Personally, I have no family to take care of and work from home, and as part of that I gave up on cars. Very good for my finances overall. But it does mean that restaurants that were once a 10 minute drive away are now inaccessible except for delivery.
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
American car culture is terrible but it’s not like we get a choice at the DMV between driving and having functional, walkable towns and cities. You get to be a driver or a second-class person.
This one drives me crazy. Wife and I were walking home late from a night out, wanted McDs (alcohol was involved). The only options were drive through and app ordering for drive through pick up. Thankfully the woman at the uber pickup window let us app order and pick up there, but they aren’t supposed to…
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
That’s potentially a zoning code violation. Call up your local government and report it.
(A fast food place near me illegally expanded their drive-thru to two lanes recently; my complaint forced them to rip it out again.)
For the restaurant in my particular example, it’s in a neighborhood with special zoning that says they’re supposed to not be allowed a drive-thru at all. Unfortunately, even though that old fast-food building had been vacant for more than a year before the current restaurant opened (which means it should’ve lost its grandfathered-in status), the city failed to enforce the zoning in a timely fashion and they got away with having one drive-thru lane. I’m just glad my city councilperson was urbanist enough to be willing to give the zoning department (or legal department, or whatever) a swift kick in the ass to stop them from getting away with screwing the community a second time!
Okay jeez.
Its not uncommon however, for people to believe that a ten minute drive (maybe a 30 minute walk) away is impossibly far to walk. Its very much baked in to “American” car culture to believe like this, and you can resist that culture by sometimes walking instead of driving.
10 minute drive (where I live) is typically 6-10 miles. Average walking speed is 3mph so you’re talking over 2hrs. I had to do it once on a tractor and it sucked, and that was doing 10-14mph.
Are you from the EU or something? In America a “10 minute drive” is literally like 2 hours of walking and miles away, we have much faster speed limits here and everything is wayyy more spread out. A EU “10 minute drive” is vastly different from an American “10 minute drive”
Idk how a 10 minute drive is a half hour walk. Average walking speed is 3 mph, so a half hour is 1.5 miles. If you’re driving that in 10 minutes, you’re only averaging 9 mph.
I don’t mean to pile on here because I understand your frustration. I grew up in NYC where basically no one drives, and didn’t get a driver’s license until my 30s when I moved to California for work. Even then I put off getting a car for years, since I like walking and don’t mind “decent” public transit.
But it just became impossible to continue. My commute was an hour and 45 minutes (one way), with about 40 minutes of walking, a train and a bus. I like walking but when it was over 100 degrees in the summer, or raining, or a wildfire smoke day it was miserable. The buses run every 30 minutes so if there’s a missed connection the commute becomes over 2 hours (still just one way). And the train has only 1 line so when there’s a mechanical issue you’re out of luck and just have to call an Uber anyway.
I finally broke down and got a car. My commute is now 30 minutes each way. The gas for my commute is somehow cheaper than the public transit. It’s ridiculous and it shouldn’t be this way, but it is.
Car dependency and pedestrian facilities vary greatly between countries, have you thought about that?
Many Americans simply don’t have sidewalks or any other safe routes to navigate to many restaurants and other places, nor do they have sufficiently developed public transport in those same areas (if at all).
Even in Russia, in cities built and/or amended by the Soviets to be walkable or at least accessible via public transport, there’s a lot of day-to-day places you’re not going to be able to reach without a car unless you have literal hours in your day outside work and other chores; not to mention some people not having the luxury of being able to walk as easily or at all.
A bike isn’t an option everywhere, especially in the US. My parents are from the Netherlands, where almost everyone bikes almost everywhere. When they moved to the US, my dad biked to work. Once. To my knowledge, in the 30 years they lived here, he’s never decided to try it again.
One of the games I play on my commute is imagining what the bike route would be like. I looked it up once and every path included a high traffic street with no sidewalk; where I live, that’s straight up flirting with death. Cycling in my area requires a large group and/or limited capacity for risk assessment.
Yeah! Are you too good for a 4 hour round trip with 50 pointless stops on an empty bus? Too good for that 1 hour wait time if you miss it? You should instead use said bus to go grocery shopping so you can carry that shit home instead of conveniencing yourself and being rightfully upset with the cost and bad product. /s
I do, but am trying to cut down. It became a habit during covid. Restaurants are now jacking their prices up plus the fees and tips on top of that pushes the cost over the top now. Then Uber has the nerve to do multiple deliveries in one shot unless you pay extra. By the time you get your food it’s turned to cold garbage. I am getting groceries delivered, which has added cost, but you can get a lot more food for that money. I guess I just hate getting out of the house.
It gets more cost effective the more food you order, 1 meal @ 15$ + 15$ in fees and tips is outrageous, 50% of your total is just fees and tips. But 4 or 5 meals at 50-60$ + 15$ in fees and tips is much more reasonable. The DD fees don’t scale to the order size you make (surprisingly lmao).
Is the food delivered with a Porsche and the delivery person personally feeds you or what?!
Over here delivery is like 2-3€, and you tip if the service was above average and well then it’s usually by filling up to something convenient (this is based on until recently still mostly using actual cash, so tipping to save the delivery person the time fiddling with change, “just keep the change”).
The fee is about 8-10 depending on the restaurant and your area. I usually do a tip of about 5-7 so that I can get better service from the driver. Really, the tip should be thought of more of a “silent bid” for services or a bribe if you want to have fun with it lol
Perhaps in your area. Where I live it’s pretty common to have a shared kitchen. Probably a product of not teaching them how to cook and them burning down a few buildings haha
Idk who is using all those expensive ass delivery options. Just pick it up, food is fresher and cheaper.
Personally, I have no family to take care of and work from home, and as part of that I gave up on cars. Very good for my finances overall. But it does mean that restaurants that were once a 10 minute drive away are now inaccessible except for delivery.
Alright, buddy, three things:
I quite literally have a bad leg and walk with a cane, so fuck running.
The 10 minute drive includes stretches of highway.
I generally don’t have three hours to burn in travel time (round trip) when I want to eat at a restaurant.
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
American car culture is terrible but it’s not like we get a choice at the DMV between driving and having functional, walkable towns and cities. You get to be a driver or a second-class person.
This one drives me crazy. Wife and I were walking home late from a night out, wanted McDs (alcohol was involved). The only options were drive through and app ordering for drive through pick up. Thankfully the woman at the uber pickup window let us app order and pick up there, but they aren’t supposed to…
That’s potentially a zoning code violation. Call up your local government and report it.
(A fast food place near me illegally expanded their drive-thru to two lanes recently; my complaint forced them to rip it out again.)
They’re not allowed two lanes? Many McDonald’s have them where I’m from.
For the restaurant in my particular example, it’s in a neighborhood with special zoning that says they’re supposed to not be allowed a drive-thru at all. Unfortunately, even though that old fast-food building had been vacant for more than a year before the current restaurant opened (which means it should’ve lost its grandfathered-in status), the city failed to enforce the zoning in a timely fashion and they got away with having one drive-thru lane. I’m just glad my city councilperson was urbanist enough to be willing to give the zoning department (or legal department, or whatever) a swift kick in the ass to stop them from getting away with screwing the community a second time!
I had a lady at the McDonalds near me tell me I can’t take my motorcycle through the drive-thru. I was like “wtf? I do it all the time here.”
Okay jeez. Its not uncommon however, for people to believe that a ten minute drive (maybe a 30 minute walk) away is impossibly far to walk. Its very much baked in to “American” car culture to believe like this, and you can resist that culture by sometimes walking instead of driving.
10 minute drive (where I live) is typically 6-10 miles. Average walking speed is 3mph so you’re talking over 2hrs. I had to do it once on a tractor and it sucked, and that was doing 10-14mph.
Are you from the EU or something? In America a “10 minute drive” is literally like 2 hours of walking and miles away, we have much faster speed limits here and everything is wayyy more spread out. A EU “10 minute drive” is vastly different from an American “10 minute drive”
A 10 minute drive is a 10 minute drive, man. A 10 minute drive is a 30 minute e-bike ride, or 90 minutes+ by foot.
Ok.
Really living up to your username.
That and I don’t want to get murdered walking around in my city. There usually aren’t even sidewalks.
Ok.
Idk how a 10 minute drive is a half hour walk. Average walking speed is 3 mph, so a half hour is 1.5 miles. If you’re driving that in 10 minutes, you’re only averaging 9 mph.
I don’t mean to pile on here because I understand your frustration. I grew up in NYC where basically no one drives, and didn’t get a driver’s license until my 30s when I moved to California for work. Even then I put off getting a car for years, since I like walking and don’t mind “decent” public transit.
But it just became impossible to continue. My commute was an hour and 45 minutes (one way), with about 40 minutes of walking, a train and a bus. I like walking but when it was over 100 degrees in the summer, or raining, or a wildfire smoke day it was miserable. The buses run every 30 minutes so if there’s a missed connection the commute becomes over 2 hours (still just one way). And the train has only 1 line so when there’s a mechanical issue you’re out of luck and just have to call an Uber anyway.
I finally broke down and got a car. My commute is now 30 minutes each way. The gas for my commute is somehow cheaper than the public transit. It’s ridiculous and it shouldn’t be this way, but it is.
Walk where? In the ditch?
Are you driving only three times as fast as you are walking? So something in the 13mph range?
Car dependency and pedestrian facilities vary greatly between countries, have you thought about that?
Many Americans simply don’t have sidewalks or any other safe routes to navigate to many restaurants and other places, nor do they have sufficiently developed public transport in those same areas (if at all).
Even in Russia, in cities built and/or amended by the Soviets to be walkable or at least accessible via public transport, there’s a lot of day-to-day places you’re not going to be able to reach without a car unless you have literal hours in your day outside work and other chores; not to mention some people not having the luxury of being able to walk as easily or at all.
Welcome to poor urban planning and a lack of capable public transportation.
A) I’ve no licence
B) I’ve no car
C) The only transport near where I live is a bus every hour.
D) there are no fast food places near me outside of a Chinese takeaway that’s a 5-10 minute walk up and down steep hills.
You need a bicycle.
A bike isn’t an option everywhere, especially in the US. My parents are from the Netherlands, where almost everyone bikes almost everywhere. When they moved to the US, my dad biked to work. Once. To my knowledge, in the 30 years they lived here, he’s never decided to try it again.
One of the games I play on my commute is imagining what the bike route would be like. I looked it up once and every path included a high traffic street with no sidewalk; where I live, that’s straight up flirting with death. Cycling in my area requires a large group and/or limited capacity for risk assessment.
The only bikes I see on my drive are there in memorial to someone who died there on a bike.
Not with that attitude.
What are you too good for the bus? Also, cook your own food, it’s way cheaper…
Yeah! Are you too good for a 4 hour round trip with 50 pointless stops on an empty bus? Too good for that 1 hour wait time if you miss it? You should instead use said bus to go grocery shopping so you can carry that shit home instead of conveniencing yourself and being rightfully upset with the cost and bad product. /s
Jesus christ, if you can’t manage to use a bus properly and feed yourself without relying on door dash you should move back in with an adult.
low effort troll
I do, but am trying to cut down. It became a habit during covid. Restaurants are now jacking their prices up plus the fees and tips on top of that pushes the cost over the top now. Then Uber has the nerve to do multiple deliveries in one shot unless you pay extra. By the time you get your food it’s turned to cold garbage. I am getting groceries delivered, which has added cost, but you can get a lot more food for that money. I guess I just hate getting out of the house.
It gets more cost effective the more food you order, 1 meal @ 15$ + 15$ in fees and tips is outrageous, 50% of your total is just fees and tips. But 4 or 5 meals at 50-60$ + 15$ in fees and tips is much more reasonable. The DD fees don’t scale to the order size you make (surprisingly lmao).
Fifteen dollars in tips and fees?! wtf?
Is the food delivered with a Porsche and the delivery person personally feeds you or what?!
Over here delivery is like 2-3€, and you tip if the service was above average and well then it’s usually by filling up to something convenient (this is based on until recently still mostly using actual cash, so tipping to save the delivery person the time fiddling with change, “just keep the change”).
The fee is about 8-10 depending on the restaurant and your area. I usually do a tip of about 5-7 so that I can get better service from the driver. Really, the tip should be thought of more of a “silent bid” for services or a bribe if you want to have fun with it lol
Damn, you tip before the delivery? Then it’s really just part of the fee, no? Especially if it’s like a bid. :o
Yes, the tip is more of a bribe to encourage the driver to get the food to you in a timely manner.
Don’t give them ideas (even though it’s probably already in the pipeline)
These meals don’t cost the money to be microwaved again, it’s just not that good. Better off ordering groceries in that case.
I’m told the most frequent customers are students. Somehow the people with the least money use it the most. Teach your kids to cook…
Most dorms don’t have any means of cooking and even ban things like toasters.
Perhaps in your area. Where I live it’s pretty common to have a shared kitchen. Probably a product of not teaching them how to cook and them burning down a few buildings haha