{"id":1687,"date":"2010-10-01T01:17:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T06:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2010-10-01T01:17:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T06:17:06","slug":"carless-and-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/carless-and-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Carless and driving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, September 22 was World CarFree Day<\/a>.\u00a0 It was a big yawn.<\/p>\n

Besides a bike ride in Chicago, not much happened. It never made the news. NPR paid it no attention. Since nothing really happened, commentary in the blogosphere debated the premise: the idea <\/em>of being carfree.<\/p>\n

As someone who hasn\u2019t owned a car in nine years, I read with great interest why cars are so popular. Cars, says Loren Lomasky of Competitive Enterprise Institute: Free Markets and Limited Government<\/a>, help us learn, travel, earn money, and enjoy privacy. They give us control over immediate environment, unlike buses (very true, I found myself nodding.)\u00a0 They promote autonomy. They let us choose where we will live and where we will work, and they let these two be separate.<\/p>\n

People want cars, says Greencarreports.com<\/a>\u2014but small cars like the Tata Nono, because in places like Lagos and Mumbai, American-style cars like Camrys (much less SUVs and trucks) won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

World Carfree Day images showed healthy young people walking and biking in perfect weather. What about rain and snow?, the CEI asked. What about lugging groceries and children? (For the answer to that one, check out BusChick’s NPR essay<\/a>, which aired last Saturday) What about folks with disabilities? Instead, the CEI recommended, protest World CarFree Day by taking a drive!<\/a><\/p>\n

I did drive on September 22. Instead of being car free, I\u2019ve been enjoying a free car as I house and dog sit for friends in Seattle. Last Wednesday I drove an elderly cousin up to Skagit County to see my visiting parents, and then drove all the 80-somethings to a restaurant for lunch. Had we done this by public transportation, it would have taken all day, and my elders and their aging joints would have had to walk miles and miles. Not possible.<\/p>\n

I was grateful to get to use a car. I\u2019m glad they exist. But I wish we owned fewer cars and shared them more. I wish we biked and walked more often, especially on trips under a mile. I wish our public transit systems were stronger and more convenient and bike lanes and sidewalks were wider and safer.<\/p>\n

Others feel like I do. CityFix<\/a> includes cars and buses in its vision of sustainable urban mobility. And Chicago\u2019s Active Transportation Alliance\u2019s<\/a> mission statement sounds like mine:<\/p>\n

The mission of Active Transportation Alliance is to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, environmental stewardship and resource conservation.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCarfree\u201d isn\u2019t a practical goal for the United States, with zillions of rural communities and only a handful of cities (like Chicago) dense enough for get-anywhere-anytime-you-want public transportation systems. But \u201ccar lite\u201d is possible. Instead of railing against <\/em>cars, the ATA is building a movement around <\/em>active transportation. Cars will still exist, but the ATA\u2019s goal is for Chicagoans to make half<\/em> their trips by active transportation. And because they are working to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes by 50 percent, those trips will be safer. Think how slim and healthy those Chicagoans will be, and how pleasant and safe walking and bicycling will be.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m glad I skipped Carfree Day. I\u2019m going to celebrate the active transportation movement by walking, biking, taking buses, trains, and ferries, and borrowing or renting a car when I need one. I like strengthening\u00a0 and expanding alternatives instead of shaming drivers and stoking disagreement. For heaven\u2019s sake, let\u2019s unite around something for once, instead of clashing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still going to celebrate Buy Nothing Day, but that\u2019s another post.<\/p>\n

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, September 22 was World CarFree Day.\u00a0 It was a big yawn. Besides a bike ride in Chicago, not much happened. It never made the news. NPR paid it no attention. Since nothing really happened, commentary in the blogosphere debated the premise: the idea of being carfree. As someone who hasn\u2019t owned a car in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6056,62,108,221,6057],"class_list":["post-1687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-carless","tag-environment","tag-lifestyle-stewardship","tag-simple-living","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCarless and driving - ELCA World Hunger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/carless-and-driving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Carless and driving - ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wednesday, September 22 was World CarFree Day.\u00a0 It was a big yawn. 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