Can you make it to the market on a bike?

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...

Why the hell would anyone except an idiot want to drive these very small
distances?

Because I will never share a road again with cars in this country. I believe
that even in Worthington, it isn't safe It may be an exceptionally low
number of people that are involved in bike/car accidents but trust me, You
don't want to be the person on the bike.

Jeff Grippe wrote:
"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...

Why the hell would anyone except an idiot want to drive these very small
distances?

Because I will never share a road again with cars in this country. I believe
that even in Worthington, it isn't safe It may be an exceptionally low
number of people that are involved in bike/car accidents but trust me, You
don't want to be the person on the bike.

Look at the numbers of people who get totalled while driving or riding
in cars. That isn't safe either (especially when they get hit by
trucks...).

While your own personal misfortune will have an understandably big
impact on your risk assessments, it is the case that it's a bad way to
play the odds for any subsequent events.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Edward Dolan" wrote in message
...

"archierob" wrote in message
...
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.

The thing that amazes me the most is that in small town America everyone
drives everywhere, even if it is only a few blocks. No wonder we are all
turning into fat slobs.

I will NEVER drive my car in town. I use it strictly for going to other
towns in the vicinity. You can go anywhere in this town of Worthington,
Minnesota (12,000 pop.) in 15 minutes by bicycle at the most. Why the hell
would anyone except an idiot want to drive these very small distances. And
yet, EVERYONE does!

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

Jack May wrote:

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

Which is why I use a bigger bike. I've carried a two seater sofa on my
freight bike with no great trouble, and it easily fits a trolley load of
groceries. Doesn't take significantly longer, and any degree which it
is longer is easily repaid by me being fitter and healthier and not
spending so much on the car, so I lose less time elsewhere.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

There's more to time than the immediate short term trip. But even if
that is all there is to it then a bike will often be quicker. Bikes
routinely work quicker than cars in congested urban settings: if that
weren't the case, cycle couriers wouldn't exist.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In rec.bicycles.misc Jack May wrote:

I will NEVER drive my car in town. I use it strictly for going to other
towns in the vicinity. You can go anywhere in this town of Worthington,
Minnesota (12,000 pop.) in 15 minutes by bicycle at the most. Why the hell
would anyone except an idiot want to drive these very small distances. And
yet, EVERYONE does!

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

There's a cycling web page out there (someone here will have heard of
it, or you could Google it) that recounts the experience of a guy who put
a Hobbes meter in his car. A Hobbes meter looks like an odometer, but
measures time. After about four years owning the car he read the two
meters, did the math, and discovered that he and his car had been
averaging 17 mph. People think of their cars move them along at 40 mph or
whatever because that's what the speed limits signs say, but they forget
that they spend a lot of time at red lights, stuck in traffic jams, etc.
My 6 mile commute to work only takes me five or ten minutes longer than
driving does.
And this person's calculations didn't take into account the fact that
he was also spending part of every work day earning the money to pay for
his car. Figure that in and that average mph number might easily go below
10 mph, slower than a lot of bikes.
I got thinking of all this last Saturday, when I spent $500 on car
repairs and then tried to get to a wedding and got stuck for 45 minutes on
I-15 because of a horrible accident that brought no less than four ground
ambulances and a helicopter to the scene where the SUV had crashed and
burned.

Bill


__o | I used to think that I was cool, running around on fossil fuel
_`\(,_ | Until I saw what I was doing was driving down the road to ruin.
(_)/ (_) | - James Taylor

On my old commute, ~4 miles each way, my commute time by car was
anywhere from 12 minutes to 25 minutes, depending on traffic, lights,
etc. If I really lucked out (hit green for all 7 lights) I could
drive it in 10. In rush hour, I'd have to sit through 2-3 cycles at
some lights. 20 minutes was the norm.

By bike, I'd do the same distance in ~15 minutes. During the rush-
hour peak I was almost guaranteed to make better time by bike since I
never had to sit at a light for more than one cycle.

Another time-saving benefit to using a bike is no parking hassles.
Most stores in our area now have bike racks. Most of those are right
near the front door: easy-peasy. I really appreciate this during the
holiday shopping season(!)


- JR

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:01:11 +0000 (UTC),
wrote, in part::
\
People think of their cars move them along at 40 mph or
whatever because that's what the speed limits signs say, but they forget
that they spend a lot of time at red lights, stuck in traffic jams, etc.
My 6 mile commute to work only takes me five or ten minutes longer than
driving does.
And this person's calculations didn't take into account the fact that
he was also spending part of every work day earning the money to pay for
his car. Figure that in and that average mph number might easily go below
10 mph, slower than a lot of bikes.

"The typical American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to
his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He
parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it
and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for petrol,
tolls, insurance, taxes and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen
waking hours on the road or gathering resources for it. And this
figure does not take account of the time consumed by other activities
dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts and
garages: time spent watching automobile commercials or attending
consumer education meetings to improve quality of the next buy.

The model American puts in 1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles:
less than five miles an hour."

- Ivan Illich

--
zk

wrote:


If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

There's a cycling web page out there (someone here will have heard of
it, or you could Google it) that recounts the experience of a guy who put
a Hobbes meter in his car. A Hobbes meter looks like an odometer, but
measures time. After about four years owning the car he read the two
meters, did the math, and discovered that he and his car had been
averaging 17 mph. People think of their cars move them along at 40 mph or
whatever because that's what the speed limits signs say,

Hah, speed limits! Doesn't your highway require the driver (in addition
to obeying speed limits) to adjust his speed to the road, traffic,
weather, sight and other conditions, the properties of his vehicle and
the cargo and his personal abilities? That's the important speed limit.

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
Jack May wrote:

The goal of most people is to minimize time. They do not want to make
multiple trips to bring back a small amount of food or supplies. Makes
perfect sense.

Which is why I use a bigger bike. I've carried a two seater sofa on my
freight bike with no great trouble, and it easily fits a trolley load of
groceries. Doesn't take significantly longer, and any degree which it is
longer is easily repaid by me being fitter and healthier and not spending
so much on the car, so I lose less time elsewhere.

If your time is not very valuable, a bike makes sense.

There's more to time than the immediate short term trip. But even if that
is all there is to it then a bike will often be quicker. Bikes routinely
work quicker than cars in congested urban settings: if that weren't the
case, cycle couriers wouldn't exist.

But very few of us live in a congested urban area.

If we ride the bike to the store, there is usually no place to lock it up
making it vulnerable to being stolen and making it a very expensive trip.

Cathy Kearns wrote:
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.

There are multiple places I shop that are difficult or very inconvenient
to park at with a car. It's much easier to shop by bike.

The time difference to get there by car versus bike is pretty minimal.

--
Dane Buson -
"High explosives are often applicable
where truth and logic fail."