TransitFacts.com

[Neo]

But how do auto-less people do heavy amounts of shopping, namely for groceries? As a person who owns a car its a snap to haul 150 to 200 dollars worth of groceries home. But its hard for me to see a person walking a quarter mile or so to a mass transit station, ride the mass transit back to his neighbor hood and then walking another quarter mile back to his home all while lugging ten to fifteen bags of groceries in his arms. I'm sure there is a way to do it as auto-less people in place like NYC or Chicago surely can't survive on restaurant food alone.

When I lived in Chicago I was lucky enough to have lived several floors above a Whole Foods market, unfortunately due to the costs of my large closet sized apartment I had no extra money to actually shop there so I found myself walking to the corner a street over and taking the subway two stops north to get to a grocery store. I typically went a couple of times each week. On my way home for example I would simply ride the subway the extra stops needed and then just ride back the opposite direction when done shopping. Only took a little extra time out of my evening.

On the occasion that I needed more groceries than I could carry on the subway (and believe me, I carried enough to look like an idiot sometimes) I would either call up PeaPod to deliver groceries to my apartment or I would take a cab back to my apartment.

[nowensone]

As mentioned above, shopping habits are usually different, as people typically buy what they need for a few specific meals and that is it. Which is IMO a superior way of shopping regardless of transit, as you have far less waste than when you buy $200 worth and half of the veggies rot because you aren't able to eat them all, not to mention that your meals consist of very fresh ingredients. This is required if you buy real breads and other such items (or make them yourself).

[tamias6]

That makes sense. Going to the grocery store every few days instead of say once a week reduces the amount to carry home to a manageable level.

[lammius]

Well yeah, you've got to be sure that the apartment you're moving to in the City has a grocery store within a block or three. Then you buy canvas shopping bags or a small cart (not a "shopping cart"). Or you just rely on Peapod or Fresh Direct.

[Recchia]

I walk to the grocery store and have never had a hassle. It's all in how lazy you are, if you're not lazy, then you don't mind carrying 4 bags of groceries a half mile.

I rode the bus to my internship two summers ago and saved $150 a month just in gas (nevermind if I had to pay to park). It was a 40 mile round trip 5 days a week. It was great not ever worrying how much gas was, as everyone else was doing at that time.

My goal in life is to be able to walk to work and get rid of my car completely. I'm moving to a place where I can walk to everything I need, I just need to get a job that's not 20 miles away, which is tough at this point. People say that cars give freedom, but all I see them as is a constant headache. I'm sick of worrying how much gas is going to be, how much repairs are going to be and how little I can sell my car for compared to what I paid for it. Cars are the biggest waste of money there is. Does anything depreciate as fast as they do? To each is own, but think of how many more people would be able to afford better housing if they weren't spending 300 dollars/month on car payments, 130 dollars/month on insurance and 100 dollars/month on gas?

[ohioaninSC]

I buy a week's worth of groceries all the time b/c I don't have the time to go their every couple of days, and I am not going to waste my money buying meals at restaraunts all the time. I used to do that for lunch every day, and then I stopped doing that and it has saved me easily $30 a week.

Anyways, when I lived on my campus at Ohio State, I did take the bus up about 8 blocks to the grocery store, when I went shopping. I usually at that time bought about 7/8 bags worth and I got pretty good at being able to carry them all onto the COTA bus to bring them back to my campus housing. You did have to be able to go at a time that the bus wasn't going to be packed though. I was usually able to use a 2 seats most times though, so I could put the bags down. The walk from the bus stop to my house was a block and a half, so that wasn't too bad either.

As for the use of public transit, I'll try a get a statement from my mother. She lives out in the Eastern Suburbs of Cleveland, actually a town called Pepper Pike. Anyways, unless she has to go somewhere during the day on a sales meeting in another town (about 1/2 per week, sometimes as far away as 200 miles), she'll drive the 2 miles to the park & ride in the next town over, Shaker Heights, and rides the Rapid (LTR) Blue or Lake line into downtown. It really is great b/c the main station in dt is in the basement of the Terminal Tower, which is the building that she works in. When she has to drive down there, it takes 45 min to 1 hr at rush time to and from, but the park and ride on the Rapid takes 30 min tops. Also when she and my stepdad go to a Browns game, Cavs game, or Indians game, they do the samething. It certainly beats trying to find overpriced parking, and then fighting the traffic in and out. The great thing is that she has said that she notices more and more people taking the Rapid into DT in the mornings compared to when she first started using it. She also loves the fact that she can actually read the morning paper and drink her coffee w/out having to pay any attention to what's going on. I know she'd never give up her car, and I never would too, but if their a good mass transit options available, I would definitely use them as often as I could, but I'd never want to give up my car.