Residents start learning to curb urge to drive

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: The Oregonian

Thirty Portland residents have agreed to hand over their car keys for a month in the second annual Portland Low-Car Diet.

Participants will get a variety of incentives, including a bus pass, free use of Flexcar, one round trip on Amtrak's Cascades, and a $50 voucher from Bike Gallery when they turn in their keys during a kickoff event at 10 a.m. today in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The goal is to showcase the economic, environmental and health benefits of driving less and walking, biking and riding transit, according to John Williams, a spokesman for Flexcar, the car-sharing company that also sponsors similar events in San Francisco and other cities.

"This campaign is designed to show people that it's easier than you think to rely less on your personal automobile, and in doing so, that it's good for your body and your pocketbook," Williams said.



Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/118394432277940.xml&coll=7

[LiberalFighter]

1. If I could do it here I would. They don't offer bus service my way.

Instead, I do the next best thing. Drive as little as possible and mostly for necessary trips.

My itinerary for a month.

1st Saturday - 12 miles (Pet Rescue)
2nd Saturday - 22 miles (County Democratic Party)
3rd Saturday - 40 miles (Membership Mtg)
4th Saturday - 24 miles (District Democratic)
2nd Monday - 22 miles (Mtg)
Eat out twice a week - 52 miles
Grocery shopping at least once a week - 24 miles

120 miles a month if I attend every activity
At least 84 miles a month for dining and groceries
Total basic 204 miles monthly or minimum of 47 miles a week.

I don't fill up more than once a month unless I go out of town.

I save a minimum of 30 gallons of gas a month. Possibly over $1000 a year.

[mdelaguna2000]

2. Only 20 people signed up!

So disappointing.

This is a great model that could be emulated elsewhere, wish they did this in my city.

[liberal N proud]

3. Too many people live in places where public transportation is not an option

I would have to go 6 miles to the nearest bus stop, it is only 10 miles to work.
Additionally, the kids have extra curricular activities they need a ride to and from. During the school year they need to be at school early for programs and stay late for other programs.

No car is simply not an option.

[Javaman]

7. You won't have much of a choice in about 5 years. but then again

not knowing your kids age, you might be okay by then.

[liberal N proud]

10. We will all be riding bicycles just like the lower class Chinese

Do we get the hats too?

[Javaman]

13. I really want that hat! :) nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Sad to say, China is "motorizing" with increasing affluence

I'm told that the smog problem in Beijing (which was mostly coal dust and desert sand back in 1990) is incredibly bad now.

Back in 1990, you didn't have to be lower class to ride a bicycle. You had to be way upper class not to. I have pictures of bicycle traffic from Beijing in the summer of 1990. It was a bit chaotic but quiet and non-polluting, and where the U.S. would have had gas stations, there were little curbside stands that serviced and repaired bicycles.

An American I talked to who had lived in both Taipei and Beijing said that he preferred the quiet, non-polluting bicycles of Beijing to the noisy, polluting scooters of Taipei.

[aztc]

17. The non-negotiable 'American way' of life

No car is simply not an option.

You see folks, Cheney wasn't saying how it should be, he was saying how it IS. The American way of life is non-negotiable.

Well, it is for MOST Americans, some gave up the car keys right after 9/11 and have never looked back!



And have urged MODERATION (http://www.Drive55.org) only to be ridiculed and ignored.



And urged a change in travel choice (http://www.PeaceTraintoDC.com) only to be ridiculed and ignored.



One got arrested for changing the numbers on a sign while protesting the invasion of Iraq:




Pray for peace, pray for $10 gallon motor fuel.

[northzax]

5. last year was twenty

this year is 30. a 50% increase in signups.

[maxsolomon]

4. i could do it - but i wouldn't get to see my shrink

and that would be WORSE for the planet! :crazy:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Portland is an exceptionally easy place to be car-free

The bus and train systems run all over town and are well-coordinated.

I was car-free there for 10 years, suffered very little inconvenience, and saved a ton of money.

It is the thing I miss most since moving back to Minneapolis. My first year I wondered why I felt so poor even though my income and other expenses hadn't changed. Then I looked at my accounts and realized that I was spending approximatley $3000 on car insurance, gas, and repairs, and that was after having received a "free" car when my mom stopped driving.

Cars are money pits, and the lack of adequate mass transit is my pet peeve about the Twin Cities.

[Yavin4]

9. "Cars are money pits," Yep.

Also, costs can spring up outta no where on you. You need repairs, get into an accident, gas prices shoot up, get a parking or speeding ticket, etc., and you are paying a lot for the convenience of having a car.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. I wish I had met you before you moved...

everyone speaks so highly of you. :)

:hug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Aw shucks!

:blush:

[tblue37]

15. I have a car now, but for much of my life since my divorce in

1983 I have been too poor to own and maintain one.

During one period when I had to get one because of a crippling foot condition, I ended up in debt because of repair costs and finally had to get rid of it (following foot surgery).

Cars ARE money pits. Even worse, many of us haven't got a clue, so a mechanic can tell us anything about what needs to be done to the car, and we are in no position to know if he is yanking us around or not.

[reprobate]

8. My I put in a request for hi-speed passenger rail in addition. Replace the very ungreen airliner.

[NonRepuke]

14. Just get rid of cars.

Sometimes I wonder what transportation would be like if the passenger car was never invented. Imagine a rail system with millions of small cars that could roll right up to your house. Unfortunately we are way too deep in the automobile method of transportation to move away from it now.