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Actually, he could do something like a Surly Big Dummy, a Bullitt Cargo Bicycle or a BOB bicycle trailer or even a BAW trailer.

"I'd love to see the cyclist who can haul a commercial fridge to a restaurant in the middle of Paris. I do hope they have common-sense exceptions."

You haven't tried hard enuf:

http://www.bikesatwork.com/blog/moving-a-refrigerator-by-bike

A quarter mile is not a very long shopping trip; with a 100km range on your hypothetically inadequate electric car, that's 50 round trips. You could dedicate a cheap bicycle and a trailer to that task if you wanted; for a quarter mile-trip, you're not going to be nearly so bothered by issues of fit, and it would take you forever to wear out even cheap parts. For example: http://www.bikesatwork.com/bike-trailers/model-64a-bike-trailer.html That distance you can hack pretty well even in a hot climate if you just take it slow, and it's not like car AC has enough time to do any good either.

For the elderly members, maybe electric blankets, or electric heating pads? Resistive electric heating is normally gruesomely inefficient, but if you use it to put the heat right where you need it, it wins.

Right now, the United States (including governments at all levels) spends a total of between 50 and 60 billion dollars per year on mass transit infrastructure and operations. Funding for Amtrak has averaged around $2 billion per year the last decade or so.

If a quarter of spending on automobiles were diverted into public transit infrastructure and operations, it would quadruple the mass transit subsidy. (Note that that would still leave the United States ahead of European countries - many by a significant margin - in terms of fraction of household expenditures on car ownership.) Your bus stop probably wouldn't be a mile away any more. Your bus wouldn't take 45 minutes to get to the train station; it would run in a dedicated lane or on its own right-of-way, if it weren't replaced outright with light rail. It wouldn't have to stop for traffic lights, because signals would automatically clear the road ahead. The train station would probably be closer, anyway--and you'd probably be connected to an express or even high-speed line. There would be a unified fare system, so you could ride the entire system with one smart card. You can rent a car by the hour for those trips to IKEA.

Your forty-minute commute by car might, under ideal circumstances, be the same length, or even shorter. Or it might stretch out to forty-five or fifty minutes, during which time you can have a nap, read a book, catch up on the news, or connect to the onboard wifi. And the four or five grand per year you're saving turns into an annual two-week vacation in Switzerland, where you can see just how good public transit can get if it's funded properly.

The problem, of course, is that there's always a delay between when you start putting money into infrastructure and when it starts making a difference to a large number of people on the ground. And that interval between the investment and the return frightens the living daylights out of politicians. Even projects that will save their constituents money in the long term are a tough sell, because they're up against candidates who will promise to cut taxes now.

So... how do I move heavy stuff? How do I travel when it's raining? When it's fucking cold? When it's fucking hot? When it's more than a few kms?

I used to ride more than 15km each way to/from work. Solution: shower and carry a change of clothing. I was a fair weather rider, but others don rain gear and travel in the rain. Others even do so in snow when it's -20 C and the snow is up to their pedals -- this was a weather reporter I read about in either Edmonton or Calgary, I forget which, who rode her bike 365 days a year in temperatures anywhere from -40 C to +40 C. When it's hot, you wear less and use sunscreen. Unless it's so hot and your route so challenging that you're likely to suffer from heat stroke, it's definitely doable.

On the rare occasion you need to move heavy stuff (what, a few times a year?) you borrow a friend's vehicle or you rent one. It's extremely cheap. If it's only moderately heavy stuff, do a Google image search for "bicycle cargo trailer". It does the trick for everything except really heavy loads + really steep hills. Here's one result from that search which surprised me as well as this linked article on moving a refrigerator.

All that said, you're right that a bicycle will never replace a car. If you and friends want a relaxing night out for dinner and then perhaps go somewhere nice afterward, you'd need to be really super dedicated to cycle there, shower and change, haul your smelly gear to the restaurant while you wear your wrinkled clothes, etc. To some, it's a "who can be more extreme" contest but, excluding the zealots, the sensible approach is to use a bicycle when it makes sense and take your car when it makes sense.

Hello fellow 3-digit UID bike enthusiast. I'm in Boulder and we have a similarly enlightened bike culture here. According to a recent study, 12.3% of Boulder citizens bike to work, more than any other city in the country. It's not quite Amsterdam but we're certainly trying. I currently alternate between a Trek 5500 and a Gary Fisher Tassajara, depending on the weather and my prevailing mood ("do I want to go to work on the road or off road today?"). I've also been involved with doing bike moves, where we move the contents of an apartment / condo / etc. entirely via bikes with trailers. I'll be doing my fourth bike move in a year this weekend. You are right, having the infrastructure in place to allow these sorts of things is relatively easy technically but it takes dedicated people willing to push politically to see it enacted.

Yeah because you won't need that car to make any service calls, and hauling around computers and tools is trivial on a bike

Distance may be a problem, or time constraints.

But hauling around computers and tools is trivial with the right bicycle setup. :p

i need to be able to carry things like groceries.

Gee. It's too bad there aren't working solutions to this problem.

check out some bike trailers in action at bikes at work

yes

the 8 footer works best for this.

it's also pretty easy to rent a truck- if absolutely neccessary.

Must be a bitch to take that shiny new 21 inch monitor home from the store.

Damn straight. Once I get you harnessed into one of these babies, I'll be all set. Not to mention I'll still be able to read the paper and talk on my cell phone on my way to work while you do all the peddling.

For clarity: I use to live in a medium-size Swedish university town, about 200.000 citizen. We still have plenty of local grocery stores, special stores etc, and a nice walkable city centre with cafes and all.

> you cant carry any significant ammounts of groceries

Objection. I can move as much volume by bike as by car, and inside our town the distances aren't big enuhog to warrant a car for me (mostly 10 km). In fact, i have helped friends moving to new location by taking stuff (beds etc) on my bike trailer that wouldn't fit in their car :-).

You asked for my shopping habits. I use to stop on my way home at some of the grocery stores and buy a backpack-load of fresh vegetables, dairy products and other stuff. I if anticipate more, I bring my panniers or the trailer. Works like a charm.

I use my trailer to bring garbage to the recycling station at most once a month. If I would actually need a car (like for moving to another city) I could rent a truck, or hire someone to do it.

I know many ordinary people in the US that use their bike trailer for both kids and cargo, despite a more non-motorized-people-hostile environment, for monthly/weekly shopping. Example:

• Ride to supermarket (that happends to allow you to scan bar codes yourself - what is it called?).
• Use trailer as shopping cart.
• Check out, connect trailer to bike again.
• Ride home.
• Bring trailer straight into kitchen.

Further possibilities can be found at Bikes at Work. They handles groceries and recycling. You can also have a look at the lovely little SUV. You will be noticed in traffic, but you are a geek, after all ;-)?

> You cant even fly in the US without a photo ID

A drivers license is not the only valid photo ID. In Europe the passport counts, and most banks issue ID:s. As a matter of fact, only 30% of 18-year old Swedes do have a driving license. Swedish Car business

Hope this is informative!