chucky

And you can carry her through the doorway and feed her grapes.

Why doesn't she ride a bike or get her own damn car? Want to be chivalrous? Let her draft you or pick her up with this once a week:

ClimbTheHill

Your tone is demeaning and hostile. I will be happy to discuss my decisions in a civilized manner, but your argumentative approach lacks tact.

Back on Topic.
Here are my choices for transportation. It is my judgement that option 2 is the easiest and most sensible option given my situation. I am open to hearing other opinions as well as supporting arguments. Please refrain from sarcasm and hostility as this is not likely to convince me of your argument.

1) Bicycle - Pros: Fun, doesn't pollute, cheap, and good exercise. Cons: 60+ mile round trip on a bicycle will take at my "Lazy" speed of15 miles per hour, 4 hours. Also, for reasons that I will not go into (it isn't your business), she does not have a bicycle or a car. Also, the logistics of carrying her and her overnight bag in/on a bicycle along busy highways (that is all we have around here) seems a less than pleasant experience.

2) Car - Pros: 60+ miles round trip takes about 1:15. I can easily carry any passengers and luggage. Cons: Expensive, Pollutes, Not Fun.

3) Public Transit: No public transit to the burbs on the weekend. Public transit is setup only for work commutes. So not an option.

4) Walking - Pros: Doesn't pollute, cheap, and good exercise. Cons: 60+ mile round trip walking would take about 30 hours. Considering the weekend is only 48 hours, two round trip walks to the burbs would cost me more than the weekend. This of course excludes, sleeping and eating.

I love my bicycle and ride it as often as it seems practical to me. Unfortunately, (much like the car) the bike is not a Cure-All for all forms of transportation.

crazybikerchick

Yes carrying passengers (assuming no power-assist) on bicycle works best for short distances, few hills, and the lighter passenger the better (ie small children).

In the pictures posted with the adults on the long john, assuming they aren't disabled I'd much rather pick them up with a tandem bicycle, get some assisted pedalling from them!

crazybikerchick

Does it work to go the burbs Friday after work on transit and return on Monday morning for work? I did that once when spending a weekend in the burbs with friends. At first it did not occur to me that I could make use of work-commute public transit schedules for weekends by going Friday/Monday.

ClimbTheHill

Yes, we partially use the suburban commuter buses. Typically, she will take the bus in on Friday and stays the weekend w/o needing a car. Sunday night is typically when a car is used to take her back home. I have tried to convince her to stay until Monday and take transit back out, but shes won't go for it. Fortunately, she has many other redeeming qualities, so I let this slide. And as long as I have the car, I don't mind driving her there once a week.

I also use the car to do mentoring for a high school robotics team in a different suburb, there is no way I would have time to do this, if I didn't have a car. I have spent A LOT of time looking a bus schedules, combing rides with transit etc., it just doesn't work out because I have to stay later than the buses run.

chucky

Sorry, I was out of line, but you seem to think that you have a right to do anything you want no matter who you hurt or what the cost.

I don't think it's at all fair to say the bicycle isn't a cure-all for all forms of transportation. Sure if you insist on living 30 miles from her AND you insist on bringing her back to your place AND she insists on being helpless and immobile, then, yeah, it's going to be unpleasant. It would likewise be unpleasant for you to take the Concord jet twice a week if she insisted on living in England. Or what if she insisted on living in the international space station and you had to take a rocket ship to see her? Would you then conclude that regular rocket pollution is the "only practical option" or would you rightly recognize that you have to redefine your transportation goals?

This isn't sarcasm, I'm just pointing out the fact that if you put yourself in impractical and unrealistic situations and set impractical and unrealistic goals then of course you'll have to choose from impractical and unrealistic solutions. So although it's certainly your "choice" to consider terrestrial destruction as a viable option, how is it any different than if Kim Jong-il of North Korea "chose" to unleash his nuclear arsenal? If your only answer is "because I'm in the majority" then I think you really need to check your moral compass. As it says in the bible "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."

Personally if I were you I wouldn't be telling me that some of the solutions aren't my business. It's your head that could end up in the guillotine when the younger generation realizes what you've done. Not mine.

chucky

Obviously the most practical solution is simply for each person to have their own bicycle. But you do what you have to do if people are unable to carry their own weight (literally).

However, if they're unwilling to carry their own weight, well, it seems the most popular solution around this forum is to enable that person to rob the breath of life itself from the rest of us by driving a car on their behalf. Makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

crazybikerchick

A tandem can solve some of the problems of people that may be unwilling to ride their own bike, or even unable. A tandem can allow for instance for a sighted captain and a visually impaired stoker. The stoker does not have to worry about navigating the bike in traffic as long as he/she is willing to trust the captain. A tandem can also work where there is an inequity in abilities as the stoker is essentially drafting the captain.

mustang1

I drive one of my cars only once a month, sometimes even less. I leave it on a trickle charge.

Artkansas 

It depends on where you live. When I lived in the desert, 3 years was considered a long time for a battery and 2 years was common. When the temps get above 100 battery life goes down considerably. Atlanta is hot enough that it might affect battery life to some degree.

ryan.karr22

get a led battery fill it up with distilled water when low and re charge. it will last a long time.

wahoonc

There multiple ways to transport people without cars. Here is one that is used in Africa we are very spoiled in this country compared to a huge portion of the world's population.

Aaron

Pedaleur

Given this post and your others, perhaps you should point the finger in the other direction.

ronzorini

FWIW, you can also buy a cut-off switch to make life a little easier.
https://www.amazon.com/BATTERY-CUTOFF.../dp/B001HSBW74

I use my car once every 2-4 weeks. It sits outside so a float charger is impractical for me. Before I started disconnecting the battery, it would last only 3 years or so. Now it lasts much longer. I also slow charge it every couple of months.

sauerwald

No help to you, but an amusing story....
Prior to getting rid of my car and going officially car light (my wife still has a car), I had a VW Jetta diesel which got 50mpg, and I got over 700 miles on a tank of gas (diesel). I was living in Maine, and not driving much. I took the car out to have the wheels swapped from my summer tires to winter tires, and it was driving very poorly (very atypical for the car which was usually a dream.) The engine sputtering and choking a lot. I brought it in to the mechanic, who found the problem - although it was december, the last time I had filled the tank was in september, and I had 'summer gas' which doesn't flow well in cold weather.
Filled the tank with fresh fuel and the car was fine again.

One of the things that I like about the bicycle over the car is that I can and do perform almost all maintenance myself, I have a much better understanding of what is going on, and feel that I have much more reliable transportation.

Doohickie

3-4 years is right around the average I've gotten out of my batteries in Texas, all kinds of cars, some driven more frequently than others. The hot weather kills them.