This was something that used to put me on the pro-car side; if it takes me multiple trips just to get all my groceries from my car into the house, lugging all of that on a bus or a bike would be a nightmare!
But then I saw content from people like Not Just Bikes, and saw how people in places with good public transit actually live, and it hit me like a ton of bricks that if shopping was more convenient, I wouldn’t need to buy a week’s worth of groceries in one trip. I could just swing by a corner store for what I need that night or the next morning, and one or two bags are easy to handle on a train or even a bicycle.
I take a 10-minute detour on the way home from the light rail station, fit one or two or sometimes even three days worth of groceries in my backpack, maybe make another trip of about 25 minutes + time in store (which you’d have anyway) for some more after dinner. Some extra walking doesn’t hurt my pudge, and I’d rather do more walking now than be unable to later.
In Tokyo I’d hop on the subway regularly to shop. Not a big deal at all.
The only thing that was different was that you don’t buy two weeks of groceries at once.
This was something that used to put me on the pro-car side; if it takes me multiple trips just to get all my groceries from my car into the house, lugging all of that on a bus or a bike would be a nightmare!
But then I saw content from people like Not Just Bikes, and saw how people in places with good public transit actually live, and it hit me like a ton of bricks that if shopping was more convenient, I wouldn’t need to buy a week’s worth of groceries in one trip. I could just swing by a corner store for what I need that night or the next morning, and one or two bags are easy to handle on a train or even a bicycle.
I take a 10-minute detour on the way home from the light rail station, fit one or two or sometimes even three days worth of groceries in my backpack, maybe make another trip of about 25 minutes + time in store (which you’d have anyway) for some more after dinner. Some extra walking doesn’t hurt my pudge, and I’d rather do more walking now than be unable to later.