Car-Free Erranding

Most green-minded folks pledge to themselves that they will try not to use their car too much. We may commute by public transit or stroll to friends' house. But what about all those short trips that would be perfect candidates for doing without the car, if we didn't have so much stuff to carry? When it comes to weekly grocery shopping, the emergency run to the Laundromat, or hauling gear to Little League practice, we often find ourselves choosing the car for the trunk, not the speed.

Part of the answer to this is to shift our shopping habits, doing smaller, more frequent runs. Many of us also use what's available, loading up the bottom of our strollers or hanging grocery bags off our handle bars. I know one person who used to strap a huge duffle bag full of laundry to a heavy-duty hand truck he'd borrowed from his job. "On more than one evening, a police car cruised to a stop alongside me," he recalls. "'Where you headed?' 'Home,' I'd say truthfully. 'Whatcha got there?' 'Laundry.'"

There's a lot to be said for such creativity, as well as the simplicity of carrying only what we need in our arms (or on our heads). But it has its challenges, too. "We actually broke two strollers before we realized it wasn't the kids, it was the [library] books," says one homeschooling mom from Utica, NY.

There's something to be said for having the right tools for the job. After all, we accessorize our driving with everything from air conditioning to cup-holders to trailer hitches. Why shouldn't we give our non-driving the same respect? Getting the right shopping cart or bike trailer for your needs can turn what would have been a car-only errand into pleasant chance to accomplish something under your own steam.

Hand Carts
Folding shopping carts for pedestrians are very common in places like New York City, where many people don't have cars at all. But strangely, the ubiquitous cart sold in urban grocery and hardware stores in neighborhoods rich to poor won't do much to inspire those with choices to rely on them. Rickety and cheap, with easily bent axles, small wheels that don't handle rough sidewalks or stairs well, and huge holes that large cans and bottles can escape through, they are practically a model of what not to do. Others are designed especially for the elderly who can't drive-but those small vinyl or cloth bags on two wheels often have less capacity than what most people could happily carry.

Carts that can do better can be found, but it takes some looking; you generally won't find them advertised as eco-accessories. Some aren't advertised as being for erranding at all.

When picking a cart for your needs, consider what you're going to use it for: Heavy grocery loads? Voluminous laundry? Bulky but light sports equipment? Fragile farmers' market delectables? Will you be taking it up and down stairs? (If yes, look for big wheels) On a bus? (Make sure it folds easily.)

Here are some examples of the different options out there:

• Versacart. The Versacart (available from www.stacksandstacks.com) is definitely a cut above the usual rickety shopping cart. It has sturdy solid cloth sides lined with waterproof PVC, and can carry up to 100 pounds. I've even perched my toddler on top of the empty bags and containers for short distances on the way to the store. It easily fits a week's worth of groceries for a family of four, and folds up like an umbrella stroller for fairly compact storage, or for staying out of the way on a bus. The Versacart's major downside is its fairly small, non-steerable wheels that wear down with heavy use. The bottom also rides quite low, making it awkward to shop with for people who have trouble bending over.
• Hook and Go. The "smart cart for the farmer's market" (www.hookandgo.com) steps out of the traditional model of a cart to put things "in." The two-wheel contraption has a long horizontal piece with eight hooks on which to hang plastic or canvas grocery bags. It can hold up to 70 lbs, but folds down smaller than any other cart. Perfect for something like a farmers' market where you are shopping from different merchants, but could be used in a grocery store too if you don't mind unloaded and reloading your bags at the cashier. A replacement pack of "heavy duty" wheels is available.
• Pack and Roll. Pack and Roll (available from various household goods retailers) is a folding plastic crate with two wheels and an extendable handle. Works for people who are more comfortable pulling weight behind them rather than pushing it (easier on rough sidewalks). The larger version carries 80 lbs, and is particularly good for dense, compact, heavy items like books or canned goods.
• Wonder Wheeler. If you're transporting bulky things like laundry, the Wonder Wheeler is your friend. Meant to facilitate beach cookouts, it can take a full-size cooler and a stack of folding chairs, or you can fold out its large mesh enclosure for smaller or softer items. It has nice big wheels, is very stable, and has a huge capacity. It folds flat, but does, however, take up a big area when folded, making it more awkward for bus transport.
• Laundry backpacks. Not carts at all, but handy for people doing a single person's worth of laundry, especially in an apartment building with no elevator, specialized laundry backpacks like Laundrapak circumvent most of the traditional laundry cart hassles. And they can double as hampers.

Handle extenders. A major problem with most of the carts above is that they require even slightly tall people to bend over painfully. Stroller handle extenders from mbsolutionsinc.com work on carts with one horizontal handle (and lawn mowers apparently), while ones made by J. Mason for umbrella strollers work on the Versacart and others with similar handles.

Bike Trailers
Plenty of us are not lucky enough to be able to get to all our shopping on foot or bus, even with a good cart. Luckily, the average cyclist can actually haul quite a heavy load with the proper equipment.

Bike trailers come in a number of forms: canisters attached using a hitch, fabric trailers designed to carry kids, and platforms for strapping large loads onto. As with handcarts, the perfect trailer for you will depend on your cycling preferences and whether you're hauling large awkward things or small heavy things.

Dan Rain, of Delmar, NY, uses a passenger bike trailer designed for kids for shopping trips. "It connects to the back axle of one of our bikes in a couple of minutes, and is narrow enough to fit through most sections of local sidewalk if you ride carefully," he says. "We've used it to transport groceries from the supermarket, to transport both child and produce to and from the local farmer's market, and to return beer bottles to the local beverage center-and stock up on more beer. Even the largest grocery items we generally buy, like cases of toilet paper, fit well."

Emma Potik, of Albany, NY, has used BicycleR evolution's "Shopper," a waterproof canister that holds four full paper grocery bags, in three different cities. "It holds a ton, it tracks really well, it's easy-on-easy-off, it comes apart for storage in less than a minute, and it reassembles quickly and easily as well," she says. "Even when we were living uphill from the Co-op, it was decent to carry a week's worth of groceries home in." Canister trailers can also be pulled comfortably by pedestrians (BicycleR evolution sells a handle adapter to make it even easier).

For larger loads, Bikes at Work makes modular platform trailers, which can be adjusted to accommodate long loads (even an extension ladder!) and very heavy loads (such as a refrigerator). The trailers have adjustable axles to allow the rider to balance heavy loads, and fit Rubbermaid containers for loads from groceries to mulch.

Of course if your bike is going to be your main vehicle, perhaps it should be intrinsically better at carrying cargo even when you didn't think to bring a trailer. That's what the folks at Xtracycle thought. Their "sport utility bikes" feature a platform and roomy side baskets that center cargo's weight between the seat and the back wheel, which is moved farther back, allowing a rider to carry heavy loads (and even a passenger), without changing the operation of the bike the way a separate trailer with its own wheels does.

Another option is a cargo tricycle, like those made by Lightfoot Cycles. Lightfoot makes recumbent tricycles with either a fabric cargo pod or a custom-built utility box between the back wheels. These trikes are particularly useful for people who need a more ergonomic ride or have balance issues on a regular bicycle.

As with doing anything else without a car, car-free erranding takes some experimentation. But with a few helpful tools, it can also be fun, and the freedom, exercise, and chance to skip all those polluting short-distance trips can be incredibly empowering.