on Mondays and Fridays) and now mandatory unpaid furlough days, the program restrictions have become too much of a pain to deal with. Working the shorter days also lets me commute in less heavy traffic. I do miss having three day weekends though...

Why do people think it is so odd that one might bike to the barber? I do that.

Step 1. Shower, wash hair.

Step 2. Ride to barber (5-8 miles, depending on which barber I use)

Step 3. Lock up bike.

Step 4. Hit a public bathroom. (Dump water bottle over head. Comb hair, wash face, wipe sweat off torso, change shirt.)

Step 5. Walk to barber shop.

Simple.

Kevin

I typically will just bike to my errands on lunch. My cage was in-op for two weeks due to brake caliper failure recently. Ended up biking to the UPS store on lunch when the ebay recycler sent me the wrong part. That same day after the UPS store, I manged to hit up my bank, and a local pizza place, and get back to work with enough time to shower. This was over the course of an hour.

I've also worked things out with my manager when I have to leave early to get something done. Usually will plan on getting to work earlier, or working a 30 minute lunch vs our normal hour.

O_O How much did you get away with? :roflmao2:

Today, I left my house a little early so I could stop at a stop to purchase a couple of cards. I also stopped at the drug store to refill a perscription. During my luch period i walked to the post office. I bring my lunch so i can eat beween clients. I pay the majority of my bills on line. On the weekends I use my trailer or I may elect to drive.

Even when I had a car, I wouldn't do errands at lunch, I would eat and read the paper.

Banking used to be a pain, but I got a bank account at the one near my house that's open 'til 7pm m-f, 10-4 sat. I don't trust ATM deposits at all.

I cut my own hair, don't have any dryclean only clothes, don't usually take pills, but when I do, Walgreens is open late, some 24 hours.

I hit the grocery almost everyday on my way home.

Well, my lunch break lasts 30 minutes at most, so there is no time to do any errands even when I drive. Just pretend your lunch break is shorter, and that errands are not part of lunch time, and you will find ways to do it after hours. If your lunch break is so long that you find eating to be inadequate to fill the time, consider yourself lucky!

Have my non-bicycle commuting wife run errands on her lunch hour for me. :love:

I don't because I don't like to leave my bike unattended apart from my office owned private parking garage. My office is walkable distance to a grocery store that I can walk to. No way will I want to leave my bike there. Too many goons loitering there. For bank stuff.... that's what secure internet banking is all about.

I do my stuff on the way to/from work. I ride in early and leave early (in by 7, out by 3) so the traffic isn't as bad, and waits at stores/etc is short.

Wow, do banks still have lobbies? I haven't been inside one for at least 10 years. I do everything either online or at an ATM.

I run my errands either on the way to work or on the way home. We get only a half-hour lunch, and I need the time off my feet by then anyway. I work at four different locations, so over the course of a week I get everywhere.

Two or three times a week I ride to work with empty panniers, and ride home with them full. (My commuting stuff fits in my trunk bag.)

A coworker was on the citizen board providing advice/oversight to our bus line, and he was working on getting the bus line to work w/ a zipcar style pool of cars to distribute cars around town (areas w/ enough potentially carless workers who could use them during the day). His intent was to get a deposit of cars here at our office, but it never came to pass. Still, seems like a sound idea.

That said, until the zipcars do turn up, we can check out company cars...

The bike commuter I knew who did this was a contract programmer. His wife and kids lived in Houston and he had a cheap apartment 300 miles away in Fort Worth where he worked. He drove home each weekend. His 25 miles r/t bike commuting was just how he filled his few hours of free time each workday in a cheap healthful pursuit. Many of the contractors on that project actually lived quite frugally so some were living in RVs, sharing apartments, no cable/internet.

So he wasn't leaving the car around the office just to run errands - but it did end up that that car was available to do so if he chose.