Tag Archives: car-free

Carrying Heavy Loads, Sans Car

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If you sell your car, you’ll need to devise a method to carry heavy loads. Even minor loads can become troublesome when you’re not prepared. If you eat at home frequently, expect to carry at least 50lbs. of groceries each week. If you have children, you’ll need to shuttle your little ones to school, to church, and to sports practice. And when you buy furniture or appliances, you’ll need to transport them into your house. So how, exactly, do you haul a refrigerator into the kitchen if you don’t own a car?

I’ve been living without a car for about two years now. During that time, I’ve experimented with dozens of unconventional methods for carrying heavy loads over long distances. I hope this article inspires you to customize these set-ups to fit your own needs. Trust me: with a ingenuity and elbow-grease, you can move practically anything sans car (1).

Here’s a list of my favorite tactics:

Stop Shopping

Buying too much stuff clutters your house, wastes your money, and hurts the environment. I have stopped shopping altogether for half a year now (except for food, of course).

Order it online

Many brick-and-mortar shops now offer online ordering and home-delivery. Take advantage of it! Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Sears, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Dell, and Apple now deliver directly to your home. Sam’s Club and Costco seem to only deliver to business districts, but perhaps you can negotiate with the local store manager. Here’s a massive compilation of online grocery chains that offer home delivery. You should consider Safeway, AmazonFresh, FreshDirect, and Peapod. Most chains only offer delivery in limited locations, so ask around. Sometimes, as with the case of Albertsons, home-delivery is offered only in select areas so it’s not widely advertised.

You can definitely get home-delivered organic food. There are large organic chains like Diamond Organics as well as small-scale, local farms. Local Harvest, Eat Wild, and the Eat Well Guide are have enormous listings of local farms that deliver. I used to be part of a CSA program that offered home delivery. Currently, I’m getting free-range chicken eggs delivered to my apartment from a farm in Miaoli.

Home delivery can be expensive (expect a 50-100% markup). However, it can save you a lot of time, which you can use for relaxation or for work (to earn more money). At one point, I even hired a personal assistant to shop for me (via Care.com). It was cheaper to hire a personal grocery shopper at $15/hr than it was to pay for insurance and gas. In the process, I freed up a lot of time.

Rent a car

Don’t own a car just to move large furniture; renting is much cheaper. You can even use frequent flyer miles or credit cards rewards points to pay for rentals.

For about a year, I was a member of ZipCar. I used it every other week for grocery shopping. It cost about $30 for 3 hours, which was enough time to round up all the groceries I needed for two weeks. I didn’t have to take out a car loan, nor did I have to pay for gas, insurance, or campus parking. I later experimented with renting a car for church on Sundays. This tactic is extremely convenient if you have kids.

Recently, I discovered I overpaid for car rentals. Experienced travelers can get full-day rentals for less than $30. With rewards points, you can rent a car for less than $15 per day.

Transform your bicycle into a workhorse

I upgraded my tandem and my road bike so each one can easily handle over 75lbs. of groceries. My favorite method is to attach a grocery basket
to the handlebars, then mount a rack
on the rear frame and attach baskets to the side. Here’s a photo of my set-up for the tandem bike.

(Left) Set up of our own tandem bike. (Right) Tandem bike with a trailer.

Most of my groceries fit in the front and side baskets, but when I need extra capacity, I can tie boxes onto the bike rack using a bungee cord. Even when fully loaded, the bikes still give a comfortable ride. Bike shops are extremely helpful for installing these custom parts.

If you do a lot of shopping, you can invest in a grocery trailer. Trailers attach to the bike frame and let you haul over 200lbs. on a single trip. You might even be able to haul a refrigerator with just a single bicycle.

Carrying children is trickier. If you have an infant, you can carry him with a child seat attached to your bike frame. When he grows older, he can ride with you in tandem with a special bike trailer attachment. The tandem bolts onto your existing bike seat. The kids won’t be able to steer, but they’ll still get some exercise.

If you have a big family, you’ll definitely want to invest in a child’s trailer. The bonus of having a child’s trailer is that you can use it as a grocery cart when you go shopping.

Hsinya and I don’t have any kids (yet), so we’ve never tested this out ourselves. However, we have experimented with tandem bikes. I recommend either a collapsible tandem or a detachable trailer. Don’t buy a full-sized tandem: they’re too bulky to pack up into a van or a bus.

(Left) Bike trailer. (Right) Bike with a child seat.

Get a Hand Truck

It’s better than borrowing a grocery cart. Find one that can carry over 200lbs., but can collapse to the size of a textbook. Hand trucks/folding shopping carts can be combined with public transit to shorten walking distance. However, hand trucks can be difficult to use if sidewalks are in disrepair (or non-existent, like in Taiwan). In these cases, I just use my backpack and travel bags.

(Left) A hand truck. (Right) A folding shopping cart.

The particular solution doesn’t matter; just make sure you find one that works for you. It has to be cost-effective, simple, and convenient. If it’s not a solution you can live with on a weekly basis, you’ll find yourself wanting to own a car all over again.

Keep in mind that hauling heavy loads will always be a slight challenge without a car. Getting the perfect solution takes experimenting, so don’t give up quickly. Remind yourself of the millions of dollars you’re saving, as well as all the energy you’re conserving. You’re helping the environment and getting a good workout along the way.

With a little ingenuity and determination, you’d be surprised with what you can come up with.

  1. Michael Bluejay uses his bicycle to move to his new place. This article made me laugh.
  2. Photo attributions in order of photo appearance: Robert S. Donovan, CC BY; our own photo; tandemracer, CC BY; Howard N2GOT, CC BY;Mark Stosberg, CC BY-NC-SA; Hand Truck Sentry System, CC BY; ABMJG, CC BY-NC-ND; Foxtongue, CC BY.

Escaping High Oil Prices

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Today, the average price of gas in the USA is $3.29 per gallon. It sounds expensive, but it’s actually quite cheap compared to prices in the rest of the world. In Japan and Korea, gas costs around $5.50 per gallon. In Hong Kong, Germany, and Denmark, gas can cost as much as $7.50 per gallon. Filling up a 16-gallon tank in a mid-sized car can easily cost over $110 in Norway. To put that in perspective, $110 can pay for two weeks worth of groceries.

At $3.29/gallon, you could be spending $2000 each year in gas prices alone if you commute 30 miles each day to work (1). If two people commute separately, that’s $4000 each year. And there’s more awful news to come: the price of oil will only continue to increase. It’s a matter of basic economics: demand is increasing, but supply is running out.

Petroleum is a limited, non-renewable resource. This means that oil production follows a curve: it starts slow, hits a peak, and then begins to trail. Oil engineers predicted this phenomenon in the early 1950s—and this may be the decade we may finally reach peak oil. Soon thereafter, global oil production will taper off. Already, most easy-to-reach oil supplies have been exhausted. Oil companies are now increasingly resorting to offshore and tar sands oil extraction, which are both expensive and harmful to the environment. Yet while supply is decreasing, demand for oil is exploding. In particular, the burgeoning middle classes of China and India are acquiring a taste for motor vehicles. With a billion cars worldwide today, and tens of millions more added each year, the price of fuel will skyrocket.

Oil production peak by country. (from US Department of Energy)

Our current era of cheap, unlimited energy is quickly coming to an end. By the end of this decade, the average household could be spending $8000+ on gasoline each year just to commute to work. Our society’s driving habits will change—if not for environmental reasons, then at least because of the price.

The best strategy for dealing with the upcoming energy crisis is to wean yourself off of petroleum. Live with less gasoline so that rising fuel prices won’t affect your standard of living. Not only will you help reduce pollution, you’ll be saving thousands of dollars, too.

Switch over to mass transit whenever you can. They conserve fuel and ultimately conserve you money. A $65 monthly bus pass could save you $100 each month in fuel costs alone, or $1200 each year (2). If you can live without a car, you can save another $4000 each year in auto insurance, car payments, and parking fees. You’ll also save time; instead of fighting traffic, you can read, rest, or relax.

If you’re willing to totally unplug from the oil economy, you can start bicycle commuting . By cycling, you can save $6000+ each year. You don’t even need a specialized bicycle; just use what you have. In fact, if you live close enough, you can just walk. Both tactics will save you money while providing exercise.

For decades, we’ve been willfully ignorant about the fact that oil is a limited resource. We pretended that gas pumps had a supply that could never end. But within a decade, many of us may be forced to live car-free out of economic necessity. We didn’t pay attention to conservation in the past; but today, we can’t afford not to.

  1. Assumptions: $3.29/gallon, 30 miles 1-way implies 60 miles round-trip, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year, average mileage is 25 miles/gallon: $3.29/gallon × 30 miles × 2 (round-trip) × 5 days/wk × 50 wks/yr ÷ 25 miles/gallon = $1974/yr. Per month, it’s $1974÷12 = $164.5. For two commuters, it’s $1974 &multiply; 2 = $3948/yr. If gas rises to $6.59/gallon (doubling in price), the cost of fuel for two commuters is $7896/yr.
  2. A Los Angeles monthly bus pass is $75, and Orange County’s is $55. If the average bus pass is $65/mo., the difference between gasoline price and bus fare is $164.5 – $65 = $99.5. If we roughly estimate the cost of auto insurance ($1550), parking ($500), and car payments ($200/mo. &multiply 12mo. = $2400), the additional cost of car ownership is $4450/yr., not including the cost of maintenance and vehicle registration fees.

Bicycle Commuting Safely

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Enjoy the ride. Get out and bike!

Safety is a major concern for bicycle commuters. Cyclists often find themselves sharing the road with cars, sometimes on narrow streets without marked bike lanes. This dangerous arrangement has scared away many potential converts from switching over to bicycle commuting full-time. It’s a real tragedy, since cycling offers a cheap and effective solution for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. But a lack of safe, dedicated bike paths is only half of the problem; the other half is ignorance.

By law, bicycles are vehicles: they are entitled to use the road, just as cars are (1). In fact, bicycles are forbidden to ride on the sidewalk. While they must usually ride on the right edge of the road, cyclists are allowed to occupy an entire lane when necessary for safety. They can even switch to the left lane to turn or to pass slower vehicles. Most motorists, however, are misinformed about the law. They think that bicycles are toys that belong on the sidewalk, so most cyclists are regarded as pests and troublemakers. When this ignorance is combined with two tons of high speed metal, cyclists need to watch out!

As a bicycle commuter, you need to bicycle defensively. Do whatever it takes to avoid getting hit. Don’t insist on your legal rights when you bicycle; it’s better to be wronged than to get hit by a car. Don’t expect motorists to follow the rules, or even the police to help you out. I discovered this first-hand when my high school friend got hit by a car. I witnessed a reckless driver smash into my friend’s bicycle, knocking him off and fracturing his arm and wrist. The law was on my friend’s side, but the police did nothing to help him. If you want to avoid a similar fate, you need to avoid getting hit in the first place (2).

Bicycle as if no cars can see you, because some of them won’t. Helmets are nice, but don’t let them give you an illusion of safety. You don’t want to get hit in the first place, so stay away from cars whenever possible.

The best tactic is to choose the safest route possible. Google Maps also provides bike paths, which is extremely helpful. Under the “More” tab, you can overlay a map with bike routes. A thin, sold green line indicates a bike lane shared with cars, while a thick, solid green line represents paths exclusive to bicycles.

When deciding on a bicycle route, choose safety over distance. Safer routes may take longer, but they’re worth the peace of mind. It’s safer to ride in bicycle lanes, and even safer to route through exclusive paths. When neither option is available, I choose residential roads. Although major streets tend to be more direct, cars drive faster and may be less attentive. Finally, choose paths you’re already familiar with, so that if you get a flat tire, you’ll know how to navigate around.

Even though you’ll bicycle as if no cars can see you, you’ll still want to be highly visible–just in case. Make sure every car can see you clearly from afar. This means you should generally avoid bicycling at night, and if you must, bring strong headlights and taillights. They are required by law, anyway. Make sure they are highly visible and strong enough to avoid being obscured by car headlights. Reflective clothing and rear reflectors can also help. Finally, to help your own visibility, purchase a rear view mirror so you can better see cars coming from behind.

As a bicycle commuter, you’ll want to learn how to fix a flat tire by yourself. You will certainly get a flat eventually, and you’ll want to be able to fix it on the spot, especially if you ride at night. Always carry the necessary equipment to fix the bike yourself; bike stores often sell a small repair kit.

For some of you, bicycle commuting can be dangerous because of a lack of bike paths and reckless cars. It’s a real shame, but hopefully these tactics can help you overcome the many obstacles thrown against you.

For those who live in eco-conscious cities (3), bicycle commuting is actually an extremely safe way of transportation. In Irvine, biking is far safer than driving. Cities like Davis or Portland often have scenic bike paths where you can enjoy clean air, good exercise, and a relaxing ride while saving thousands of dollars each year. Not bad for conserving a little energy.

Can you bicycle commute instead of drive?

1 California Law dictates bicycles are allowed, and in fact must, ride on the road. Try telling that to the cars!

2 Bicyclesafe provides excellent tips to avoid getting hit by cars. It inspired much of this post.

3 Minneapolis, Portland, Boulder, Seattle, and Eugene are the top five bike-friendly cities in the US, according to Bicycling.com