this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
290 points (93.4% liked)

Fuck Cars

9626 readers
681 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
290
[discussion] This is what walkability means for me (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
95 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Living in a walkable city means my weekly shop is a few hours of walking or biking instead of being stuck in traffic, and I'm only mildly tired afterwards since I use a bike with pretty large pannier bags. Since I have no car related costs I can afford more fresh food, a healthier diet, and I can afford to be more choosy about the ethics of what I buy. There's a twice weekly farmers market about a ten minute walk away, and quiet walks through parks to get to the shops. Living somewhere with car centric infrastructure, as I used to, this lifestyle was far less feasible.

Have your experiences been different with moving to walkable/bikeable cities? Any questions or points to be made? I'm not very up on the theory side of city planning, but my experiences line up with the whole "fuck cars" thing.

(page 2) 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

How'd you carry all that home?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I use a bike with pretty large pannier bags

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I have two baskets and saddlebags on my bike and this shit would easily fit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This looks like it can be easily handled by one of those cloth grocery carts, or a couple of reuseable bags and a backpack for the beer/some of the dried goods.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I lived in NYC for a while and I never got a cart, but I would go to the store pretty much every day and get smaller loads, like one or two bags. But watermelons always harshed my mellow.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I live in NYC. It's pretty great.

I can walk a couple minutes to some bodegas. A couple more minutes to some small groceries. Looking at the map, there's a couple supermarkets I forgot existed within 15 minutes of walking, in addition to the two I usually go to. There's also other useful stuff like pharmacies, hardware stores, libraries, and so on. This isn't a fancy or especially expensive neighborhood.

I have a hand cart for when I want to buy something heavy.

I haven't had a car for like 15 years. I have no regrets. None of the "But what if it rains??" fears have ever been a problem. I can only remember twice in 15 years I needed to borrow someone's car to move stuff.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Are there cities that aren't walkable? I assume that you can do this in any city because there's shops everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Walkable as is in "enjoyably" walkable. Walking across a Walmart parking lot across a 6 lane road, and then to across another large carpark of nothingness to maybe a bus stop, all the while trying to not get hit by a car is not a classification of a walkable city.

Worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Loads of American cities are designed around car dependency. I've been lucky enough to have dual citizenship in the UK, and even a commuter town here has incredibly higher walkability standards.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Y'all really eat like this?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Like what

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (5 children)

why are cucumbers wrapped in plastic? WHY ARE THEY WRAPPED IN PLASTIC?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

A grocery store I frequent has 4 cobs of corn, lightly trimmed as to see the kernals. And they're packaged like a steak. 🤦‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I also don't get why people try to force rubber on my cuke

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The cukes in Canada are individually shrink wrapped like this and then 3 off them are bundled together in even more plastic to be sold as a set for $5+

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Cucumbers stay much longer fresh when tightly wrapped in plastics.

Edit: No need to downvote. I don't like that either.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I dunno man, they literally aren't sold any other way in this whole country AFAIK. It was the same in the states, the only ones they sell out of plastic are the gross ones with thick skin

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm all the "good" cucumbers in the USA are shrink wrapped, unless you buy at a farmers market. I think it's a distribution and storage issue and the plastic keeps it fresh longer. My wife and I both hate it, it so hard to get the plastic off, and its no good for the planet.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Look at Richie Rich over here, able to afford groceries and a city apartment.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Groceries are very affordable in the UK if you're buying simple ingredients like this. Those Italian hard cheeses and the 2 kg of chicken are the most expensive things, probably 3£ and change each, the rest of those items are like 1-2£ each. This is most of a week's food for like 40£.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My total shop today was about £120, but would have been closer to 70 if not for the wine, beer, and a few other things. It feeds 3.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

… that, and the good ol’ bundy ginger beer

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Wife wanted to party with a Moscow mule 💃🏽

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And fully WFH. I am practically a 1%er

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Pshhh maybe globally upturned nose

Till you got the yacht you’re only a “have”:

  • have yacht
  • have
  • have not

PS: great haul, feels like plastics are the next thing to try to tackle

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I could minimise the plastics more, but I'm at my mental energy limit as it is. A kid with ADHD is unreal.

Edit: my mom lives on a yacht lol

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

A few… hours?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Today was closer to 2.5 because I went to a slightly out of the way shop. Pretty comparable to how long I'd spend on a trip to Costco, once upon a time. I could go faster if I was more organized/wasn't being lazy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

So counting the shopping time? Not bad

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I assume it's cumulative, not a few hours every time. But I'm not sure.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I can’t even imagine. Where I grew up, the closest gas station was a 10 minute drive. No way were you walking anywhere to buy some thing.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago (2 children)

One of the best things about living in a walkable place is that the concept of a weekly shop is basically dead - access to grocery shopping is available enough that I can go as many or as few times to shop as is warranted.

Granted, this usually adds up to once a week or less, but yeah. Big benefit.

This is an important concept to be imparted on those who do not understand the benefits of walkable places - a frequent question is how they can manage to complete their weekly shop without a car, since the car is in their mind needed to transport enough groceries to last the entire week. This is of course necessitated by the fact that their ideal location to shop for groceries is a significant distance away that can only be completed in a practical manner by car.

With where I live, this is unwarranted because I have access to convenient grocery shopping about 200 meters away by foot, and for ideal pricing I go 1 km away on a bike with storage on the rack. I do not want for variety either, I've got multiple speciality shops and 5 different grocery chains within a 1 km radius.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Notjustbikes had a whole episode on how nice it is to decide each day what you want to eat, and just buy it on the way home.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (4 children)

It's nice to be able to, done get me wrong, but if I could stock up for 6 months I would. Who wants to waste time getting groceries every day?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

You need to watch the video because he specifically addresses your misconception.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I'm personally a big fan of finishing up work, looking through the cupboards, polling the kids and wife, and then walking 5 minutes to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. Gets me out of the house, and since I work from home mostly I find it helps me make a nice mental and physical separation between work and the evening. Fresh baked sourdough from a local baker is an added plus.

I realize there's an immense level of privilege I enjoy to be able to do this (namely living in a very metro area, and usually having no commute), but having also lived in Europe and India for periods of my life it's sad to see there this type of daily shopping is way more normal and commonplace.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

@usualsuspect191 @perviouslyiner Uh… people who eat fruit or vegetables or fresh baked goods?

It’s not that you get them every day, but that you have the ability to get them whenever you want them instead of having to plan an excursion.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

it's not a waste of time lol, are you stuck in car-centric thinking where getting groceries is an hour long affair? for me it takes like 20 minutes to buy stuff of which most of it is just getting to the store, and i don't even live that close to the store!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

For me it’s a short drive to the store - would be bikable except for the hill. However grocery shopping is still a chore, and it still takes over an hour out of my life. Yes, I’d try to minimize that, regardless of what transportation I used.

Over COViD I invested in a chest freezer, and I already had significant storage, so now i can bulk buy more things. Already the only reason I go so often is fresh vegetables: if I could get them to last more than a week, you bet I’d make fewer shopping trips

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You don’t have to make a Costco run every day. You can spend 5 minutes at the grocery store grabbing 3 items.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I'd love to break up the shop into more frequent, smaller trips and I could, but for my work and parenting duties during the week it's just easier to do it all in one go.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm most interested in the Dinosaur Quiz.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I got you fam

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Glad you post here using ASCII and not handwriting - but keep up the practice!! 🦖✍️

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Damn I got like maybe 1 or 2 :(

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›