On Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:16:16 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

snip

The irony of course is that 'we' often take the **** out of the
Americans for being lazy / car bound because they wouldn't think of
walking / cycling *anywhere*, let alone to the shops.

I don't know amyone who cycles to the shops.

Then may I suggest you get out (of your car) more (or maybe you don't
live or know anyone who lives within a cycle ride of the shops)? ;-)

Bikes are generally
impractical for carrying things.

Erm, if not set up for 'carrying things' then yes. For me a bike is
for carrying me and things so all of mine are. Most also can take the
trailer so can move even more.

Unless a custom made delivery bike - and
I doubt few actually choose to ride one of those.

I do. ;-)

Yet if you live in big city they are often the best way to do it, as
car ownership isn't practical and if you do have one it often takes
longer to drive to the shops and find a parking space than to walk
there (and park when you get back).

Really?

Yup.

I suppose if you choose the busiest day to go shopping in the rush
hour that might be so.

Not round here even. Go to any of the popular shops with car parks
(like Aldi) and you often have to circulate till you can find a space.

But then it's also going to be the worst time to
shop using a bike.

Not really, because it generally easier to find somewhere to park a
bike as car can't park in the bike parking (if they could some would
of course).

If there were more 'nutcases', we would have more space on the roads
and fewer people dying from air pollution.

More space on the roads for cyclists?

More space for everyone, that's the whole point of public transit and
walking / cycling / scooting where possible.

They have already been given half
the available road space round here, which is near empty for much of the
day.

Yup, this is a problem when trying to 'reverse engineer' a road system
that has become dedicated to just car users.

Slowing down drastically things like buses and emergency services.

Yup.

If you 'choose' to live miles away from anywhere because you prefer
it, you are likely to produce more pollution when doing those things
others can do on foot because you have to use the car for everything.

Are you saying everyone should move to the centre of large cities, then?

No, what I'm saying is a that it's the minority who don't live in the
cities who produce a greater percentage of the pollution, assuming
they aren't self sufficient.

When we stayed in Castle Douglas it was a 50 mile round trip into
Dumfries to get a new headlamp for the Rover. Here it would be a ~1
mile walk / cycle.

So you have a car. But cycle to get bits for it.

Or walk, get public transport, yes.

How do you get bits for
your bike - use the car? ;-)

You have more than one bike, walk or use public transport. ;-)

Cheers, T i m