It's not (yet) too late to sign up for the Car Free Challenge. Today is the last day to sign up; it costs $45 which may be too much for people in this economy, but it is a fundraiser for TransForm which does good work. So far Becks from Living in the O, VSmoothe from A Better Oakland, DC from Fragmentary Evidence, Eric from Transbay Blog, and of course yours truly have joined the event along with people from all over the country.
If $45 is too steep, you can take part for free and let the rest of us know, or you can support me or one of the other Blogoaksphere participants for some amount less.
I've been working towards car-free the last several years, but I don't know if I'll ever get there 100% like many of the participants. I can for this week (I hope), but doing it permanently isn't probably going to happen any time soon. The main thing is to get people driving by themselves less.
It's getting easier for me these days, as the addition and remodel are pretty much done (so not so many trips to the lumber yard or Home Depot), I'm not attending and doing media for a church in Dublin any more (though I still visit occasionally -- great contemporary service), and well, I'm not employed (so no commute). Should be easy, right?
Well, there's still grocery shopping, volunteering at the Habitat worksite in East Oakland a couple of times a month, church on Sunday, and getting to appointments and the like. Fortunately I've done all these trips by bike or transit before. Unfortunately, I haven't done them all in one week before, which is what my 0 miles in a car goal for the Car Free Challenge will require.
So far, so good, though: a trip to Kaiser and Trader Joe's on the way home yesterday, and a trip to Kaiser again today, all by bike. The bad news is that the second trip was necessary because I misremembered the date of my appointment -- d'oh! But it was good exercise, even with the e-bike to help me up the hills (especially with groceries yesterday.) I rode down Moraga, but back via the longer-but-less-trafficky way past Lake Temescal both days. And had breakfast at Mama's Royal Cafe yesterday as a treat (and to console myself for having ridden down there on the wrong day.)
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2 comments:
I have gotten rid of my car. I have baskets on my bike for trips to the grocery store. I have a bike trailer for hauling larger loads, like buckets of paint, bags of dirt... Because it's more difficult to transport things, I buy fewer things than I used to, which is great! Anyone can do without a car. I have three kids and they have to walk, ride a bike, or bus. The transition from car to no car is easy.
Easy when public transportation is handy, which it's not around here. When I bought the house 16 years ago, I wasn't thinking about that, and moving now isn't a viable option. But the e-bike helps bridge the gap.
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