To be fair, that’s a stupid, pointless hard mode, regardless of having a car or not. If your city is designed correctly, it more like taking a day worth of groceries 200m.
Economies of scale and specialization of shops mean that even if you get your noodles and tomatoes from the corner store each afternoon, you’re still going to want to go someplace else to stock up on 40lb sacks of basmati and chickpeas. And maybe you want to visit the farmer’s market on the weekend, which cannot be on everyone’s streetcorner.
I use paniers, and every 2-3 years I get my bike trailer out of the closet. I can carry 90 litres in my panniers and not even notice they’re there.
I walk past it on my afternoon walk, get my groceries for the day and that is it. Why would I bother storing that much crap? This way I get fresh food basically every day.
Most trips I don’t use the cart, I also just do short walks on a semi daily basis for most things. I was just pointing out it’s still possible to do big trips without a car. I mainly cart for the bulky/heavy items. Bags of rice, paper towels, cat litter, etc. Or if I’m doing a bigger trip to a specialty market across town like an Asian grocer.
Moved from South Africa to the Netherlands about 2 years ago, I have gotten so used to the infrastructure I have a mild panic attack any time i think about how on earth I would get from a hotel to a super market if I go back to visit Cape Capetown South Africa.
I have gone from desperately fighting that I need the best car and I should be able to speed all I want to being happy to just hop on my bike and cycle to work never caring if there will be parking.
This country may as well be a fever dream and some day soon I will wake up back home.
I’ve shared this story before but maybe not on Lemmy:
Landed in Amsterdam in 1997 for the beginning of a six month backpacking tour through Europe (obligatory cliché thing to do for every 22-year-old). First thing outside the airport I notice is these big roomy sidewalks. So much space! So much freedom! So much—holy shit where did these bicycles come from? I quickly found out their sidewalks were highways for their insane bike infrastructure. Just bikes everywhere as far as the eye could see.
I am lucky enough to live close to mackinaw island and it is as amazing as the picture says. For people who don’t know mackinaw island is an island in one of the lakes surrounding Michigan and it has banned vehicles (except for essential businesses like repairs). You’ve got a super walkable island, bikes everywhere, no one complaining about the no vehicles, horses everywhere too. It’s amazing and I wish I could have that in lower Michigan .
It’s actually so idealistic the houses for permanent residents on the island are ungodly expensive. Millionaires only get to live full time there.
Meh. Last time I visited it was just another overcrowded tourist trap full of generic souvenir stores and storefronts full of the same “local goods” found in every tourist attraction in the country, only instead of vehicle exhaust the main street smelled like manure and stale fry oil. The fort was neat, I guess, and the fudge was good (I mean, it’s fudge), but overall it was pretty underwhelming.
Without all the tourists it would probably be a pretty nice place.
So it’s kind of a trip that really is up to you how it goes. I went expecting tourist stuff off the boat and quickly just got a bike and zoomed around the island enjoying nature. I came back to the main town when I was hungry and having a ton of options was nice. I’d also really prefer the horse smells to cars, horse poop and all. I grew up with farms around me all the time so cow poop smell during fertilizer season is real normal to me. Also picking up like 5 pounds of fudge before I left was nice lol. Disclaimer: I went outside of peak season so maybe it’s different during the huge wave of tourists.
That sounds ideal. I was with a family including small children, which meant we walked everywhere, and slowly. The kids easily grew bored with the historical stuff, which necessarily meant I couldn’t really enjoy it myself. It was not ideal.
I went during off season with a group of friends and had the exact same experience. There were times we didn’t see anyone. Most people we saw were in the early mornings, those stopping by to shop and such.
Same. After moving to Michigan I saw Mackinac Island in every list of things to do in the state and so far it has been one of the most borings one
I love the UP and sleeping bear dunes (and the whole area around Traverse City) but the island just felt as a very generic tourist trap with horses and for some reason they think it’s the only place to get fudge 🤷
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