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.
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.
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.
why are cucumbers wrapped in plastic? WHY ARE THEY WRAPPED IN PLASTIC?
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
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.
I don’t know about all the good ones, but yes, at my grocery, two of the three types of cucumbers sold are wrapped in plastic. I prefer the “normAl” cucumbers in bulk anyway, but occasionally get the English cucumbers or mini cucumbers despite them being 8n plastic
Cucumbers stay much longer fresh when tightly wrapped in plastics.
Edit: No need to downvote. I don’t like that either.
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+
I also don’t get why people try to force rubber on my cuke
A grocery store I frequent has 4 cobs of corn, lightly trimmed as to see the kernals. And they’re packaged like a steak. 🤦♂️
Did you drink half of the hot sauce on the way home?
Not that you posted to be judged on your weekly shop, but given you’re on this sub and interested in social issues, thought you might want to know that brewdog are kinda arseholes to their staff:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/10/brewdog-staff-craft-beer-firm-letter
Also, their beer is terrible.
I’m discovering this. And yeah, I was out of the loop. I think I’d better just go back to making my own. At least then when I drink bad beer I’m technically learning something.
Immediately the first thing I noticed too. I also work at a brewery and the fallout from brew dog sent shockwaves through many breweries.
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.
Ever since I first lived in the city center during nursing school I always make it a priority to live somewhere walkable with public transport. But I do sacrifice apartment space for it.
Right now I have several supermarkets (including Aldi) and a tram stop in my immediate walking distance. I do all my shopping by foot and I guess I would have to go twice for that amount OP carried home on their bike.
But I have to say, that I mostly drink tap water (+Tea/Koffee) which is very good quality at my location. If I had to carry crates of water and other beverages it would be much harder. Not everyone has that choice unfortunately.
@norimee @Gradually_Adjusting Another problem of the politics of austerity and obsession with low taxes at any cost. We’ve defunded water infrastructure almost as much as we’ve defunded public transit. There’s no excuse for a wealthy society to create an environment where many of its residents don’t feel safe drinking tap water and access to any tap water in major cities is periodically cut off by 100 year old pipes predictably breaking.
That’s one thing I missed when I lived within easy walk of a grocery. I’d generally drive, just for carrying the drinks. I noticed people taking taxis, but that didn’t seem useful …… until many years later when I got hit by the obvious that I could have walked one way and taken a taxi back. This was before cargo bikes
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.
I feel like NYC is playing this game in easy mode. There are definitely many other places in the US where being carless is possible, but nowhere else with as many options
This is part of why I plan to never move out of the city. Almost anywhere else in the US is going to be car centric. So I could move somewhere that’s “cheaper” but it wouldn’t be as good in ways I care about.
I do somewhat miss this, but a while back I moved to where I can own my own house with a bit of yard.
Carless can mostly work for Boston as well. In my case it was road trips and friends in the suburbs that made it difficult, but transit and walking was mostly easier than car. No Bodegas, though. Of course that was before Uber/Zipcar so it may be easier now.
Currently I live in a somewhat walkable town just outside Boston. We have a walkable town center focussed on a transit hub, and plenty of shops and restaurants. You could make carless work, if you lived a bit closer in than I am. We even used to have a grocery express near the train, that os similar to a bodega, but unfortunately died during COViD
Are there cities that aren’t walkable? I assume that you can do this in any city because there’s shops everywhere.
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.
The quickie answer is most cities developed under increasingly strict zoning regulation that boils down to “housing goes over HERE, business goes over THERE, and don’t you DARE let them touch!”
EDIT: Also “don’t you even think about putting a bus stop near my new homes that’s for poor people!”
It’s subjective.
If you live within 10 minutes walk of a supermarket then this is achievable for you.
OP seems to be somewhere where trips are more enjoyable and there’s more variety close by.
I’d argue very few cities in the US are really walkable. Maybe there’s a small area that can be walked but doesn’t provide all your needs. Most cities in the US lack the mix use urban areas that allow for comfortable high density urban living found in other countries.
I’m blessed with a recently priced grocery store within 1-2 minutes walking (less than 200m/ 0.1mile). I have some nice large reusable bags, so no car needed for daily stuff.
However, due to this, I also shop there every single day instead of making weekly trips. In weekly totals I still spend 10-20 minutes transport and probably a lot more spontaneous purchases than I would from just one weekly trip.
Whenever we do plan weekly shopping, we usually use the car to go elsewhere because one shop doesn’t have all the things.
However, I recently found an app that can plan the cooking recipes based on this one store, so I could potentially use a handcart and get everything in one walk. I haven’t done this yet though.
There’s a balance to be struck between freshness and structure for sure.
Look at Richie Rich over here, able to afford groceries and a city apartment.
And fully WFH. I am practically a 1%er
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
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
Wait… do you mean I can just win capitalism if I use the money I saved for a deposit on a house and buy a shitty yacht instead?
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£.
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.
… that, and the good ol’ bundy ginger beer
Wife wanted to party with a Moscow mule 💃🏽
Before the Ukraine invasion, I used to be able to do my weekly shop for under a fiver. Maybe £8ish if I was stocking up on store cupboard stuff. It’s more than doubled since then.
Yeah, I know it’s got way more expensive here the last few years, but it’s still much cheaper than in the US or on the continent
I’m coming over for dinner!
A few hours for your weekly shopping??? Bruh, you are throwing your life away
Y’all really eat like this?
Like what
Very little meat and dairy and good stuff, no bacon, no Cumberland sausages, no eggs, no burger patties but lots of veg (and nothing for it to go with).
You’re gonna grow up small and thin on this stuff.
There’s milk, chocolate milk, eggs, three kinds of fish, two kilos of chicken, two blocks of butter, two kinds of cheese, single cream, and I’m a grown man 3 stone overweight as it is. Honestly wouldn’t mind if my life of lavish excess could turn me into a scrawny little thing.
Nice! But you probably want some bacon with that. Beef and Pork are important
God you’re weird
I’m 5’10”, 200 lbs with 15% body fat and so not a particularly thin guy. I’m primarily a vegetarian/occasional pescatarian. My cholesterol/blood pressure numbers were terrible until I started eating this diet. You don’t need to eat meat (especially sausage) in 2024. Take a supplement for B6 if you’re concerned about it.
People eat different things. It’s fine and probably better for you than what you seem to think is good.
Damn, that’s crazy. Well good for you. I eat mostly meat and I’m pretty good
You’re probably pretty young so enjoy it while it lasts.
Thanks!
![[discussion] This is what walkability means for me](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/16951e3f-e3ab-4b79-b2b9-9c2710bdf45d.jpeg){kind=link}