linux_author

- OK, i can't *totally* go car free (have to evacuate in event of hurricane)...

- but i did go car free this morning for grocery shopping... left the house for a four-mile trip to the local weekly produce market...

- found out that my 'small' Timbuk2 carries six ears of white corn, four large Riskin tomatoes, and a quart of fresh jalapenos quite nicely...

- the nice thing is that i didn't even break a sweat (went early)...

- and when i got home, made a kick-butt lunch:

sliced tomato salad: salt, sugar, white vinegar, black pepper, chopped onions, and veg oil to taste

baked jalapeno poppers: slit, de-vein jalapenos; *lightly* stuff w/a creme cheese, onion powder, and chopped scallion mix; tightly wrap each in 1/2 bacon slice, fix w/toothpick; bake 375F for 30 minutes or until done...

yum!

Platy

Congratulations!

gerv 

If you can do a morning, perhaps your next step is to do a week w/o the car. I find that stringing together a number of these weeks really changes how I think about transportation and, by consequence, my habits as a consumer. Also, my sense of neighborhood and distance tend to change. I notice more things happening in the vicinity and I think of a trip beyond 10 miles as a major expedition. Maybe that's how the world worked in the pre-auto age.

linux_author

- agreed... (didn't i mention that i haven't used a full tank in four months? i do have to top off this week though, as it's the start of hurricane season, and getting gas right before or during an evacuation would be impossible)...

- interestingly, it was a buddy's cycling mishap that has prompted the nearly total abstinence from refined petroleum; he crashed badly in April, so instead of normally driving to meet him for a ride, i've instead been riding the road solo for exercise and (incidentally) running errands at the same time...

- it's working nicely! (and he's healing up from a separated shoulder and cracked rib)

Roody

Great job, linux author!

Combining trips like that is one of the keys to carfree cycling, IMO.

urban rider

I rode with my husband to get his car filled with gas. After he paid 70.00 for one tankful of gas there is no way I am driving anywhere. I am trying to get my daughter to take a picture of me in front of the gas station, which has gas at 3.89 per gallon.

Artkansas 

You bring up an interesting point. I've been through a few hurricanes in my time, but when I was watching the reports of Katrina evacuations, I wondered how many people evacuated by bicycle. With the congestion and fuel problems, the average speed of motorists was below that of a bicycle. With an Xtracycle and a Bob trailer you could be the smart one it seems.

megavovan

People would kill you cuz you move forward and they are stuck!!!

Roody

Try searching the forums. At least one guy took off from New Orleans on a bike and posted here about it.

Artkansas 

I searched on "evacuate katrina" and found the threads you were talking about. It was "Steve Godfrey" and reports of someone hopping on their mountain bike when the SUV ran out of gas.

Cosmoline

A bike is a huge advantage. You won't get stuck in traffic, and you'll have the mother of all tailwinds.

wahoonc

Having ridden out a couple of hurricanes...I agree until it becomes a head wind

BTW I was IN Mobile, AL when Katrina came thru

Aaron

vulpes

The distribution of the mortality and displacement wrought by Katrina along economic and racial lines clearly indicates the direction in which to look for the answer to the question of how so many members of such a wealthy, highly technological and supposedly well organized society were reduced to helplessness. Stephen Jackson's research and analysis pinpoints that answer. (Jackson is a former relief worker with operational and research experience in complex humanitarian emergencies, writing for the Social Sciences Research Council, a non-profit organization founded in 1923, investigates the disparities between natural disaster severity and mortality.)

"The answer to that question has been laid bare by Katrina: as Didier Cherpitel would no doubt still put it, the hurricane winds have starkly exposed the effects of deeper, structural causes: the marginalization, disenfranchisement and racial exclusion of America’s poor. Those holding the high ground – predominantly white and middle/upper class – could choose to go or stay. Those living in the lower areas were flooded out or drowned. Evacuation plans counted on being able to drive away from danger; but what percentage of New Orleans’ predominantly African-American underclass owned cars?"