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This is assuming you live in a walkable town or neighborhood. I remember a reddit post (can’t find it anymore) of a guy trying to walk less than 2 miles to an appointment in Orlando. He followed Google Maps directions down the shoulder of a highway that led to a dead-end, backtracked, tried again, and finally made almost all the way to his destination, which was on the opposite side of a 6-lane highway Google wanted him to cross.
I’ve only ever visited the theme parks in Orlando, but I experienced one intersection I had to share with cars. I spent every walk sign waiting for cars making a turn to yield. Even though I had the right of way, literally none of them did, until I finally had to run across the street because the cars at the red light, who could see I was 1/3 through the intersection, floored it the second their light turned green. Sure, fuck all of those car-brained drivers who refuse to yield to pedestrians, but also fuck that city for not fining drivers for shitty behavior, or at least changing their traffic lights so all cars have red lights when pedestrians have the walk sign.
Anyway, point is, personal choices are important, but they can’t overcome the systemic issues created by car culture without collective action. And Orlando sucks ass.
Ok let’s flip this to cherry pick my example.
Don’t need a car most of life, get to 40 and upskill and become a software engineer. Job market is terrible due to saturation and I suck at interviews so can only take a job 40 miles away from home.
No problem.exe. I can take 2.5-3 hour commute each way 5 days a week.
Fast forward a few months and I’m just dead on my feet, do nothing but go to work come home goto bed get up and repeat.
Decide this can’t continue. Can’t afford to move to the bougie town where I work so decide I need a car finally.
Save 12-15 hours per week and it’s not too much more expensive than taking a Metrolink and a train to work with 30 mins of walking too. Plus all the meals you need to eat out of the house when you’re out for 14 hours in a day.
On my days off I’ll take the tram 20 miles each way to go rock climbing but some people actually do need cars and they shouldn’t be made to feel bad for it.
Also the sunk cost of the car’s capital goes toward all the other things you’ll use your car for, like leisure time and driving other humans around. Also the practicality of walking to get groceries decreases as you gain more mouths to feed.
Exactly. I’ve actually used the car at weekends to do some work for friends. So can earn more money with it.
Anon obviously has never been to Costco. No way you can leave that place without parting with $100
This is also coincidentally how the math works on big box stores.
- Big box parking lot/strip mall opens
- Save $100 on groceries annually
- Pay $150 extra in taxes and gas to maintain and drive on an additional 10 miles of road
- Local options shut down, prices go up, and it takes 5 extra minutes to get to box store with increased traffic.
- Box store eventually closes due to not being in suburb anyway.
here it’s more like this:
don’t own a car no store in reach ??? starve
Once again a post about zoning laws instead of cars.
“I would like to live in a carless society”
v
“I would like somewhere to park my car”
is a real dichotomy that spans both issues.
A great example is my own hometown of Houston, a city famous for its lack of zoning.
By 1978, the city had gutted itself in order to clear space for more parking. It took decades to reverse that mistake and rebuild the interior of the city. A big part of that was the introduction of (still very modest) bus and light rail.
Still a ton of parking spots I see, could’ve been replaced by bicycle racks, apartments, and parks.
The parking spots could have gone underground.
could’ve been replaced by bicycle racks, apartments, and parks.
We did actually have a ton of public racks and even rental bikes installed under Mayors White and Parker. Turner kinda neglected them. Then, over the last year, John Whitmire tore them all out again.
I’ll also note that the Main Street light rail has created a boom in apartment housing along its length. South of downtown was basically a slum until the rail was installed. Now it’s a bunch of 8+ story apartments and a few high rises with shopping/restaurants on the first floor.
Then I hope Whitmire gets ran over by a car. Hope he plucks the sour fruits of his own policies.
Reading more on him and he sounds like an ass. No AC for inmates in hot summers… then he’s a criminal himself for making people die. Maybe he should undergo a lack of AC himself.
He also seems awfully willing to lock people up, instead of actually making the situation better by ending his own life.
If it weren’t for weather I wouldn’t have a car. Sure, 90 minutes by ebike is a serious time commitment, but I’d save so much money a year it makes sense as a part time job.
But fuck riding a bike on ice for two months lol
I haven’t had a car for two years now. Well technically i had the car i use for my job, but i never use that in my free time. While public transportation is pretty good here, i still live close to nowhere and i have to get to the next bus stop. Ebikes are fantastic but they do have their limits. Gettig groceries on a nice sunday morning, i can go on a 90min trip without any roads and no cars and a view that would blow most people’s mind. But a rainy Thursday evening in the cold, there are just days that i’m not in the mood for that.
For the rainy days you could get a quality rain jacket. Works pretty well. We got rainproof backpacks too.
Ice ? Canadians do bike in winter too.
Do they do it for 20+ miles? In the dark?
Maybe they do.
I don’t want to die.
you don’t want to die? that doesn’t sound like weather is what matters to you, that sounds like safety from traffic is what matters.
and if you’re talking about slipping on ice, uh… studded tyres exist.
It’s a pretty hilly commute. Besides the ever present threat of being murdered in traffic (and this is a rural area, so traffic actually is a lesser concern), I have to contend with going up and down half a dozen steep slopes.
One ice in the dark.
I might just wreck my bike and freeze to death.
studded tyres make biking on ice feel like biking on asphalt, and you can buy very good rechargable LED lamps. I had a teacher who biked ~20km in the winter, through rural areas and during the dark since it becomes night at 17:00.
Ice isn’t the worst IMO, it’s the sloshy zero degree sludge, ice cold rain and biting wind.
I ride a bike in winter, though admittedly it’s in a city where frequent plowing and ambient heat make it less of an issue. Funny thing is, I bought my bike in December.
I wear thick winter gear, including gloves, socks, and mask. If I drove, I’d want that sort of gear as soon as I exit my car at the parking lot, so I’d rather just have that all on beforehand and be warm the whole way.
It’s also just not that snowy/icy around here anymore. You might get it for a few days but otherwise it’s just cold and dry.
90 Minutes??? Jesus christ
I do it about once a week. Plenty of time for audiobooks and podcasts!
That sucks, where I live I’m a 3 minute walk from two supermarkets, with like 4 more in a 15m radius.
I don’t say this to brag, but that’s why I reacted incredulously to your original comment, it just seems crazy to me.
Living in between supermarkets sonds like absolute hell to me.
why? Genuinely curious bc for me it’s fine
Studded tires make this a non issue.
Does it really? I’d think they would help, but actually a non-issue? I’m skeptical.
Also getting sprayed by a passing
assholecar showering me with slush+sand+road salt doesn’t sound great either.Personal experience, yes. I’ve biked trails in all conditions and only had any trouble on one of them. It had snowed a bunch, thawed, froze again, and then rained. I could still generally bike around and never fell, but didn’t have enough traction for the short steep climbs found on trails.
My commute is pretty hilly, doesn’t sound like I’d have a good time on ice.
I often choose to ride my bike in the winter on super icy (side roads, no traffic) it’s fun for recreational purposes if you’re into that. On a commute or something else, i really wouldn’t recommend.
But it cold and I don’t want to bundle up like that kid from A Christmas Story.
Physically impossible in the north outside of cities and even then not often possible. What with snow and all. And it is 6 months here.
Yeah I lived a car-free life when I lived in Seattle, working on Magnolia Hill, living on Capitol Hill. That was doable year round. The midwestern flyover states I grew up and live in, tho, no it’s not workable. In the North there’s snow for months, in the South we have monsoon season where it rains for weeks, in the summer heat index gets above 110 regularly and these people don’t plant shade trees. Plus nearest grocery stores are miles away (I live downtown in a capital city).
Even though I work a few blocks from my home, I can’t live car free here without significant ride-sharing expenses (the bus system is a joke and only runs part of the day, grocery shopping would eat an entire day of my week that way), if I did that I couldn’t go on roadtrips on weekends either, unless I rented a car - and all that is more expensive than my (20k, not 40k) car.
But I do love this community and it’s coastal approach to shaming people who rely on cars… take the tram or train, lmao
I do not use my car for weeks at a time, but I need one in the country especially, also in the city when there.
“I can’t put my arms down!!”
Buy used 110cc motorbike for 250-300USD
pay 30USD a month for fuel because 160mpg
flop over in the middle of traffic because the 25kg bag of rice you’re balancing between your legs shifts
My pedal bike can equip pannier carriers - doesn’t something like that exist for motorbikes too?
Yes, but the rack is already being used to hold the rest of your groceries, family of 5, dog, refrigerator, and all the other things car owners claim they absolutely need a car to transport.
Buy used 110cc motorbike for 250-300USD for faster commute
pay 30USD a month for fuel because 160mpg
get groceries delivered
take tram if it rains or if you feel like it
Which customer buys 25 kg of rice at once? Literally nobody.
Skill issue, regardless.
That’s roughly two bags at Costco. Way more than my wife and I would buy for just us, but I could see larger families reasonably buying that much.
I am looking for places to buy 50 lb sacks of people grain, especially barley. Feed stores sell them but idk what chemicals they use. 20 bucks at feed stores for ag.
Hey there, Rice-a-Roni - there are 8 billion other people in the world, so it’s pretty bold and exceedingly stupid to speak for all of them. In fact, I’ll bet there are literally a billion people in the world that buy their rice 25kg at a time. I know it is very common in Hawaiian households, I’d guess that there are more Hawaiians buying 25kg bags of rice than there are Hawaiians buying 1 kg bags.
Dunno why you needed to say ‘Rice-a-Roni’, but I think it’s not stupid to be baffled at buying 25 kg of rice.
Most I see is 1 kg bags.
Right - and my point was that the whole rest of the world doesn’t see or experience life in precisely the same way that you do. It is only stupid to make broad generalizations about the whole rest of the world from your tiny little corner of it.
The same also applies in your way, though. Realise that not everybody buys 25 kg bags. Sure, I learnt something new today. But I think it’s good to keep in mind that the world is a nice varied place where not everyone does the same.
You’re the one that literally said “Which customer buys 25 kg of rice at once? Literally nobody.”
Your attempts at backtracking don’t work when the only thing someone needs to do to refute what you’re saying is looking up.
Extremely common in Asia.
-
That’s what the average SEA eats in like 2 days. Its the big bags at any grocery store
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Correct. I have not been riding motorbikes since before I could walk, so I cannot do what the locals do. Yet.
That’s what the average SEA eats in like 2 days. Its the big bags at any grocery store
No the fuck we don’t. A 5kg bag lasts an entire week for a family of four adults
Slight exaggeration for comedic effect.
Slight
I’ll say… 25kg in two days is over 42k calories per day. Either south east Asians are literal human machines that do the hardest physical work imaginable or they’re all fatter than OP’s mom.
The average south east Asian eats that much? I find that hard to believe. Maybe you mean 2.5 kg? Then I could see that being plausible for a household of four, spread over a week.
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Living within 1 kilometer walking distance of a grocery store is amazing. Instead of expensive fast food I can get comparatively inexpensive deli food. And if I want to be frugal and cook meals myself, cheap beans, rice, fresh meat, dairy, and produce are all available. Plus, I get a nice daily walk instead of checks notes from a previous life drive twenty minutes to the gym each day to walk on a treadmill.
The way to go IMO. I’m on a 20-year streak in not having a car. When I pick a new place to live, walkability to a good grocery store is one of my primary considerations. I only shop for one, so lugging groceries is no big deal, and I enjoy the extra exercise.
Throughout my life I’ve watched people spend all their money on conveniences and degrade physically, mentally, and financially as a result. Why not situate yourself for long-term success from the get-go? I wish more people were conscientious of the energy balance required to sustain a healthy life and best aligns with the environmental impacts we’ve wrought upon ourselves.
I live less than a kilometer from a grocery store but it takes me a half hour to walk there because I’m in a subdivision and there’s no direct sidewalk.
I used to be able to cut across yards but somebody put up a fence to stop that.
The gym is such a waste of energy. With proper form you can get that workout doing useful things. For charity if nothing else.
do grocery stores where you live not have frozen food? that’s the ideal in my book: perfectly decent quality and you just have to heat it.
This is the best one i’ve tried, it’s literally just frozen veggies, precooked pasta, chicken, and sauce. Healthy as fuck while tasting great and taking 0 effort to prepare.Healthy as fuck is a bit of a stretch for industrially-processed food grown with pesticides. It’s better than fast food.
Come off it, chopping veggies up and freezing them (‘industrial processing’) doesn’t make them unhealthy. There’s also not a way to guarantee that your food has no pesticides (it’s permissible under the organic label in some conditions) unless you grow it yourself.
Hell studies show that frozen and then cooked food is the easiest to absorb nutrients from so in a sense it’s even healthier.
Oh boy, if you really think these are healthly I have bad news for you… Sure there are worst options around, but that still counts as processed food on my book!
so, respectfully, what the absolute fuck are you on about? do you only eat roots you dig up in the forest?
The secret is cooking yourself.
The pasta you sent, have a Nova Score of 4, which means ultra processed food:
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/7310500184180/tagliatelle-chicken-findusso clearly you didn’t read your own link, because that is literally based on the fact that it contains glucose, that is the ONLY reason it’s classed as ultra-processed.
you cannot seriously look at this and conclude it’s processed, there’s no way in hell you’re here in good faith and i very much suspect your upvotes are fake.
i very much suspect your upvotes are fake.
k
Maybe its a cultural thing, but mostly fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meat, fresh fish… I think you got the idea. Frozen veggies are good too (if not pre-cooked or seasoned).
Yeah, but these frozen meals aren’t much more processed than frozen veggies, at least the good ones. Can be a little pricey for what you get though.
I think you’re right about that. They’re just frozen veggies mixed together with chopped meat. The main thing I’d look at is how much salt they dump into these things.
Spices wouldn’t be fresh, either, but that’s more of a taste issue than health issue.
I got a rice cooker recently, great investment. I pan fry up whatever, some protein and vegetables, I’ve got a few good recipes going. With rice. I’ve been eating healthier and way cheaper. Tonight was chicken, green beans, and various seasonings. Was delicious af and cost me like 1.50$, if that.
My house was 420k in an upper middle class single family suburban home with 2400 sq ft vs 1M for a 600 sq ft condo.
Eat my ass 🤣
this is the second time i see you and again your take is bad, why?
This guy has fewer brain cells than his country has high speed rail lines. Easier to just block him
My take is fantastic. If your only concern is cost it’s clearly cheaper to live in America without public transit. It’s dead simple shit.
Going to start name calling again with nothing to back up your little meme 😞?
Why do you go to the “fuck cars” community, then? If you’re so happy, there shouldn’t be any need to troll.
It’s one of the few communities that regularly pops up 🤷♂️
Just block the community and it won’t “pop up”.
Lmao imagine telling a new Yorker it’s cheaper to live in America without the subway.
That was your take? 🤣👌👍
Do you have two gyms and a pokéstop, though?
I’ll take my 911 tyvm
Where the fuck is this guy buying a week’s groceries for $50? My kids eat more than $50 in cereal per month.
Aldi is your best bet if nearby. More than 50 a week outside of rice and beans meals but you will not go through 50 a week of cereal. Admittedly their granola is lacking, but it is hard to find good granola anywhere.
Other stores here are approaching $10 (!) for a bag of granola with minimal add-ins, Aldi is a little plainer but it’s a no-brainer when the same size there is like $3.
$10? Jesus. Many of these big box or City grocery stores have always had really high prices especially on some Goods. All of the name brand cereals are especially High everywhere, Kellogg’s and Post Cereal are like twice as high as the generic brands. Which for things like Raisin Bran are about the exact same cereal. Granola is the only one I have noticed a quality difference on.
I sort of quit milk for the past 18 months or so but if I get back into it, whole milk in the winter tastes really good when you work outside, I might just make my own granola. And by 50 lb bags of grain if I can find them.
Have them eat oatmeal with fresh berries and (plain) yoghurt instead of industrially processed sugary garbage.
Overnight oats are a game changer. Even if my nephew makes them super sweet, it’s still only like a quarter of the sugar of cereals.
maybe uh, maybe don’t buy a bunch of overpriced cereal?
Lookin back this is irrelevant
I just got diapers according to the store it was a great discount, they where from the stores own brand (not even a “premium” brand)
Anyway I paid 26 cents per diaper (for my daughter)
When my son was born 6 years ago I paid 12 cents per diaper.
Every government chart about inflation is just not accurate for your groceries. The official inflation numbers tell me it’s about 25% inflation, but in reality for a lot of things it doubled.
The CPI has been changed a number of times over the past 5 decades, each change lowering the rate. By the old rate just in 2008 social security checks would be on average some 1,200 more a month.
sounds unhealthy, NGL
22
Obviously you arent familiar with the wood and paint chip hack
Just start grinding down the foundations of your home and add the sawdust to your rice crispy treats for some extra filling
Must be nice to live where public transit works. 2h to get to and from work each way not including daycare dropoff just ain’t it. Give me feasible public transit and a walkable city and I’ll get rid of my car.
Only the rich or the dumb buy new. You can still get decent used cars for a fair bit cheaper.
Used car market is getting cooked. People are holding onto their cars longer. When they get into even a minor crash, they are often totalled because of how expensive parts are. Independent mechanics are being pushed out because there’s nothing worth fixing.
The end result will be buy new or don’t.
Usually I need to be at work 08:00 or 08:10. Furthermore, the same trip by car takes approximately 30-35 minutes during rush hour. This means my car saves me approximately 1-3hrs every working day (valued ~4k€/yr based on my current wages).
My car cost ~1k€ 8 years ago and maybe an additional 1.5k€ maintenance per year (a lot of which I do myself) + 2.5k€ fuel + insurance + tax - compared to 800€ for a public transit card.
Our family home is valued at 110k€, the same money would buy a 1 room studio apartment in the city.
If I value your time at 99999999999999999€/hour how much do you make?
I’ll give you a 99.99% discount on that rate, when can I start working? Get in touch at Iceblade02@proton.me
;)
I can cycle to the next town over in 25 minutes at any time of day, less if I got an ebike. Driving during rush hour can take an hour.
Though they moved our office 50+ miles away so I am using that as my reason to never return to the office. Looking for a new job just in case though.
Sounds nice, it would be lovely to have the means to live like that.
Woah you’re so good with money
conclusión?
a) Housing is expensive in urban areas.
b) Public transit has difficulty competing outside urban areas due to being relatively slow and inflexible when demand and service is low.
c) Cars win on convenience and service, due to the alternative cost of time.
The infrastructure is too car dependent and OP is navigating within it really well?
You guys are spending $40k on a car??
That’s nuts.The price of new cars has gone insane since covid. I regularly watch car reviews and the prices are always shocking - SKODA’s costing nearly £40,000, which a few years ago would have got you a decent BMW or Merc.
You guys are buying new cars??
I’m not, but people are. There’s plenty of brand new cars on the roads here.
Not everyone is poor.
Ok everyone. Make weekly groceries $200 and Costco $190. Does that make a difference about the point of this post? Ya’ll…
It’s also ignoring how this person spent so much in gas if they’re able to walk everywhere. Surely they’re talking public transportation, biking, or they simply have 4 extra hours a day.
But yes owning a car is an expensive grift, but it’s one that’s hard to avoid in many parts of the US
I looked at their website and I don’t get it, Aldi seems to be cheaper already so why would I bother with costco?
The only thing costco really has going for it is the odd item that is truly on sale, dependable low prices on some stuff, and quality control. Quality control is the big one. I can’t remember most of the tests now, but when olive oil was being looked at, costco was one of the two brands out of something like 32 that was actually what it said on the label. On a couple of other things as well that I remember, like honey, they had the same finding.
The website has higher prices than in store
