Week without Driving

I want to invite you to participate in Week Without Driving.

Week Without Driving is a national event October 1-8. It encourages people to go car-free for a whole week! If that sounds intimidating, then you can guess where this is going. So if you can’t/won’t commit to a week, then try one day, or maybe one trip, or even part of a trip, drive partway, then walk, bike, or bus to your destination.

The goal is to experience our community from the perspective of those who, by choice or necessity, travel outside of a car.

Many people in our area depend on a car because our transportation system offers few realistic alternatives.

Week Without Driving can help us understand what transportation access feels like. Can you safely walk, bike, or take transit to where you needed to go? Were the sidewalks, street crossings, and bus stops safe, connected and comfortable?

Those questions are difficult to answer through slide shows and surveys alone. They are best understood through experience.

Which is why, I recently rode Amarillo City Transit, the ACT, for the first time. It only took me 30 years!

My experience was not like using bus systems I have used elsewhere. That is not a criticism of ACT staff. They do great work with the resources available to them. The question is whether our community has given riders and staff the tools needed to provide a convenient, dependable, and dignified option. This extends to active transportation, walking and biking, as well.

Just as expanding roads can induce more driving, thus causing more traffic and pollution, improving sidewalks, bike routes, and bus services can induce more walking, biking, and transit use. When we don’t give way to eristic debates, we can make these options as convenient as driving. When people have greater mobility freedom they can choose alternatives because they work and offer more social, financial, and environmental benefits than cars.

That is why Week Without Driving matters.
It gives us an opportunity to ask, what would need to change for me to choose this option more often?

I encourage everyone to take at least one purposeful trip during Week Without Driving without a car. Take the bus, walk, bike, or some combination to get to work, the store, city hall, or even exciting city meetings.

Then share one thing you experienced and one improvement that would have made that trip easier. Those observations can help us make better decisions for everyone who travels around Amarillo.