• Zarobi@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      Some of my friends like to make “fake plans”, just to talk or something I guess? Like they’ll make up this whole vague scenario, but when I ask what date and time specifically, apparently that is the incorrect thing to ask

      • DrSoap@lemmy.world
        1·
        22 hours ago

        Same. So I just started going with the flow and now I get occasional passive aggressive replies for these plans never coming into existence. I guess I made these imaginary scenarios sound TOO good… but if they’re not going to be real, who needs to think about budgets or time restraints.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    171·
    13 days ago

    I will drive 20 extra minutes not to wait 10 minutes in gridlock.

    I will park a mile away and walk in rather than circle for 10 minutes for a parking spot.

    I wife is not a fan of either of these traits.

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
    183·
    13 days ago

    Then why did you take your car?

    “I’m going home because I didn’t find a parking space” sounds like someone who drove there entirely alone. Look how much space a car takes up for just one person.

  • eksb@programming.devEnglish
    15·
    13 days ago

    I’m at the age that the first train to the event being full is enough to make me go home.

  • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    15·
    13 days ago

    I park as far away as I’m able to walk in order not to drive around to find parking. I’ve found that it saves time on the long run, gas, and mor importantly my own stress and mental health.

    • UroFighter@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      13 days ago

      I do that to. What I love is that while walking the last hundreds meters to the place you are going you can see all the people who try to park close that are all getting angry in their cars, proving you were right to park further away.

      Once you start you never go back.

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    121·
    13 days ago

    It’s way before that for me. When I get word of the event, I look up the venue immediately to see the parking situation. If it’s bad and the event isn’t too important, I’m not going.

      • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        13 days ago

        Fill in the blank with any EU country after shaking hands with France lol

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
      03·
      13 days ago

      Tourism taking all the parking in your small European town?
      Can’t park at the only town store because tourists are everywhere and I can’t park my car and don’t want to be a dick and leave it on the street with 4 blinkers on like any random BMW douche?
      Go home hungry and wait till the next day?
      Yeah, I’m laughing in European too.

  • glibg@lemmy.ca
    111·
    13 days ago

    If you can bike, bike. Bike parking always within 50m of the venue 😎

  • pedz@lemmy.ca
    81·
    13 days ago

    I don’t drive a car and hate them very much, but I have this in common with motorists. Only what I’m looking for is a secure place to lock my bike. Which is somehow often rarer than a parking space for cars.

    I got my bike stolen while it was locked by the side of a Walmart, so now I’m much more careful about the “parking situation” and I use a bike share or public transit if I fear for the safety of my vehicle.

      • pedz@lemmy.ca
        1·
        13 days ago

        It’s illegal where I live to lock a bike to “urban furniture”, and a pole is also often not the safest place. If not stolen, it will be removed by the city.

    • Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      That’s something I wonder about: don’t bike people get their bikes stolen all of the time?

      Maybe I’ve just seen too many Lockpicking Lawyer videos.

      • gnu@lemmy.zip
        3·
        13 days ago

        I never had a bike stolen even during the few years I was using one as my main form of wheeled transit. It helped though that I never had an expensive bike, always locked it up when I left it (average cable lock), and had somewhere secure to leave it at night.

      • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
        31·
        13 days ago

        Speaking from experience, no, they really don’t.

        As LPL will tell you, you don’t need to have the most secure thing on the planet, you just need to be a hard enough target that the thief gives up or picks something else.

        If you don’t lock your bike, sure it’ll get stolen from some places.

        Bike theft is a crime of opportunity. Nobody is stalking a specific bike to take, it’s usually “oh shit there’s one that looks easy imma take it”

        I have a hardened steel U-bolt lock and a thick AF cable (do not get any cables under 1/2in as they can be easily cut with side cutters or even good wire strippers) the U lock goes through the frame, the cable and disc lock go through the wheels as well. I also like to take my seat with me in my bag, since nobody wants to ride a bike without a seat.

        • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          13 days ago

          If your bike is expensive enough it’ll be targeted. People with very valuable bikes don’t leave them in the same place repeatedly for that reason.

        • GalacticRobot@lemmy.world
          2·
          13 days ago

          Speaking of opposite experience, absolutely. Even if you lock it down, high likelihood of getting stolen, especially if left overnight, and if it’s a ‘high value’ bike, especially an e-bike.

        • Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          That’s a relief. I’m walking from home to the bus stop currently, but considering a bike to help speed things up.

          • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
            3·
            13 days ago

            I actually used to ride my bike to the closest stop when I lived further away from town.

            Locked it up somehwre close, come back and ride it home.

            Nowadays my bikes are a little more expensive so I don’t like to lock them where I can’t see them all day, but I’m fairly sure it will still be there when I come back.

            The one time it DID get stolen, it was specifically because I forgot my lock that day. I called a friend, we drove around town for a bit and I spotted some guy on it, called the cops and told them I’m about to confront the guy who stole my bike and if they care to show up we’re at the park. (don’t bother saying you want them to intervene, tell them you are confronting someone and they’ll show up thinking maybe someone is about to get shot) and when the guy tried to say he bought the bike heads ago, I told the cop I’m taking the handlebars off to prove something. Took them off with the toolkit I keep in my bag, and pulled out a piece of paper with my name,partial address, and phone number on it. The guy started sprinting the second he realized I have proof it’s mine. I also pulled out my New Bike Day photo of it but the paper with my details inside the frame is a lot harder to argue against.

          • grue@lemmy.world
            2·
            13 days ago

            Get an old bike that’s in good mechanical condition but looks shitty.

            Alternatively, figure out how to take the bike with you on the bus. My transit system’s buses have bike racks on the front, but if yours doesn’t, get a folding bike (e.g. a Brompton).

      • pedz@lemmy.ca
        1·
        13 days ago

        Yes, and no. Theft can be a strong possibility, but not “all the time”. It depends a lot on where you lock the bike, its value, and how you lock it.

        I have had two bikes stolen twice in about 10 years. One was a hybrid worth about $1k. It was locked with a cable by the side of a Walmart in a neighborhood of questionable reputation. It took me about 15 minutes to get in and out and the cable was cut when I came back. The other was also a hybrid worth about $1k. It was stolen while locked with a cable, in the underground garage of my building. However I have another “cheap” bike from a big retail store locked with a very cheap cable lock in the same garage, and nobody stole it.

        So now even if my contract says I can’t bring a bike in the apartment, my “expensive” hybrid takes the elevator with me and stays in my living room. I also now use a thick U-lock because cables are risky. But even then I know very well that leaving it locked with a U-lock outside for any prolonged period of time is also risky.

        If you have a “nicer” bike than average, you have to be mentally prepared to have it stolen at some point. Not “all the time”, but maybe a few times in your life, depending on your luck and locations.

    • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zipEnglish
      63·
      13 days ago

      Americans do walk sometimes, but only if it’s a special event raising money for charity, or on vacation to a theme park like Disney World or Europe. Otherwise, if you can’t park your car literally within sight of your destination, “there’s no parking!”

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        13 days ago

        My ex spouse is like this drove me batshit. Going to where they worked that’s a 15 minute walk I’d just walk and they’d drive, by the time they found parking I was already inside sitting. Sometimes parking was so far away they’d end up walking nearly 10 minutes anyways. Years of trying I could never convince them to just walk to work. I never understood it, still don’t, why would they prefer that?

        • kungen@feddit.nu
          2·
          13 days ago

          Wtf, so they drove just for like a bit over 1km? I used to work somewhere a bit over 2km away from my house and usually walked or biked there. I’d drive there when it’s bad weather, and even then it took me longer than biking.

          • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zipEnglish
            0·
            13 days ago

            About 1.5km, literally on the same street as us it was a straight shot. On their way back they didn’t have to deal with finding parking but they did deal with rush hour traffic so that straight shot was still longer than walking

            • kungen@feddit.nu
              1·
              13 days ago

              The only smart excuse I could come up with would be that parking is cheaper at work than at home? 😅 My current job is only like 6km away and I still drive there usually, but mostly because street parking is like $4/hour during working hours, whereas I have free parking at work.

              A fully acceptable reason for someone to become an ex, though I assume there were many other reasons as well.

        • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zipEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          Thankfully, calling out dipshits for the dipshit things that they do is not racism. Houstonians have a choice, and they choose… that kind of abomination.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
            0·
            13 days ago

            It’s racist because you’re ascribing it as an innate characteristic of the American people. Plenty of people have to and do walk through Houston, as that video documents. The wealthy oil oligarchs just had the city built in a way that required car use.

            • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zipEnglish
              1·
              13 days ago

              Nah, I feel like you’re really reaching. Walking is an innate characteristic of all humans. One of the defining characteristics, some say. That poor people walk in Houston is not a revelation. However, it is unconsciously making cars an instrument of punishment for the poor (forced to walk in a car-dominated hellscape), that is the dipshit behavior, and hell yes I’ll judge Americans all day for being so cruel. It’s anything but innate; you can’t choose your skin color or sexual orientation, but you certainly can choose not to scream about removing a few street parking spots for an important bike lane.

              The observation that Americans don’t walk unless it’s a special event comes from a lifetime of observing my fellow Americans. Hell, I watch my neighbors drive 4 blocks to the grocery store almost daily.

    • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
      1·
      13 days ago

      Depends on the event. I don’t mind parking further away just for ease of pulling in and out, the walk doesn’t bother me unless my knee is acting up.

      If it’s my nephews baseball games, I will park around the next block or two and walk, but if it’s a store and the lot is full? Pass.

      It depends on where you live, mostly. In my experience, people who live in suburbs don’t like to walk very far from their parking spot, dense city dwellers don’t mind at all. Either owning a personal vehicle is pointless because everything is within 15 minutes of walking or because owning a car in a packed city is expensive and difficult.

    • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
      5·
      13 days ago

      My drive to the store: 10minutes,with traffic and hitting red lights.

      My public transit to the same store: 15 minutes of walking, 30-45 minutes of waiting for a bus at the closest stop to me, it’s late or will skip my stop as usual. 20 minutes to get to the next stop that will get me to the store but I have to wait another 5-10 minutes for the bus that actually gets closest to the store to arrive, and 5-10 minutes for it to make it’s closest pass. 10 more minutes to walk to the store.

      Now do it all in reverse! Luckily the route is slightly faster on the way home because the first bus I take usually chills at the hospital for a little bit and I can just hop a few fences to get to my house quicker than the bus.

      So that 10 minute ride in a car now takes me many hours.

      Legally I’m not allowed to bike there since I have to cross highways and private property. I still do it when it’s cool enough to bike. For the same reasons, I can’t walk to the store either, even if my knee could handle the distance.

      • GarboDog@lemmy.world
        2·
        13 days ago

        Yeah had to bike to and from work and home almost daily am hour each way in a Maine and it was pain ++ dangerous lol

    • GalacticRobot@lemmy.world
      5·
      13 days ago

      Depends where you live and how that area is designed. In much of the US unfortunately public transportation isn’t even an option or is an option that is so slow or so expensive it isn’t affordable. Vehicles may not be either, but that’s not how many people see it.