Every mile you ride a bike instead of driving a car is a mile that you don’t have to pay for gas to travel. It’s that simple. Doesn’t work for everyone because some places are actually hostile to cyclists and are built exclusively for cars. But I used to ride a scooter on the highway 10 miles to get to work of the 5 times I’ve been hit by something, only one of them was on the dangerous part of the commute.
Still kicking ass carfree and laughing at the people who spend half their paychecks on gas and car payments and insurance and mechanic bills and toll bills and you get the idea.
I got an escooter almost a year ago. I did not use it a lot at first, but slowly I started to take it to the store more often. Then my wife got an in office job. I gave the scooter to her and ended up getting myself a larger one. I ride it all the time now. And now that we both have one we have started to go places together on them.
We do both still have our cars, where we live (rural New Mexico) it would be fairly difficult for us to totally do away with them, plus I have not figured out how to transport our dogs with the scooters yet.
How often are you transporting dogs, could you just pay someone (like a taxi driver) to do it when needed? Even if you have to offer extra for the dogs.
I dream of moving somewhere where I don’t need a car permanently. I used to live in a city where it was impossible to ride to a grocery store on a sidewalk or a bike lane and to cross the surrounding highways is literally impossible (unless you’re sprinting across 10 lanes) without a car.
Unfortunately it’s not quite 1:1. Depending on your location, a lack of bike infrastructure might have you biking significantly farther than you would have driven.
Riding on a bike and passing cars that are stuck in traffic is a magical experience. 10/10 would recommend. A feeling of simultaneously combined moral, physical, and practical superiority that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Plus, you’re riding on a bike, and riding a bike is fun.
It might not last long, but for those few minutes where your bicycle is outpacing car traffic, you feel like a god. A god powered by the envious stares of fat, bored motorists.
Every mile you ride a bike instead of driving a car is a mile that you don’t have to pay for gas to travel. It’s that simple. Doesn’t work for everyone because some places are actually hostile to cyclists and are built exclusively for cars. But I used to ride a scooter on the highway 10 miles to get to work of the 5 times I’ve been hit by something, only one of them was on the dangerous part of the commute.
Still kicking ass carfree and laughing at the people who spend half their paychecks on gas and car payments and insurance and mechanic bills and toll bills and you get the idea.
I got an escooter almost a year ago. I did not use it a lot at first, but slowly I started to take it to the store more often. Then my wife got an in office job. I gave the scooter to her and ended up getting myself a larger one. I ride it all the time now. And now that we both have one we have started to go places together on them.
We do both still have our cars, where we live (rural New Mexico) it would be fairly difficult for us to totally do away with them, plus I have not figured out how to transport our dogs with the scooters yet.
How often are you transporting dogs, could you just pay someone (like a taxi driver) to do it when needed? Even if you have to offer extra for the dogs.
Every day. We take them to a hiking trail by the river every morning. And the vet is 54 miles away.
As far as a taxi, that is 80 miles away.
54 is a good number. Nicely divisible by 9.
Driving a dog to walk it just seems strange to me, but I guess some people have to.
I would rather drive the two miles to walk with the dogs in the woods with a dirt path, shade, wildlife, and no roving packs of aggressive dogs
I dream of moving somewhere where I don’t need a car permanently. I used to live in a city where it was impossible to ride to a grocery store on a sidewalk or a bike lane and to cross the surrounding highways is literally impossible (unless you’re sprinting across 10 lanes) without a car.
Unfortunately it’s not quite 1:1. Depending on your location, a lack of bike infrastructure might have you biking significantly farther than you would have driven.
On the flip side, though, in some places you’re able to take shortcuts on a bike where cars can’t go.
Or avoid traffic that would have left you going slower than you are on the bike.
Riding on a bike and passing cars that are stuck in traffic is a magical experience. 10/10 would recommend. A feeling of simultaneously combined moral, physical, and practical superiority that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. Plus, you’re riding on a bike, and riding a bike is fun.
It might not last long, but for those few minutes where your bicycle is outpacing car traffic, you feel like a god. A god powered by the envious stares of fat, bored motorists.
It’s the opposite for me. Taking a car would add like 15% of distance to my commute with an eBike.