I’ve been participating in No Drive Day for three weeks now (I actually have been doing “no drive days” for several years now, just not as part of a project). It’s difficult with the way our current mass transportation system is set up, but not impossible. Instead of 20 minutes to get to work in the morning, it takes a little less than one hour. This is because of the distance we live from where we work causing is to take one bus, the train, and either walking or bicycling the rest of the way (although the latter distance affords the option of taking another bus, we choose to walk or bike). Fortunately we are able to get bus passes through our work that are good for a year and cost a total of $50.
Yesterday we took our bicycles with us. It’s a little cumbersome that way because of having to hoist the bikes onto the bike rack in front of the bus and then up into the train. Taking your bicycle is risky because on the bus and on either end of the train (the only place bikes are permitted on the trains) there can only be two bikes at a time. If your bus or train comes and their are bikes on there already, you are SOL – if you abide by the rules. Fortunately our schedule gets us just ahead of the rush hour in the a.m. and after the rush hour in the p.m. But any other time it’s likely we would have to wait longer because of the bike situation, since there are more and more folks using their bikes.
My advice to UTA is to design train cars and buses to hold more bicycles. I’ve seen it in other cities, so I know it can be done).
We will be expanding our “No Drive Day” to two days per week soon. We just have to decide which day since many days we have to stay uptown for meetings and other events and mass transit becomes non-existent to our area after certain times of the evening.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 