2y ago

What would your solution be for long haul travel with animals?

To explain my question, and why I'm asking it:

I've had this debate in the past with someone who was anti-car but didn't really know why other than that it was popular in his social circle.

I'm distinctly curious what a solution for unusual travel habits would be without cars.

My situation is thus; I rather frequently do cross-country, round trips. Simple enough, right? Well, it gets more complicated than that. I show dogs. I need to take myself, potentially a friend or two, and on average 4 dogs several hundred miles, along with all the equipment.

For a fun experiment, this is the details of the show that I'm currently planning this month:

4 hours from my house by car
2 humans, 4 dogs
10 36" dog crates
1 36" folding grooming table
Extra equipment that would fill a large suitcase, roughly speaking.
two small containers of clothing
cooler of dog food (frozen)
vault of dog food (kibble)

I drive a Honda CRV for reference, 31mpg average.

12 comments

You don’t understand, on a very fundamental level, what this sub and being anti car is actually about man.
- Probably. But then, my only experience with it is one dude who felt that if it required a car, you shouldn't do it at all, and everyone should move to a city like NYC or Seattle to use public transportation like buses.
  
  Well then your friend doesn’t understand it either and you shouldn’t lump him in with us.
  
  Your friend sounds like a made-up strawman.
People here are not for completely banning all cars, but for reducing the use of private cars. I personally don't think personal cars have a place in society (outside a couple of edge cases) and that we should start phasing them out. Other people just want better alternatives. I don't think I've ever seen anyone argue that disabled people, who need a car to get around should not be allowed to have one, or that we should ban taxis and moving companies from using cars.
I think that would be a very difficult trip to make without a car, but you could easily make that trip without a private car, especially in a society where that is the norm. You could either rent a car for a day or two, or use some kind of moving/transport/taxi service to get around.
Another perspective is that society would look different if is wasn't the norm to use cars to get around, and maybe you wouldn't need to travel as far to get to your local shows. I know nothing about showing dogs but I've grown up with ponies in my backyard, and from my childhood home (in the middle of nowhere by Danish standards) I could walk to a couple of horse camps and shows per year. Within an hours drive there was plenty to do, every weekend. We just kept our ponies as pets/lawn movers and took them camping or to a 4H show once in a while, and we rarely needed a trailer or even a car for that. When we did need a trailer, we would rent one at the local gas station or hitch a ride with someone.
- That's fair, and something I can understand the switch to! A couple of my friends do rent larger vehicles for the longer shows. ❤️
  I would love to see shows occur more locally 😞 I usually drive 4 or 5 hours minimum.
Being anti-car is more about being pro-infrastructure-that-does-not-rely-solely-on-everyone-needing-cars. It's not even completely opposed to using cars/trucks for situations where nothing else will do.
My solution for this sort of arrangement would be to take the dogs and equipment for a walk down the street where a bus or light rail network would arrive every 2.5 minutes to take you to the train station. There, you play with or groom your dogs in a personal cabin on a bullet train that would take you to a similarily networked train station in the destination city.
Much of the required equipment would likely not be needed, since you could entertain your dogs on the trip rather than locking them away while you drive. If you still need a good deal of equipment, you could rent a car to get the station or hire a taxi cab.
Really unless you are making such trips daily, it wouldn't make sense to need to own a car to transport a lot of stuff to the station in a nation with proper infrastructure. Just like you don't buy a moving van because you plan to move at some point.
Out of curiosity, why do you take 10 dog crates for 4 dogs?
- I would like to trains be more reasonable - even if not every 2 minutes. I'd be okay with 30 minutes, if I could get on one with the dogs in tow 😞 It is not pleasant driving 5-12 hours and a train would let me rest.
  We have to have a set at the Airbnb and a set at the show; it's much easier to transport extra crates than it is to break them down and haul them back and forth every morning and evening (and takes a distinct amount of time to do). Why 10 and not 8 then? I'm loaning a pair to a friend coming to the same show!
- Exactly my thoughts. It's not so much about removing all cars and highways, just reducing so we aren't solely dependent on cars as the only method we have. Transporting light cargo makes sense with a car in a lot of situations; commuting to a job with just a backpack does not.
- While this is neat looking, I don't think they are intended to do 300 miles in a day on highways... could be a cool solution for local though!

12 comments