RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—September 22 has been designated "World Carfree Day," a day when drivers around the world are supposed to park their cars and look for transportation alternatives that pollute less, use fewer nonrenewable resources, and possibly boost heart rates. Based on numbers from the Department of Transportation, Americans are already driving about 3 percent less than they were a year ago, most likely due to last July's skyrocketing $4-a-gallon gas prices. But car-free days have never quite taken off in the U.S. they way they have in Europe, says Sara Stout, spokesperson for the World Carfree Network, which sponsors Carfree Day.
So whether you leave the car in the garage today, or pick a "car-free" day on the weekend when it's more convenient, here are some transportation alternatives that will spare you a day's gas, plus keep you healthy and the air cleaner:
#1: Public transit
This one is probably fairly obvious, but to celebrate World Carfree Day, many local public transit agencies, such as the one in Chapel Hill, NC, provide free passes for the day. Look up your local bus system and see if you can get a free ride.
#2: Rollerblades
According to the safety advocacy group Surface Transportation Policy Project, 25 percent of car trips that Americans take are less than one mile, and around 60 percent are less than five miles. If you're too hurried to walk that mile, strap on some in-line skates. An easy Rollerblading pace is about 8 miles per hour; you could travel a mile in 7.5 minutes at that pace compared with one mile in 15 minutes at a moderate-to-brisk pace. If you're going five miles or more, though, you're better off biking. Remember your helmet and elbow and knee pads when Rollerblading, and visit the Inline Skating Resource Center for beginner's classes and instructors in your area.
#3: Pedicabs
Don't want to bike? Hire someone else to do it for you. Pedicabs, sometimes called bicycle rickshaws, will ferry you around town with nary so much as a single ounce of fossil fuel burned. There is no national Pedicab organization to find where Pedicabs operate, but check your local yellow pages. If none exists, start your own! The International Bicycle Fund provides a tip on getting one going.
#4: Walking School Bus
Battle childhood obesity, asthma, and air pollution all in one by organizing a walking school bus, rather than driving your child two blocks to school. Diesel school buses expose children to extremely high levels of asthma-triggering exhaust; in some cases, children inside the bus are exposed to four times higher levels of exhaust than cars driving around the bus, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. But high-profile abduction cases and other safety concerns leave a lot of parents wary of allowing their children to walk to school. The solution: a walking school bus, in which one or two parents walk a group of kids to school. It's pretty simple. Talk with other parents on your block to get one going. The federally funded Safe Routes to School program provides tips.
At the very least, walk your own child to school. The one-on-one time makes it worth the time added to your morning commute.
#5: Telecommuting
If none of these transportation alternatives works with your schedule, just stay at home. Technology has made it extremely easy to telecommute, and according to a study conducted in 2005 by the libertarian nonprofit Reason Foundation, telecommuters now outnumber mass-transit commuters in 27 of the country's 50 largest metropolitan neighborhoods. Telecommuting not only allows you to drive less to and from work, the study found, it also reduces the number of errands you do on the way home, which can rack up the miles and drain your gas tank. The study found that telecommuting workers reduced their daily side trips by 27 to 51 percent, cutting their total vehicle miles traveled by 53 to 77 percent. Another 2007 study by the industry group Consumer Electronics Association found that telecommuting could save you a gallon of gas per day. Even if you can only work at home a few days a month, you'll notice the difference.