I had the idea while doing the 4-wheel version with my wife Kathy. We have a route that is urban and compact. In a car there is a lot of idling, U-turning, stop 'n go kind of stuff. It was clear that the delivery portion of the route would be much more efficient, and fun, on a bike.
I worked out two systems. The first uses a small bike trailer, converted over from one we had to take the grandkids behind a bike when they were babies. The trailer is hauled by a "trucker" and escorted by several "runners" on bikes. The runners deliver the meals to the door - and chat up the client, make sure they are doing OK, etc. The trucker stays with the bike/trailer and also does the navigation for the route, checking things off and making sure of the next client's home. (I'll describe the second system in a later post.)
The one unknown - and solved with some good luck - was finding a good bike route from Elder Care Services [ECS] into the neighborhood where the meals are delivered. ECS is on W Tennessee St west of White Drive.
I found an unmapped bike trail (old and wrinkled, but still, ahem, serviceable) that runs East/West through San Luis Park. It connects from San Luis Drive on the west to Continental Ave on the East. This is a missing link that connects ECS to the urban area of Frenchtown.
Sunday I ground-proofed the route. Today I did the whole delivery thing myself as a beta test, using the trailer. It was slow going, without any help I was both trucker and runner. But it worked! I left ECS with a full load of 15 meals at 10:15AM and had them all delivered by 11:30. (See links to maps below.)
A week from today, Wed Feb 1, will be the first official delivery by the Meals on 2 Wheels group. I'll post again after that's done.
In case you are interested, here are two maps that show the ECS-San Luis Park route and the Continental Drive - Delivery route. The two connect across the unmapped area of San Luis Park.
