Taking Stock

Well, it's 8 pm on Sept. 30, and I don't expect to go anywhere by bike, car, or on foot now until October. So here are some last thoughts on this experiment:

*Total mileage on the family car for September: 183 (we normally average between 700-800 miles per month)

*Days when I really got wet: 2

*Pounds lost with NO attempt to restrict eating: 2

*Times we called on grandparents to help transport kids: 2 (probably about typical)

Overall, it was a positive experience. I like to think, going forward, that I will choose not to use the car more often than in the past. I would like to imagine I can continue with the mindset I have had this month, where I first think of getting where I'm going by bike, bus, or on foot, and then think of the car when that doesn't work. And for those car journeys, make them count by carpooling, combining errands, etc.

I want to make clear that I am not anti-car at all. I think cars are wonderful for carrying large loads, travelling long distances to remote destinations, and sometimes to get places in the dark, or bad weather, or whatever. But they're a lot like antibiotics: They should be used when they are needed, and other, more appropriate transportation choices should be used for the many short, easy journeys we all take. Otherwise, we get all kinds of unwanted side effects, like huge public spending on auto infrastructure, poor health, traffic injuries and deaths, air pollution, respiratory disease, global warming, crippling dependence on unfriendly oil producing nations, etc. Besides that, just as antibiotics become less effective with overuse, cars are made less effective when traffic congestion and parking pressure mean that what should be a short, easy trip, becomes a slow, frustrating crawl. As I was waiting to cross Old 63 one morning, watching dozens of cars, each with one occupant, go by, I tried to imagine what it would be like if we were like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, with 1/3 of trips by car,1/3 by transit, and 1/3 by foot or bike. Think how beautifully clear streets would be on those occasions when you do travel by car!

It seems impossible to imagine such an outcome, but I don't know. This month, I read JOYRIDE by Mia Birk, former bike coordinator for the city of Portland, OR, now the USAs best bike city. I really hadn't realized that as recently as 1993, Portland was far from a bicycling Mecca--it was just as auto-dominated as any American city. And the bike infrastructure was no more popular there than here, among certain parts of the population. She got the same accusations of communism, unamericanism, and interfering with our God-given constitutional right to go anywhere we want as fast as we want in our cars, that Trib Talk has been full of.

Even Amsterdam and Copenhagen had to make conscious policy choices way back in the middle of last century, to stop cars from taking over their cities. It didn't just happen because the Dutch and Danish like to ride their bikes. It happened because they had good infrastructure, and it was often the easiest, most affordable, and most logical way to get from one place to the next.

So does it do any good for me, or me and my family, or 150+ LCNCWC challengers to do this, in the face of the overwhelming number of cars? Well, I think it does. It has made me personally realize how frequently the car is not my best choice, and I think just being out there doing it means that each day, we may be planting the seed of an idea in someone we encounter, or maybe watering a seed planted earlier by someone or something else. Most people don't really want to be on the front wave of social change, but many are ready to be in the second wave. I know that I thought Ian was crazy thinking we could get by with one car once the kids were in public school, but when I met another family similar to ours who were doing it, then I realized we should at least give it a try...which we have been doing now for 9 years.

So thanks for the challenge. Thanks to the sponsors--I appreciate my new bike bell and water bottle from Walt's, loved my lunch at Cafe Berlin, and was very sad when my son's illness meant we had to change our plan to enjoy a final car-free dinner at Main Squeeze tonight.