2 Mile Challenge

[Tuckervill]

Two Miles is pretty much my entire city. I do walk to the downtown area a lot in the spring (it's only 4 blocks away). I go days without leaving my house at all, in order to make the small trips I have to take combinable into one trip.

Yesterday I had to send a check to the guy who mows our baseball complex. I didn't have a stamp, so I just looked up his address and took it to his house--closer than the post office. My town is just small.

My grandmother walked everywhere in Chicago. I remember her little shopping cart, but I'll bet I couldn't find one here. That's what it would take to get all my errands done without driving. (We're going through 2 gallons of milk every 3-4 days with this 14 yo here.) I occasionally get to ride my bike on these errands.

I'm going to consider it more, since I don't work, I have the time, and could save that much more gas if I walked. I have a "new" old touring bike with racks to get ready for service, too. Thanks for sharing that site.

Karen

[northstar]

DH and I have been a one-car family since before we were married...just passed the four year mark. This means that one of us is usually carless!

It was VERY stressful the first six months, until we learned how to plan ahead, like Eden mentioned. We have to email each other at the beginning of each week so that we can check each other's schedule throughout the week. I've had to adjust to not being able to do anything I want whenever I want. I still get to do whatever I want, but it might have to be at a different time. It took a long time to un-learn that instant gratification.

This 2-mile deal is a great idea.

[ClockworkOrange]

Wow Eden, I thought this would only cover the US but no, my little town in the UK suddenly appeared.

Cheers for that.

Clock

[Xrayted]

More and more these days we walk or ride our bikes for all of the local stuff. We walk over to the grocery store. Sure it's more trips that way because you can only buy as much as you can carry, but then again it's more excuses for a walk too. We walk or bike to the bank, to our local favorite restaurant, etc... I take public transit for work when I can't ride since I live about 10 miles away. (Even as slow as I am, it's still usually quicker for me to ride in than to drive because of the traffic. ) We have a bike club at the hospital and lots of help to find routes and such for new employees. We get a card punched for everyday that we bike in and after 35 punches, they put $50 in our paychecks. ($25 if you have a transit pass) Watching that little video certainly gives one a bit more inspiration to drive less.

Thanks Eden. I'll pass it on.

[onimity]

Very cool Eden, thanks. My no-drive radius is more like 10 miles, more if you include transit, but everything (apart from my office) is within a 6 mile radius of my house, and biking that distance is faster than driving.

I'm like you in that I shop almost daily. I find that I eat a lot better that way, but I am lucky to have a store a mile away and a Wild Oats (which I usually go to) a little over 2 miles away. I just made my first bike-to-Costco trip this weekend (it is about 6 miles away and I definitely pushed the 70 lb limit on the trailer!) but it was a lot easier than I expected. Not to mention that I got serious props from the cashier and some good-looking guys in the parking lot.

A trailer has made a big difference for me in making errands bike-friendly. I used to walk out for cat litter & detergent but it is so much easier & faster on the bike with the trailer.

Anne

[Tri Girl]

That was really interesting, Eden- thanks for posting it!
I guess I didn't realize how many of the things I go to are in my 2 mile radius. There's so much traffic, that I hadn't considered riding my bike... until recently. I just bought an OLD steel bike that I'm restoring (got if for $5 and am putting about $60 into it). It'll be my errand bike. I plan on putting a basket and rear rack and using it to grocery shop and go other quick places.

[elk]

Gosh...the world is at my doorstep!! But in order to get to it, I have to do some major hills on narrow, bike lane-less and fairly well traffic-ed roads...

But I can go to the park and a coffeshop really easily!
Gosh darn it, I think I will!

[Deborajen]

Thanks for sharing the link. That's a good challenge - and a good reminder. Cargo seems to be my biggest obstacle, but when I can work around that, why not?

We're golfers and there is a golf course within two miles of us. My son used to (and still does sometimes) take his putter and ride his bike to the practice greens. We're still trying to figure out how to take a whole bag of clubs. We all laugh at the thought of carrying them on our backs, but who knows - they make kid trailers - maybe we can rig a trailer out of the hand cart --

Deb

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

4 1/2 years ago when DH & I bought our current house, we made a big decision to give up on the idea of living out on some isolated coountry road somewhere and instead buy a house on the village outskirts so we would not be so dependent on cars to get anywhere. This was the best decision!
We bike all the time to the bank, the PO, drugstore, bakery, etc. I can't even imagine how much we now save in gas and car use, and we don't pollute the air like we used to. Many times i'll walk the mile round trip to Main St and back for some little errand, just because it's wonderful exercise.
Because we are now more aware of using our cars, driving somewhere seems like a bigger deal than before, and that makes us consolidate our car trips more too.
The only thing is our house is at the top of a VERY steep 1/4 mile hill, so every time we walk or bike out the last thing we do is have to climb that hill. We have pretty much gotten used to it though, and truly the hill doesn't seem quite as steep as it did a couple of years ago.

[Eden]

Thanks for sharing the link. That's a good challenge - and a good reminder. Cargo seems to be my biggest obstacle, but when I can work around that, why not?

We're golfers and there is a golf course within two miles of us. My son used to (and still does sometimes) take his putter and ride his bike to the practice greens. We're still trying to figure out how to take a whole bag of clubs. We all laugh at the thought of carrying them on our backs, but who knows - they make kid trailers - maybe we can rig a trailer out of the hand cart --

Deb

I've seen a golf bag specific bike attachment! I'm going to look for it right now.

Ha it took some doing but found it! (originally came across this as I was trying to figure out how to make a home-made bike trailer)

http://www.traileron.com/