Could you give up driving your car for one week and survive to blog about it? I'd love to include your post about the challenges of living with less driving in a Car-Free Carnival here on BlogHer in two weeks.
Yesterday's New York Times Opinion Page includes an article titled "Car-Free in America?" in which several experts debate the feasability of car-free communities in the United States. They go back and forth about what features would be necessary in an area in order for people to give up their cars. One participant goes so far as to assert that there are currently only six American cities dense enough to support a car-free lifetyle: New York City (Midtown and Downtown), Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco.
I have been car-free since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area 20 years ago. Many of my friends are, too. And honestly, the decision not to buy a car has had more to do with saving money (insurance, maintenance, gas, tolls, parking fees and the inevitable parking tickets) than with protecting the environment. For the past seven years, I've lived in Oakland or Berkeley and had no trouble getting around at all. Here are some of the ways I do it:
Walking: It's great exercise, requires no fossil fuels, and is cheap. All you need are a sturdy pair of shoes and some extra time. I try to get out and walk every day, even if it's just down to the corner to get my coffee (in a reusable travel mug, of course.) Walking allows me to notice little things... like the new flowers blooming in my neighbors' yard or the fact that someone rummaged through her recycling and left a pile of bottle caps on the ground! Walking is a way to connect with my neighborhood in a way that riding through it quickly could not.
My neighborhood is great for walking. In fact, according to the website America's Most Walkable Neighborhoods, my community's walk score is 85 out of 100, Very Walkable. You can type your own zip code or address into the box to get your community's Walk Score. If it's high, great! If it's low, there is something you can do!
Contact your federal representatives and ask them to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009"to ensure that all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users as well as children, older individuals, and individuals with disabilities, are able to travel
safely and conveniently on streets and highways."
Biking: I love my bike. It's become my favorite mode of transportation. Which is funny since until I got this bike in July of last year, I was afraid of the two-wheeled beasts.
I mentioned two days ago that my community is great for walking. It's also great for biking, Oakland being included in the U.S. Census's Top 10 Cities for Biking. (Portland is Number One. Kansas City, MO is last.) And now, there are financial incentives to commute by bike: this year, the The Bicycle Commuter Act went into effect. You can get Commuter Checks through your employer to reimburse bike commuting expenses.
Ironically, commuting is the one thing I don't do on my bike... since my job is 18 miles away across the bay. But with baskets on the front and back, I can run errands, grocery shop, and do pretty much everything else.
Don't have a bike yet? Check out Chile's article, Buying a Used Bike, which explains what to look for while shopping. And if you've got an old bike that no longer works for you, Don't let it end up in a landfill. Donate it or find a bike recycling program. Here is an article on Bicycle Recycling Programs Across the U.S.
And whether our neighborhoods are super bike-friendly or only marginally so, we can all advocate for safer streets. My local bicycle advocacy group is the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. Find other U.S. and international bike advocacy groups here and learn what you can do in your community to push for better bike routes.
Public Transit: Besides biking and walking, I spend several hours per week sitting quietly in a big plastic box. No, it's not a new form of therapy. It's BART. (Bay Area Rapid Transit.) And I need it to get from my home in Oakland to my job across the bay in Daly City.
Transit can be great when it's reliable. Instead of sitting in traffic, I can relax and read a book or just snooze for 40 minutes each way. Transit tickets cost less than the expenses associated with driving a car. And through the commuter check program, both employees and employers benefit in big tax savings.
So what do you think? Do you rely on your car every week? Would you like to find out how friendly your own community is for life without one?
Here's the challenge: try giving up your car for one week and post about your successes and challenges on your blog. Leave a comment below to let me know you're in and then another one when your post is up. I'll link back to you here in two weeks.
Can't do a whole seven days in time to the Car-Free Carnival? That's okay. Blog about what you can do. It's instructive for us to learn about what works as well as what doesn't. What areas of the country and what lifestyles are condusive to living without a car and which ones aren't.
For a little inspiration, check out the following blogs:
Brown Girl in the Lane -- Beany's blog about bicycling and living car-free in San Diego
Green LA Girl -- Siel routinely writes about her car-free life in Santa Monica.
Car-Free in NYC -- Cat's post about the practical considerations of living without a car in NY City
Bike Commuting Jumpstart -- Jenn's post on biking motivation
National Bike Month? Make it a National Bike Summer -- Enviromom's commitment to family biking this summer in Portland.
And from one of my favorite bloggers, Toronto artist Franke James's gorgeously illustrated posts, My SUV and Me Say Goodbye and Paradise Unpaved in which she describes selling her SUV and turning her driveway into a park.
