{"id":2455,"date":"2012-01-08T20:53:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T01:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/hungerrumblings\/?p=2455"},"modified":"2012-01-08T20:53:02","modified_gmt":"2012-01-09T01:53:02","slug":"solving-the-last-mile-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worldhunger\/solving-the-last-mile-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Solving the last-mile challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After 10 car-free years, I am a car owner once again.<\/p>\n<p>Shedding my car meant mastering new ways of moving around the world. The alternatives come naturally now, which is why so many of my posts try to encourage\u2014hector, even\u2014readers to take up their carbon-dependent, gas-guzzling beds and walk, ride a bike, or take the bus.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/01\/2009_2_heraldpedestrian.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2459\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/hungerrumblings\/2012\/01\/2009_2_heraldpedestrian-300x263.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" \/><\/a>But for a year now I have suffered from what transportation planners call the \u201clast mile\u201d problem. My wonderful local transit hub can get me around and between towns from Canada to Portland, Oregon. But only a handful of buses can get me the three miles to the Skagit Station\u2014all before 6 pm, and never on Sundays. Bicycling is a great option for good weather and daylight savings time, but from November to April my biking day ends by 5 pm\u2014and snow, ice, showers, or 40-mile-per-hour gusts can keep it from starting at all.<\/p>\n<p>My new challenge is to own a car without lapsing back into blind dependence on it. To stay committed to biking, walking, and taking buses FIRST instead of lazily letting the convenience of my car gradually eclipse the other options. To continue to SEE the options and to start figuring out how to overcome that last-mile\u2014or last-three-mile\u2014problem.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, trends are going my way. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/intl\/en\/landing\/transit\/#mdy\">Google Transit <\/a>is taking the mystery out of planning a public transit trip. <a href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/energy\/2011\/11\/pictures\/111115-car-free-city-zones\/\">Cities like New York and Mexico City<\/a> declare some areas car-free on weekends. More than half a million members share almost 8000 cars in car-sharing programs across the U.S. (Find the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carsharing.net\/where.html\">closest to you here<\/a>) General Motors itself is a partner in the new <a href=\"https:\/\/relayrides.com\/\">RelayRides<\/a> program in San Francisco, a system through which private car owners profit by sharing (for a fee) their cars with neighbors who have been vetted and screened.<\/p>\n<p>I see my car ownership as temporary, a sort of bridge to the world I have been trying to create by not owning one. Perhaps I\u2019ll persuade more people to take my country bus line so we can extend its hours. Perhaps I\u2019ll organize a small car-sharing group among my country neighbors. I have lots of allies, especially among the young. \u00a0A <a href=\"http:\/\/query.nytimes.com\/gst\/fullpage.html?res=9504E6DB1431F932A15752C1A9679D8B63&amp;ref=nickbilton\">recent <em>New York Times<\/em> article <\/a>noted that 46 percent of people 18 to 24 would choose access to the Internet over access to their own car. Only 15 percent of their baby-boom parents felt that way. \u201cThe iphone is the Ford Mustang of today,\u201d quipped an automotive analyst.<\/p>\n<p>Even more exciting, car ownership is declining among the young. In 1978, 50 percent of 16-year-old Americans obtained their first driver\u2019s license. In 2008, only 30 percent did. My son was over 18 when he got his first license, and at 24, he still has no car. Those with licenses drive less, said the <em>Times<\/em>: \u00a021- to 30-year-olds now drive eight percent fewer miles than they did in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>Life without a car takes ingenuity, creativity, and commitment. It also costs a lot less. (Buying, registering, insuring, fixing, and fueling a 14-year-old-car in the last six weeks of the year boosted my 2011 expenses by 11 percent.) And it\u2019s getting easier.<\/p>\n<p>My 2012 resolution is to own a car that stays off the road as much as possible. Here\u2019s where I get back to hectoring. Won\u2019t you join me? Get to know your local bus system. Walk to the store. Set up a carpool. Urge your mayor to declare a popular part of town car-free for an afternoon. Dust off your bike. Keep your car, but drive it less. Broaden your transportation strategy to include some more active choices. Together we can figure out the last-mile problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Basye, <em>Sustaining Simplicity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 10 car-free years, I am a car owner once again. Shedding my car meant mastering new ways of moving around the world. The alternatives come naturally now, which is why so many of my posts try to encourage\u2014hector, even\u2014readers to take up their carbon-dependent, gas-guzzling beds and walk, ride a bike, or take the [&hellip;]<\/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":[6056,10468,107,62,78,108,221],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-carless","tag-driving","tag-energy-consumption","tag-environment","tag-infrastructure","tag-lifestyle-stewardship","tag-simple-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Solving the last-mile challenge - 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\/solving-the-last-mile-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solving the last-mile challenge - ELCA World Hunger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After 10 car-free years, I am a car owner once again. 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