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Can you make it to the market on a bike?



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 23rd 07, 12:21 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
donquijote1954
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Posts: 2,851
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

Well, I thought I'd never live long enough to do such a thing in
America. It keeps me fit, and hungry enough to enjoy all that great
(and not so great) food, as well as keeps me away from the crowd that
uses an SUV to go and get a gallon of milk --or worse, cigarettes.
Luckily in my new place I can do such a thing, if not by design by
chance. I can ride leisurely my cruiser with huge baskets to the
supermaket through some quiet, safe streets, about 0.7 mile. I bet
most American are not so lucky, and I don't think the share of bicycle
use for shopping and similar real life errands is any higher than the
percentage that commutes by bike, about 1% or so, right?

Regrettably, my happiness ends at this point as going any further
places me right on major roads, where the major predators rule. And
that's a jungle that makes me nervous. Great places are within biking
distance, up to 15 miles, along parks, beaches and scenic places, but
NO BIKE LANES are provided, and I just play it safe. As a matter of
fact the need to enjoy all this made me found another way to get out
there in the open air without being at the very bottom of the food
chain. So I just got a scooter that allows me to drive with traffic,
if not strictly pollution free, at least rewarding me with a good
80MPG.

So this is my modest effort to fight Global Warming, and I hope I live
long enough in these Darwinian roads to tell my offspring. And now off
I go with my bike (buying nothing in particular, just going to the
market for the hell of it)...

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

BIKE FOR PEACE
http://webspawner.com/users/bikeforpeace

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  #2  
Old July 23rd 07, 03:35 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
William
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Posts: 36
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

I recently purchased a brand new Road Bike that is really nice. I
figured I didn't need anything more rugged since I do most of my
biking in the city. I can bike theoreticly anywhere in the city, but
there are a few neighborhoods I like to avoid, but not many and I have
experience biking through them anyways. In Minneapolis, there are a
lot of designated bike paths, such as the Greenway (
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/images/greenway.jpg ) which makes it
much easier to get around.

  #3  
Old July 23rd 07, 03:37 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Cathy Kearns
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Posts: 120
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

Yes, I go to the market on the bike all the time. Actually, there are
several different markets I bike to. Not all marketing routes have bike
paths, but most are either not all that busy, or have shoulders, so I'm fine
with that.

  #4  
Old July 23rd 07, 03:51 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Edward Dolan
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Posts: 14,212
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?


"William" wrote in message
ups.com...
I recently purchased a brand new Road Bike that is really nice. I
figured I didn't need anything more rugged since I do most of my
biking in the city. I can bike theoreticly anywhere in the city, but
there are a few neighborhoods I like to avoid, but not many and I have
experience biking through them anyways. In Minneapolis, there are a
lot of designated bike paths, such as the Greenway (
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/images/greenway.jpg ) which makes it
much easier to get around.


Always use the bike paths whenever you can. They are much more pleasant than
using the mean streets where you have to compete with motorized vehicles.

I believe Minneapolis to have one of the finer bike path systems in the
country. Not to use them would mean that you are an idiot, yet there are
some who would advise that since they believe that a bike path will slow you
down. Hey, better to slow down and live than hurry to your death on those
mean streets.

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota



  #5  
Old July 23rd 07, 04:41 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Brian Huntley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 641
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

On Jul 22, 6:21 pm, donquijote1954
wrote:
Well, I thought I'd never live long enough to do such a thing in
America.


It can be pleasant, eh? I use a mix of bucket panniers, a backpack-on-
a-rack, or the backpack and a cardboard box from the store on the
rack. We live in one of those Toronto neighborhoods that's like a
village, so a lot is possible.

This weekend, I rode a couple kms to Kensington Market. One in the
market proper (Baldwin and Augusta), travel by anything but bike or
foot would have been impossible. I went to the butcher, the
greengrocer, the cheese shop, and the nuts and spice and tea store.
All shops were active, but I never had to stand in line long enough to
even *look* for an Enquirer. Zoom zoom.

  #6  
Old July 23rd 07, 05:25 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 101
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

On Jul 22, 7:21 pm, donquijote1954
wrote:
Well, I thought I'd never live long enough to do such a thing in
America. It keeps me fit, and hungry enough to enjoy all that great
(and not so great) food, as well as keeps me away from the crowd that
uses an SUV to go and get a gallon of milk --or worse, cigarettes.
Luckily in my new place I can do such a thing, if not by design by
chance. I can ride leisurely my cruiser with huge baskets to the
supermaket through some quiet, safe streets, about 0.7 mile. I bet
most American are not so lucky, and I don't think the share of bicycle
use for shopping and similar real life errands is any higher than the
percentage that commutes by bike, about 1% or so, right?

Regrettably, my happiness ends at this point as going any further
places me right on major roads, where the major predators rule. And
that's a jungle that makes me nervous. Great places are within biking
distance, up to 15 miles, along parks, beaches and scenic places, but
NO BIKE LANES are provided, and I just play it safe. As a matter of
fact the need to enjoy all this made me found another way to get out
there in the open air without being at the very bottom of the food
chain. So I just got a scooter that allows me to drive with traffic,
if not strictly pollution free, at least rewarding me with a good
80MPG.

So this is my modest effort to fight Global Warming, and I hope I live
long enough in these Darwinian roads to tell my offspring. And now off
I go with my bike (buying nothing in particular, just going to the
market for the hell of it)...

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLEhttp://webspawner.com/users/donquijote

BIKE FOR PEACEhttp://webspawner.com/users/bikeforpeace


I'm car-free, and I can haul a LOT of groceries with my cargo trike:

http://drumbent.com/trike.html

Also, since it's big and takes up a whole lane I don't get hassled at
all in terms of asserting my right to be on the road (having lights
and turn signals helps).

And not only can I get groceries with it, I just moved house with it
too:

http://drumbent.blogspot.com/2007/07...ng-photos.html

Mark

  #7  
Old July 23rd 07, 05:28 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Jens Müller
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 42
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

donquijote1954 wrote:

Regrettably, my happiness ends at this point as going any further
places me right on major roads, where the major predators rule. And
that's a jungle that makes me nervous. Great places are within biking
distance, up to 15 miles, along parks, beaches and scenic places, but
NO BIKE LANES are provided, and I just play it safe.


Why do you think that bike lanes are safer than the carriageway? And why
do you think the carriageway isn't safe?
  #8  
Old July 23rd 07, 08:07 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
Jens Müller
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 42
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

Edward Dolan wrote:

Always use the bike paths whenever you can. They are much more pleasant than
using the mean streets where you have to compete with motorized vehicles.


Always avoid bike paths when it is legally possible. It is much safer
that way.
  #9  
Old July 23rd 07, 11:38 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
archierob
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 46
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

Well done!

One only has to read Bill Bryson's book 'Notes from a Big Country' to
realise just how pervasive the automobile is in America. Trying to get
anywhere other than by car is difficult - even crossing over the road
from his hotel to a diner. The one anecdote that made me howl with
laughter was when he returned to the US for a while and invited his
neighbours to dinner -they came by car! They drove down their drive,
turned left and then drove up his drive.

My weekly shop at Lidls is via my 'shopping bike' front rack, rear
rack, panniers, plastic box on rear rack, big solid mountain back
carrying all. Though I say it myself I have it down to a fine art
now - much to the amusement of my 4 x 4 'Chelsea tractor' owning
neighbours.


  #10  
Old July 23rd 07, 01:26 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc,rec.bicycles.soc,uk.rec.cycling,alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent,alt.planning.urban
donquijote1954
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,851
Default Can you make it to the market on a bike?

On Jul 22, 10:35 pm, William wrote:
I recently purchased a brand new Road Bike that is really nice. I
figured I didn't need anything more rugged since I do most of my
biking in the city. I can bike theoreticly anywhere in the city, but
there are a few neighborhoods I like to avoid, but not many and I have
experience biking through them anyways. In Minneapolis, there are a
lot of designated bike paths, such as the Greenway (http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/images/greenway.jpg) which makes it
much easier to get around.


Lovely. It's coming my way too. The question is WHEN. I hope to be
alive anyway.


 




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