Living in a city is much different than living in a suburban neighborhood. Taryn felt it when she moved out of Vancouver, BC to a smaller more suburban town.
She used to easily walk to restaurants or drop by the store on the way home two or three days a week to get groceries. Even daily in some cases. Venturing out is easy to. Public transport readily available.
Amenities are kind of just there when you are in the middle of a city.
The Big Move
Taryn is a an outdoor writer and author, so it made sense to move somewhere closer to hiking and biking trails. Aa few years ago, she and her husband made the big move from Vancouver to a smaller town a little ways up north.
But the big move was the easy part. There are a lot of things that change in this type of move, but that is the fun part. Exploring new things and new neighborhoods and meeting new people.
The big changes actually came from the small moves.
The Small Moves
Walking is a way of life when you live in an urban area, and even if you don’t use the bus, tram, or subway, you can pretty much get anything you need on foot.
So when Taryn settled into her new suburban neighborhood, moving around was a big change. The closest store was 2km and a big hill away. Trying to maintain the same habits as city life, she tried walking. She tried biking. But it just wasn’t feasible.
She found that it made more sense to drive. Which probably didn’t even seem like much or a change at the time.
Passing Bikes
If you have ever ridden your bike up a hill, you know how slow you’ll be going if it is a steep one. So Taryn, being an avid hiker and cyclist, was wondering how people were still passing her on hilly streets.
Not only passing…. passing with loads of groceries. And kids… how the…
She realized that they were pedaling up with a little help from an electrical friend. Those e-bikes powered commuters around like it was nothing.
And she admitted to me, somewhat embarrassed, that she harbored a little prejudice against e-bikes at first. Like it was a cheat code. Or not a real cyclist.
But I don’t think it is anything to feel bad about. Everyone kind of thinks that when they first learn about pedal-assisted bikes. That defeats the purpose!
As she, and you might have, learned is that e-bikes are not less-than cycling. In fact, they allow us to cycle more than we normally would. Explore more than we’d have time for without.
If anything, powering up a hill with groceries and a kid on the back is a cheat code for happiness.
Honey, I shrunk the town…
Having trails within walking distance was one of the reasons for moving, but Taryn found that most of the easy to get to trails were the ones immediately around her neighborhood. Others you had to drive to… which can be a problem for parking in heavy trafficked trails.
Once she was able to zip around more easily, all the options opened up. She could just as easily hit a trail across town in a few minutes on the e-bike.
Towns don’t seem to shrink when you are in a car. We are in our own little vacuums. We can surely get anywhere fast, but it doesn’t seem any smaller. Just normal.
Things do seem to shrink when we do it by bike or walking, or even one of those nifty scooters. Something about being fully outside on the way and fully charged when you arrive, I guess.
Honey, I forget the lemon…
From the big moves to the small moves, we always adjust to what is around us. One of the most interesting things about living in her now-shrunken town, was that aspects of her former city lifestyle returned.
Simple things, like going to the store, are no longer something that requires preparation. No big shopping list for a car trip, and no gearing up for an uphill ride.
She can just jump on her bike in everyday clothes and take off on a roundabout route to the grocery store. Even forgetting the lemons can be turned into lemonade.
Honey, you got some air!!!
So whether it’s a short 30 minute trip to enjoy the fresh air, or barreling down a hill on a 72-pound e-bike to get air… Taryn’s gonna land it.
Big Changes Come From Small Moves