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How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 5th, 2012, 6:53 pm
by PhilmerPhil
Just curious...

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 5th, 2012, 7:22 pm
by dmdhashw
I drive. Maybe if some medical device manufacturers move into the city, I'll change my commuting habits.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 5th, 2012, 8:31 pm
by Nick
I live in Loring Park and work Downtown, workout Downtown, buy groceries at the Wedge at Franklin & Lyndale, and buy most of my other stuff Downtown in the department stores. So I walk! No car. Metro Transit fills in the non-furniture buying trip-sized holes in the scheme, the furniture buying trip-sized holes get filled by friends' cars. Eventually I'll sign up for Hour Car...said me a year ago.

It's actually weird, I've literally gotten into a mindset where I rarely leave the inner I-94 beltway other than shopping at the Wedge and drinking, which is generally after dark. I joke with my friends about South Minneapolis feeling like Eagan, but...sometimes it's not completely a joke.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 6th, 2012, 8:43 am
by Cyclotron
I drive as well. When I find a buyer that is willing to give me more than a bucket of tacos for my house in Lindstrom, I will sell and buy a house closer to my work in Golden Valley (GV, Victory, Bryn Mawr) and, well, still probably drive, though finally a sane distance.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 6th, 2012, 9:48 am
by MNdible
My commuting is mostly by car, although I do take the bus or bike sometimes. I do a lot of walking to businesses around my neighborhood.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 6th, 2012, 8:06 pm
by mulad
I take the bus for most trips, with a lot of walking mixed in. I sometimes use the Nice Ride bikes when I'm in their service area. My mileage is probably still split 50/50 with the car, though -- It's mostly used for grocery shopping and visiting my parents. I got into riding the bus consistently early last year after deciding I needed some sort of exercise that I could integrate into my daily routine -- fuel cost savings alone don't cover my bus fares, but mixing in the hypothetical cost of a gym membership make it balance out better.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 6th, 2012, 9:31 pm
by MSPtoMKE
Walking is my primary mode. I live in Loring Park, and it is a 15 minute walk to work, 15 minutes downtown. Other places are usually pretty easy on the bus. I have a subscription to HourCar, but I am leaning towards canceling it, I use it very infrequently. There certainly are times when a car would come in handy, of course.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 7th, 2012, 1:28 pm
by nasa35
Drive. I take the Northstar sometimes to go downtown.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 7th, 2012, 3:35 pm
by VAStationDude
I use transit. Lrt to work. Bus connections or walk from lrt for maybe half my non commute trips. My gal and I have one car. She drives to work and we use the car for heavy duty shopping, vising suburban friends and family, etc. I bike to work a few days a week during Fall, Winter and Spring - I don't like showering at work and I get plenty of recreational biking during the summer. I also bike to neighborhood businesses.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 7th, 2012, 10:57 pm
by Matt
I walk to work, ride a Nice Ride home from work usually, take transit around the city occasionally, and pretty much only drive to a grocery store or for a longer trip outside the metro area. My car will probably die one of these days and I'm thinking an Hour Car subscription would be good.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 12:34 am
by Nathan
Sad to say my primary commute, 9 miles out of the city to Plymouth, is by car. I've looked into bussing options but they are not very conducive to my work schedule, and doesn't save me any money...

However, once I've parked my car in for the day/weekend, It's by foot or bike, occasionally bus.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 12:43 am
by ECtransplant
Bus from uptown to work downtown and back. Walk for groceries, errands, etc. Nice Ride for various random trips. Don't own a car.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 9:34 am
by Ubermoose
Live in St. Louis Park and work in Bloomington so I drive. I tried biking to work, but there isn't a great route to work that is safe. The fact that my job is somewhat physical and I'm on my feet most of the day also makes biking to work tough.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 11:34 am
by Northropdweller
I chose multi-modal. I (have to) drive to work. On my days off the car sits, mostly, as I bike, walk and bus to most places from my house in south MPLS.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 4:54 pm
by Didier
I live at University and 280, so about two blocks from the new Westgate LRT stop and within biking distance of practically anything. Unfortunately I had to pick car for this one, though, as my office is in Burnsville. I'd kill for a job downtown or on the LRT line, though.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 8th, 2012, 9:02 pm
by twincitizen
Multi-modal, but mostly bus. (I voted bus)

My bus pass is free, so I take 2 buses from Whittier to work in the North Loop. It usually takes around 25 minutes. I also occasionally take an express bus to the West Bank of the U. I sometimes, but rarely bike to either destination. I do bike quite a bit, usually outside of work/school, for social activities in the LynLake or Uptown areas. I also walk a ton.

I do own a car (and a moped) but I avoid using them all at all costs (at no cost actually, because of the free bus pass). As a general rule, I only drive my car when purchasing large items or leaving the city. I have been trying to sell my car for over a year, but not really. I would be totally fine going car-free, perhaps with an Hour Car membership. There is a car stationed across the street...

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 9th, 2012, 3:46 pm
by Lancestar2
I think for the most part I walk/drive

I live next to Loring Park and park at the walker which is about 15 min walk so I usually pick up groceries on the weekend as Im a college student taking online classes I only work weekends. I usually pick up my groceries from Cub Foods, Costco or Walmart. however I do shop at the local Oak Grove grocery on 15th or Target downtown mid week for items that are heavy or reasonable priced to the suburb stores ( example coconut water water is $2.49 at Cub while $2.99 downtown)

I work out at the gym downtown so during spring, summer and fall I walk downtown during the heat of the summer or the dead of winter i will just walk to the Hyatt I live about 3-4 blocks away and use the skyway for 90% of my walking.

Also my favorite store of all time would have to be the dollar store :lol: I managed to get a storage locker about 4ft x 8ft full with cheap shelving units and I been stocking up on necessary items that further lighten my weekend load and in the long run save me a lot of money :mrgreen:

Being that I attend out of state online classes I can't get a student bus pass so I never seen much value in the bus although I decided to take the 11 bus the other day because I had to get 5 teeth removed and I didn't wanna risk driving. I was rather amazed at how easy the experience was and using my smart phone to look up the next time of the bus was shockingly easy.

However about once a month or sometimes twice I will have a shopping trip where I will visit the MOA and other stores in the suburbs like Savers, Kohls, ect ect. downtown is just to lacking in retail for a cheap collage student to survive on! maybe by the time I'm done with school and ready to move to NYC or Chicago it will be a fantastic shopping destination haha

EDIT oh also I did buy a bike from the downtown Target but it is so cheap it doesn't work the best but I think next summer I will start biking more for shopping and entertainment purposes such nice trails like cedar lake trails and midtown greenway they are to wonderful to drive past!

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 12th, 2012, 2:54 pm
by Andrew_F
I'm in the wrong city, but I'll answer anyways.

I answered multimodal.

I bike to school about 70% of the time and walk the other 30%. It's about 7 minutes on bike and 20 on foot.

My work commute is rather long-- 10 minute bus ride, 20 minute train ride, then 20 minute walk.

A typically walk to most places I go for daily things-- friends' apartments, restaurants, grocery, ect. If I want to go to a chain store or something I take a train or bus.

Out of the five of us living together, we have one car. It typically gets used about once every two weeks. I'm in some sort of car about once a week though, getting a ride to some inaccessible place.

I really wish I had more convenient reliable transit-- all the bus routes within two blocks of me shut down from about 12:30am until 3:30am, which is a major bummer. But at least I save money living in a less accessible area, right?

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: September 13th, 2012, 9:41 pm
by John
I'm 52 years old and have never owned a car! I live right on Nicollet Mall so I really don't need one. In the summer I bike almost everywhere and I commute to work either by bike or bus. I also do a great deal of walking around downtown to run errands or for sheer enjoyment of looking at buildings. A couple times per year friends will drive me to a suburban big box store for things I can't buy downtown, and occasionally I take the bus to Southdale area if I want a suburban mall experience.

Re: How do you primarily get around?

Posted: December 30th, 2012, 6:36 pm
by Nick
Didn't feel like this necessarily warranted it's own thread, but I just spent most of the afternoon driving around taking pictures, and jeeeez it was annoying. I mean on a straightaway it was quicker than walking, but that seems to have been offset by having to circle and find parking for ten minutes whenever I got to a new place. This probably isn't news to anyone. A sizable portion of my experience driving is as a designated driver, so I'm used to more interesting experiences. Got aggravated. Skipped most of the U of M area because the ramps were only taking cash due to the Vikings game and after getting turned away at two I got all pissed off.

By the way, entire world, please stop texting and talking on your phone while driving. Jesus.