aT lEaST iT'S lEsS CrOwDeD tHaN PuBlIC TrAnSpORT
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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I'm confused whats the alternative here? Even in Japan you'd hire a taxi if you have a full load of groceries you're not taking the train.
Living in Wroclaw, PL. Closest grocery store is 100m from where I live. Closest discount store is 350m. Closest hypermarket is 850m. Closest mall is 600m. Closest bakery is 50m. Closest restaurant is 250m, 300 for kebab, 450 for mexican, chinese, thai, korean, and italian, 600m for sushi Closest pharmacy is 300m. Closest clinic is 450m. Closest hospital is 1,3km. Closest bank is 100m.
Very not city centre btw. When your apartment is closer to things you need than the distance between free parking spot and the shop in US the car becomes pretty useless
Similar in Turku, Finland.
And I live on the very edges of the city. 500m to a store and pharmacy, supermarket a bit further. But there's buses that go like every 7 min during the day.
Now they're also opening more cross city lines, so that'll make it so that I have a bus stop outside my building that will take me to one of the largest malls in Finland in a few minutes. And the other connection takes me to the centre of the city which has a mall even larger by sales.
I've not owned a car for years, and even when I buy lots of groceries, the bus connections are so good that I've not needed a car. I'm a single guy though, but sometimes I'll have like 25kg of groceries on me when I weigh myself for the luls. A backpack and bags in both hands.
If I need something bigger that requires a car, I can use a taxi or loan a car from a friend.
Mumbai, India. Six grocery stores, five pharmacies, two clinics, and multiple cafes and restaurants within a 3-minute bike ride from where I live. A full-fledged mall, a hospital, a 7-Eleven convenience store, and an upcoming metro station 5 minutes away, a major discount department store, a shopping complex, and the train station 10min away (by bike).
That's on top of the fact that there are multiple Instacart-style app-based delivery services that'll bring groceries to you, so you don't even have to get out of the house if you don't want to. (I steer clear of those because they grossly underpay their low-level employees, but they're there if you really need something in a pinch)
I live a solid 25-30 km outside the city center. Not once have I felt the need for a car in my eight years living here, even for longer distances.
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Japan has accessible grocery stores and department stores just about everywhere. That makes it a lot easier to just get what you need and take it home because of how easy it to get to and from the store. If the load is something you can't carry by yourself most stores offer a delivery service.
Columbus is special. It's a 15 minute city by car outside rush hour. But gods help you if you don't have a car. The bus comes like every hour.
I spent years there trying to convince people that it needs light rail
Looks like you had a really good light rail system up until the late '70s?
https://allcolumbusdata.com/rail-transportation-history/
I'm assuming Judge Doom got involved at that point and paved over the lines
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Cars (like any technology under capitalism) are meant to keep people dependent, desperate, and exploitable.
meant to keep people dependent
As compared to what? Public transport is the definition of being dependent! There's plenty of criticism to be levied, exaggeration isn't needed.
Aren't trams, trains and bikes technology?
They don't want that there.
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Hell, just needing a jump start becsuse your battery died can be a PITA if you have to rely on strangers.
This is naiive and dumb (like a lot of posts in this community).
If you drove to the grocery store, then you almost certainly have more groceries than are going to be comfortable to carry back by hand.
I mean if you can walk to the grocery store in a reasonable amount of time you'll be able to divide those groceries over multiple visits and not have to deal with this.
Not to mention, cargo bikes are a thing.
Not just cargo bikes. I've got a folding bike (small apartment) with two panniers and a backpack. Sure it's not car level but its pretty good for grabbing groceries.
And it should be noted, Columbus has a pretty bad food desert problem.
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I live next door to a grocery store, and a 2m walk from multiple green grocers. I live the walking grocery lifestyle.
But there are still situations where I have to drive to the store to pick up a large amount of supplies. Like say, when hosting a birthday party, or wanting to pick supplies up at a grocery store that doesn't have exorbitant prices.
With the post indicating that it was a kid’s birthday, I thought the same thing. They may be buying supplies for an entire party. Walking home in summer heat carrying a cake (that should probably be refrigerated) doesn’t sound easy, but add in the kids (are they big enough to help carry things? Or are the kids so little that they need to be carried?) and the rest of the supplies the family bought, and it easily adds up. Then we have roads that aren’t designed for walking, no public transit options, and who knows how far they had to travel to get back home.
here in sweden we have also have this unique invention called a "handcart" that lets you transport more things while walking
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There's a big difference between what's "comfortable to carry back by hand" and "what's feasible to carry to a bus stop 100 metres outside the store, and then 400 metres from where the bus drops you off to your home". That's if we're assuming a situation where you did drive to the store, planning to drive home, but an emergency means you can't drive the return leg.
But also, if you do have good public transport, it becomes much easier to adjust your schedule to more frequent, smaller shops, where it's not just feasible but easy to carry the groceries. Or in a good city for cycling, to drop the groceries in your paniers, basket, or even full-on cargo bike.
Nobody in NYC can buy groceries because they don't have cars. Cars are the only way to get groceries home.
We use rolly carts in NYC and make more frequent trips. It's also not uncommon to stop by Trader Joe's or the supermarket on your way home. The best carts are those with the weird tri-wheels that go up and down stairs.
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Out of interest did you see the rest of the story? Looks like OOP deleted the tweet.
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