On 21/08/2016 18:57, NY wrote:
"JNugent" wrote in message
...
On 21/08/2016 05:39, Bret Cahill wrote:
Most people with normal 9 to 5 jobs and weekend activities generally
have hours or days to plan a trip.

But do they want to *have* to plan the trip, as opposed to being able to
decide on the spur of the moment when/if/where to go, dependent on
factors such as the weather.

When you need something quick, i.e., a lime or onion, cycle to the
corner market.

Er, which corner market is that? You evidently live in a town where
there are such things. I live in a large village but the only shop that
it has is (currently) a cafe that is open mainly for the benefit of
walkers; I don't think it even sells essential commodities such as a
loaf of bread or a pint of milk in its latest incarnation. It used to be
a post office and general store until shortly before we moved there and
since then has gone through three different incarnations as various
types of cafe.

The nearest convenience store is in the nearest town, about 10 minutes'
drive away, and it's probably about as quick to get to the full-size
supermarket in the centre of town, since there are no shops on the road
into town approaching from my direction so to get to a convenience store
(eg Londis) I'd have to go almost all the way in and then part of the
way back out in another direction.

There is a half-hourly bus service which is as fast as a car once you're
on the main road, but about 15 mins to walk to the main road in the
first place. There's also an occasional bus that stops right outside our
house and goes into town, but via a *very* tortuous route. I think the
only people who use it are the infirm who can't walk to the main road
for the fast service.

The main road is too busy and dangerous with traffic to/from the coast
to cycle along (only a very small amount of it has a cycle track or
pavement alongside of it). There is a back road which is quieter (though
being narrower it's probably not much safer) and it's probably about
twice as far. [Actually, I've just checked on GMap Pedometer site and
it's only about 1/10 mile longer - but there several nasty hills.]

Not having an "essentials" shop is a real nuisance on rare occasions,
though normally I combine driving into town for shopping with going in
for other reasons (eg going to bank to pay in cheques or going to tip to
take garden rubbish or going swimming).


A few years ago I had to stop driving for several months for health
reasons until I got the all-clear from the consultant, so I got very
used to walking out to the main road to get the bus either into the
nearby town to the doctor's surgery or else the opposite way into the
city for hospital appointments. Luckily it didn't take long after being
discharged form hospital until I was up to the walk to/from the bus stop.

It's a shame that the nearest shop is too far to go by bike, because I
might well cycle rather than driving if I only needed a few items that
would fit in a rucksack. But 8 miles each way is a bit too far and I'd
be a sweaty wreck by the time I got there - once you stop at the other
end there's no longer any cooling breeze!

None of this is remotely possible.

Ask any cyclist.

In Cyclist World, every journey is either do-able by bike OR is so
unimportant that it doesn't matter if you have to arrange it weeks in
advance.