Can You Do Without a Car for a Day?

Today is Chicagoland Car-Free Day, a plan by the Active Transportation Alliance which they hope will get more motorists to hang up their car keys for the day and get around Chicago by any other means necessary.

Motorists who take the Alliance's car-free pledge become eligible for a $100 gift card from REI. Communities throughout the area have partnered with local transportation authorities to promote the event. Evanston, for instance, has set up a car-free pit stop at 909 Davis St.

While it's noble of the Active Transportation Alliance to promote using alternate means of transportation, Chicagoland Car-Free Day also serves to highlight much of the nearsighted planning for public transportation in the area and our reliance on the automobile. Friend of Chicagoist the Expired Meter is celebrating Chicagoland Car-Free Day by driving:

Honestly, as a hardcore motorist who has to rely on my car to every single solitary day to drive kids to school, to work, to make deliveries to customers, to meet with clients, et cetera, et cetera, et freaking cetra-I don’t see the point of this goofy day without a car to get around.

Besides the joy The Expired Meter gets from driving, Chicagoland Car-Free Day inadvertently reminds us of how much we rely on the automobile to get around - for work, for play, etc.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on September 22, 2011 8:20 AM

Comments [rss]

lhly58

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oonagh1

The Active Transportation Alliance should partner with the expanded bike-sharing program to remind everyone what other options are available to the car when this day rolls around again next year.

Navin_Johnson

Car free since March.

BlueFairlane

I need a car because I have to make semi-frequent trips to visit family in Kentucky, and because I take long road trips a couple of times a year. I never use the car in the city, though. I can go weeks without touching it.

The things is, though, operating without a car within the city depends a lot on your life situation, which is why I tend to avoid looking at this as a one-model-fits-all problem. It's easy to get by without a car if you live close to the city center. It becomes progressively less easy as you move away. That's obvious. That distance could increase significantly with good investment in public transportation, but there reaches a point somewhere between here and Aurora where density drops below the point the where even the most advanced public transport can be accomplished efficiently. I don't know what that density level is, but it's a dream to think all of Chicagoland can go car free.