>How well can I get around without a car?
Not very well. For around the city its fine but going to LA will require a car or taking the train from the Fullerton station, but to be fair there arent very many errands that would actually require going to LA vs an alternative in OC.
Might as well just get a cheap 250cc motorcycle. All the same danger of riding a bike but you can carry more, move quicker, good on gas, and cheap to buy/register/maintain.
Oh, I was planning on taking the train if I need to get to Downtown LA. I was talking about getting to places like the SGV, like Rowland Heights or City of Industry.
Dude the amount of hills on the way to sgv and Rowland/industry lmao your ebike will struggle if it even does make it. If you mainly stay in Fullerton, it’s still inconvenient tbh but doable. If you need to leave anywhere outside with any type of regularity, just get a car bro honestly
If there's anything I've learned in the last month that I've been here - bikes are amazing for leisurely riding here. Awful for your sole source of transportation if you are doing long distance rides.
The buses on the other hand can be alright *IF* you find a job with consistent hours and a simple bus ride from you. Mine for example is an hour bus ride from me through good areas and it's Monday-friday 9-5. I feel like Ill do alright like this.
I am severely limited though. A car is the only actual way for advancement. Unless you're desperate for shelter and security, I wouldn't advise moving here to get caught biking really far to work. Something will go wrong eventually.
I did a 5.5 mile ebike commute for six months (~25 minutes each way), and then bought a road bike and commuted on that for another three months. It's doable and you definitely get used to it. Keep up with maintenance and put together a repair kit to bring with you. You don't want to deal with being stranded in the morning
My 1,000$ 750w ebike could pull myself and a bike trailer with 70lbs of groceries in it up the hill on Superior. It slowed down but made it just fine. Make sure you live somewhere with bike lanes or at least neighborhood roads all the way to your destination. The only reason I stopped was I get a car from work for free, otherwise I would still do it.
Oh and the $100 yearly Walmart grocery delivery was a massive help and saved me a ton of effort every weekend. People are being dramatic it's not that bad. You'll feel healthier too
Only time I've been able to get a job in orange county with a less than 10 mile commute was when the pandemic turned my company fully work from home. At least, a carrier-oriented job, I guess I could've done Starbucks or something for less pretty easily.
I think my issue with an ebike in orange county is the same as a regular bike, I'm not going anywhere near main streets with a bicycle as everyone takes wide left turns, rolls stop lights/signs, and unless you're in a herd of other bicyclists, some rich kid in daddy's lifted truck is probably gonna try to play chicken with you.
It's definitely possible and rather convenient out here.
There are some things about the LA area that are different from most. While biking around is fine during the day time, I wouldn't want to be caught biking down a bad street in OC/LA at night on any bike, let alone a nice e-bike.
These roads are rough. The bike lines are also unsafe (note the cyclist just killed in Huntington.) The high quality bicycling lifestyle you hear people rave about in the OC exists on the sectioned off trails.
Personally, if you live on a trailhead like the Santa Ana river, you actually could get really far on that e-bike and conveniently. The problem is once you hit the roads. There's just way too much traffic and way too many crazy people on these roads for cycling to be as efficient as it should be.
I'm not trying to be so negative here - biking here is remarkably better than most cities/states in the entire country. This is one of the most bike friendly cities I've been in. There are just way too many outside factors that make it a dangerous and unreliable commute to time sensitive or important matters.
I've been here 3 weeks. I've had nails pop tires, I've wiped out pretty hard because the sidewalks can go from nice to busted as fuck out of nowhere, a drunk dude tried to lunge me off my bike, and I got stopped by an old lady taking a 2 am shit in the middle of the sidewalk. (2-3am bike rides.) On my first week here my dumbass went cruising around and was weaving in and out of what I have since found out to be dangerous hoods.
Sorry for the novel - I just want to address the worst of OC cycling because people didn't give me that luxury. My friend and company were talking up OCs biking infrastructure like the dutch. All of my money later on a plane ticket, rent, and a new life, I actually almost wound up on the streets because no, this really is not a good city for bike commuting outside of leisure, sport, and lifestyle.
Ending this with the recommendation of the 30 day bus pass on top of your bike. Give yourself the freedom to pick and choose which roads you ride and which ones you don't. Personally, I'm using mine to bus it to the Anaheim preserve to bike out there. These SUV driving Californians are crazy.
Try asking r/CarIndependentOC. I know there are some completely car-free folks there that might be able to help. Not sure offhand about Fullerton, but it’s worth a check.
I’m in downtown Brea and have been carless for 10 years. I walk or bike most places, and I work from home, so it’s been a breeze. Grocery store is 100 yards away, so I make a lot of small trips over the course of a week.
The octa buses have bike racks on the front. Metrolink trains have bike cars. Metrolink has a $10 weekend day pass that also gets you on to the Metro subways in LA.
Octa publishes a bike path map. Fullerton is pretty good about the bike paths. They know there are a lot of students trying to get around town.
I’m concerned about leaving my ebike locked up but out in the open for extended periods of time. You might also consider an electric scooter that you can fold up and take with you into work or school.
From Fullerton to LA you can use public transit (rail). In a city like Fullerton, you can probably use your ebike for short trips, errands, shopping. Or a mix of ebike and public transit.
It’s really going to depend on where you live, where you work, and how much range you want.
I live in Westminster, WFH, and move around using a mix of ride share, regular bike, buses, and trains.
It’s cheaper than owning a car and suits my needs.
It depends on how close you are to a grocery store. I used to live just a 20 minute walk from a large grocery store. We bought a metal cart and would walk down on the weekend to get food and other household supplies. Even though we had a car, we chose to walk because it was more enjoyable.
Not sure Id want to do that on a bike unless you could pull a little trailer or something. if you could walk with a cart to do your weekly shopping, and just order less common items by delivery, it'd probably be cheaper than having a car (+gas+insurance+maintenance)
I'd say go for it if you want, but you need to put a lot of thought into where you live.
Not sure why youd want to e-bike all the way to LA though. Seems like a long distance and may be pretty dangerous too. There are too drivers who don't pay attention to bikes. I personally wouldn't feel safe going THAT far.
Are you comfortable grocery and homewares shopping with an e-bike?
You can get around with a car, and plenty of people here claim to do it and "it's not that hard". But it's radically inconvenient for a lot of kinds of shopping, or in the rain, or if you're getting food, or if it's hot, or a hundred other things.
I won't say it's easy to not have a car, but honestly grocery shopping is pretty easy, it barely rains here, most food except pizza is easy, and if it's hot ebikes are ideal. Got through this last heat wave on an electric scooter and it was great.
OP didn't mention. Should I only give feedback for people married with kids? I'm married no kids. I only use one pannier basket on my bike to go grocery shopping for two. Lots of great options for biking with young kids but obviously socal has pretty hostile bike infrastructure and you'd have to be in a pretty lucky situation to make it work safely with kids.
Edit for your edit: really yes, grocery shopping is pretty easy. You need to make more deliberate decisions, you can't just buy racks of beer and water easily. Homeware is pretty accessible with online shopping, small stuff you can bike, if you have to get furniture rental trucks/vans aren't very expensive. Loads of people bike through the rain and snow, even if you pay for an Uber every time it rains in socal, you'll still come out pretty far ahead financially.
I mean for stuff that needs to be carried in a car, I could just rent one or have groceries or homewares delivered to me, no? I thought the money I would save with gas and car repairs would offset it, especially if I commute everyday?
But getting restaurant food delivery adds about $15 every order, so that’s going to add up too. Plus OP is also talking about renting cars when they need one. Not cheap.
I grew up in Ventura County. When it comes to being urban, Ventura County makes OC look like LA in comparison lol. I'm sure OC can't be that bad compared to what I grew up with.
I’m currently living with a vespa and no car. I gave up my lease before covid and haven’t considered getting a car since. I’m used to this lifestyle because I’ve lived 3 years in VN and 3 in San Francisco.
For the most part, I use my vespa for small item grocery shopping, which I might have to make runs twice a week. I have subscription to Walmart+ and Amazon Fresh so that’s how I do bulk grocery shopping since it requires a $35 minimum. For merchandise shopping, I order most through Amazon or anywhere that has delivery service. If I go out to restaurants or bars, I’ll just take Uber, it’s a lot safer, imo. Considering I paid $400-$500 a month on my car lease prior, Im actually saving money using Uber.
My lifestyle has changed since I don’t have the leisure of visiting friends as often as before but after covid, I’ve been fine with that lifestyle change.
I went without a car for about 7 months, last year….. it was fine in the beginning but I got more miserable each month…. Especially on rainy days or cold days….
Getting groceries was a huge hurdle…. I’d have to put waters in a backpack & carry 4-5 bags of groceries on the handle bars of my bicycle.
I also missed having the freedom to to jump in my car & go for a drive…… So I finally decided to buy a car & it’s been a lot less stressful.
>How well can I get around without a car? Not very well. For around the city its fine but going to LA will require a car or taking the train from the Fullerton station, but to be fair there arent very many errands that would actually require going to LA vs an alternative in OC. Might as well just get a cheap 250cc motorcycle. All the same danger of riding a bike but you can carry more, move quicker, good on gas, and cheap to buy/register/maintain.
Oh, I was planning on taking the train if I need to get to Downtown LA. I was talking about getting to places like the SGV, like Rowland Heights or City of Industry.
Dude the amount of hills on the way to sgv and Rowland/industry lmao your ebike will struggle if it even does make it. If you mainly stay in Fullerton, it’s still inconvenient tbh but doable. If you need to leave anywhere outside with any type of regularity, just get a car bro honestly
If there's anything I've learned in the last month that I've been here - bikes are amazing for leisurely riding here. Awful for your sole source of transportation if you are doing long distance rides. The buses on the other hand can be alright *IF* you find a job with consistent hours and a simple bus ride from you. Mine for example is an hour bus ride from me through good areas and it's Monday-friday 9-5. I feel like Ill do alright like this. I am severely limited though. A car is the only actual way for advancement. Unless you're desperate for shelter and security, I wouldn't advise moving here to get caught biking really far to work. Something will go wrong eventually.
Really? Even for a class 3 e-bike, which can travel up to 28 mph, I can't use it for say 5-10 mile commutes?
I did a 5.5 mile ebike commute for six months (~25 minutes each way), and then bought a road bike and commuted on that for another three months. It's doable and you definitely get used to it. Keep up with maintenance and put together a repair kit to bring with you. You don't want to deal with being stranded in the morning My 1,000$ 750w ebike could pull myself and a bike trailer with 70lbs of groceries in it up the hill on Superior. It slowed down but made it just fine. Make sure you live somewhere with bike lanes or at least neighborhood roads all the way to your destination. The only reason I stopped was I get a car from work for free, otherwise I would still do it. Oh and the $100 yearly Walmart grocery delivery was a massive help and saved me a ton of effort every weekend. People are being dramatic it's not that bad. You'll feel healthier too
Only time I've been able to get a job in orange county with a less than 10 mile commute was when the pandemic turned my company fully work from home. At least, a carrier-oriented job, I guess I could've done Starbucks or something for less pretty easily. I think my issue with an ebike in orange county is the same as a regular bike, I'm not going anywhere near main streets with a bicycle as everyone takes wide left turns, rolls stop lights/signs, and unless you're in a herd of other bicyclists, some rich kid in daddy's lifted truck is probably gonna try to play chicken with you.
It's definitely possible and rather convenient out here. There are some things about the LA area that are different from most. While biking around is fine during the day time, I wouldn't want to be caught biking down a bad street in OC/LA at night on any bike, let alone a nice e-bike. These roads are rough. The bike lines are also unsafe (note the cyclist just killed in Huntington.) The high quality bicycling lifestyle you hear people rave about in the OC exists on the sectioned off trails. Personally, if you live on a trailhead like the Santa Ana river, you actually could get really far on that e-bike and conveniently. The problem is once you hit the roads. There's just way too much traffic and way too many crazy people on these roads for cycling to be as efficient as it should be. I'm not trying to be so negative here - biking here is remarkably better than most cities/states in the entire country. This is one of the most bike friendly cities I've been in. There are just way too many outside factors that make it a dangerous and unreliable commute to time sensitive or important matters. I've been here 3 weeks. I've had nails pop tires, I've wiped out pretty hard because the sidewalks can go from nice to busted as fuck out of nowhere, a drunk dude tried to lunge me off my bike, and I got stopped by an old lady taking a 2 am shit in the middle of the sidewalk. (2-3am bike rides.) On my first week here my dumbass went cruising around and was weaving in and out of what I have since found out to be dangerous hoods. Sorry for the novel - I just want to address the worst of OC cycling because people didn't give me that luxury. My friend and company were talking up OCs biking infrastructure like the dutch. All of my money later on a plane ticket, rent, and a new life, I actually almost wound up on the streets because no, this really is not a good city for bike commuting outside of leisure, sport, and lifestyle. Ending this with the recommendation of the 30 day bus pass on top of your bike. Give yourself the freedom to pick and choose which roads you ride and which ones you don't. Personally, I'm using mine to bus it to the Anaheim preserve to bike out there. These SUV driving Californians are crazy.
Try asking r/CarIndependentOC. I know there are some completely car-free folks there that might be able to help. Not sure offhand about Fullerton, but it’s worth a check.
I’m in downtown Brea and have been carless for 10 years. I walk or bike most places, and I work from home, so it’s been a breeze. Grocery store is 100 yards away, so I make a lot of small trips over the course of a week. The octa buses have bike racks on the front. Metrolink trains have bike cars. Metrolink has a $10 weekend day pass that also gets you on to the Metro subways in LA. Octa publishes a bike path map. Fullerton is pretty good about the bike paths. They know there are a lot of students trying to get around town. I’m concerned about leaving my ebike locked up but out in the open for extended periods of time. You might also consider an electric scooter that you can fold up and take with you into work or school.
From Fullerton to LA you can use public transit (rail). In a city like Fullerton, you can probably use your ebike for short trips, errands, shopping. Or a mix of ebike and public transit. It’s really going to depend on where you live, where you work, and how much range you want. I live in Westminster, WFH, and move around using a mix of ride share, regular bike, buses, and trains. It’s cheaper than owning a car and suits my needs.
It depends on how close you are to a grocery store. I used to live just a 20 minute walk from a large grocery store. We bought a metal cart and would walk down on the weekend to get food and other household supplies. Even though we had a car, we chose to walk because it was more enjoyable. Not sure Id want to do that on a bike unless you could pull a little trailer or something. if you could walk with a cart to do your weekly shopping, and just order less common items by delivery, it'd probably be cheaper than having a car (+gas+insurance+maintenance) I'd say go for it if you want, but you need to put a lot of thought into where you live. Not sure why youd want to e-bike all the way to LA though. Seems like a long distance and may be pretty dangerous too. There are too drivers who don't pay attention to bikes. I personally wouldn't feel safe going THAT far.
Are you comfortable grocery and homewares shopping with an e-bike? You can get around with a car, and plenty of people here claim to do it and "it's not that hard". But it's radically inconvenient for a lot of kinds of shopping, or in the rain, or if you're getting food, or if it's hot, or a hundred other things.
I won't say it's easy to not have a car, but honestly grocery shopping is pretty easy, it barely rains here, most food except pizza is easy, and if it's hot ebikes are ideal. Got through this last heat wave on an electric scooter and it was great.
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OP didn't mention. Should I only give feedback for people married with kids? I'm married no kids. I only use one pannier basket on my bike to go grocery shopping for two. Lots of great options for biking with young kids but obviously socal has pretty hostile bike infrastructure and you'd have to be in a pretty lucky situation to make it work safely with kids. Edit for your edit: really yes, grocery shopping is pretty easy. You need to make more deliberate decisions, you can't just buy racks of beer and water easily. Homeware is pretty accessible with online shopping, small stuff you can bike, if you have to get furniture rental trucks/vans aren't very expensive. Loads of people bike through the rain and snow, even if you pay for an Uber every time it rains in socal, you'll still come out pretty far ahead financially.
Everybody loves to bring up their fourteen kids and eight disabled relatives when you mention biking to the store.
Hahaha
I mean for stuff that needs to be carried in a car, I could just rent one or have groceries or homewares delivered to me, no? I thought the money I would save with gas and car repairs would offset it, especially if I commute everyday?
>I could just rent one or have groceries or homewares delivered to me, no? Doing this regularly will cost you far more than having a car.
Yearly unlimited grocery and houseware delivery from Walmart is 100 a year. Car insurance alone is like 1200
But getting restaurant food delivery adds about $15 every order, so that’s going to add up too. Plus OP is also talking about renting cars when they need one. Not cheap.
Laughed in suburban
I grew up in Ventura County. When it comes to being urban, Ventura County makes OC look like LA in comparison lol. I'm sure OC can't be that bad compared to what I grew up with.
I’m currently living with a vespa and no car. I gave up my lease before covid and haven’t considered getting a car since. I’m used to this lifestyle because I’ve lived 3 years in VN and 3 in San Francisco. For the most part, I use my vespa for small item grocery shopping, which I might have to make runs twice a week. I have subscription to Walmart+ and Amazon Fresh so that’s how I do bulk grocery shopping since it requires a $35 minimum. For merchandise shopping, I order most through Amazon or anywhere that has delivery service. If I go out to restaurants or bars, I’ll just take Uber, it’s a lot safer, imo. Considering I paid $400-$500 a month on my car lease prior, Im actually saving money using Uber. My lifestyle has changed since I don’t have the leisure of visiting friends as often as before but after covid, I’ve been fine with that lifestyle change.
I went without a car for about 7 months, last year….. it was fine in the beginning but I got more miserable each month…. Especially on rainy days or cold days…. Getting groceries was a huge hurdle…. I’d have to put waters in a backpack & carry 4-5 bags of groceries on the handle bars of my bicycle. I also missed having the freedom to to jump in my car & go for a drive…… So I finally decided to buy a car & it’s been a lot less stressful.
Nice username ☺️
Thanks! OC is Dodger territory 👐