In a society where driving everywhere is the norm, people who don’t drive very often – or at all – are seen as strange or radical. But what’s truly radical is not even trying to do something else.

Disability Rights Washington (DRW) is promoting a statewide ‘Week Without Driving’ challenge starting Monday, and many of the state’s elected officials – including Governor Jay Inslee – have committed to participate. Inslee issued a proclamation to make the observance official.

“Going a week without driving is great way to understand how we can improve our current transportation system to better meet the needs of Washingtonians and improve and enhance transportation options such as transit, light rail, biking, and walking pathways as key strategies in our decarbonization efforts,” Inslee’s proclamation states.

It’s notable that a disability rights organization is leading this charge for carfree mobility in Washington. Disability advocates have been at the front of many transportation reform efforts, but it’s still a common misconception that encouraging noncar transportation options is ableist or that getting around without a car is exclusive to able-bodied people. This narrative neglects to consider the many disabled people who can’t drive and rely on alternative transportation to get around.

Noncar transportation can be accessible to all people if we make that a priority, and hopefully DRW’s carfree challenge will encourage people to apply that lens to their thinking about our transportation system.

I know from experience that challenging yourself to temporarily shake up your traveling habits can result in a permanent paradigm shift. Even a single day without driving could trigger the realization that it might actually be manageable to go a lot of places without ever stepping foot in a car – and it’s amazing to avoid sitting in traffic for hours or coughing up a small fortune on a regular basis to pay for gas.

Many people who now happily lead carfree lives (myself included) were once unthinking participants in car culture. While it would now take a concerted effort for me to have a day with driving, it wasn’t always this way! I could go on forever about how being carfree has substantially improved my life, but I’ll just urge you to try it out for yourselves, even if it’s only for a day.

It would be nice if our political leadership in Oregon would follow Washington’s lead and rally around a carfree challenge, too. But just because it’s not an official statewide event doesn’t mean Oregonians can’t participate in a no-driving challenge. Portland transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust is promoting International Car Free Day on September 22, inviting people to try a new form of transportation for a day, so if you want to align with a local group, you can take their pledge here.

I would love it if “carfree day” didn’t have to be commemorated at all because it was just the way most people lived their lives. But maybe challenges like this will be the first step in getting there.

Hope to see you out on your bike (or scooter, or the bus) next week!

Taylor has been BikePortland’s staff writer since November 2021. She has also written for Street Roots and Eugene Weekly. Contact her at taylorgriggswriter@gmail.com

Yes! I accidentally fell into a (nearly) car-free lifestyle during work from home and now can’t imagine going back. The less time in the car, the better!

Back in the early 2000’s Portland had an annual car free day celebration. It only closed about one or two blocks to traffic each time, but it was prescient and attracted the attention and support of numerous HPV advocates.

Great perspective, Taylor – I had a similar experience. I like to challenge myself to do things for 30 days. Right now it’s go to bed on time lol. Last September, I did the whole month car-free. It involved a pretty epic bike + bus +bike commute, some creative route planning, and some strife over flat tires, broken chains, and incomplete bike and transit networks.

When the month was over, I found that many of my habits really stuck though. I was already using the bike/bus/MAX for nights out, and found myself gravitating toward the bike + bus commute for the time I got to spend reading on the bus and the exercise I got riding the bike. I discovered how much I enjoyed walking to the grocery store a couple evenings a week when it’s slow, rather than loading up the back of the car every two weeks on a Saturday afternoon.

Now a year later, I’ve since gotten a new job that is about a 20 minute ride away on my ebike. I’ve reorganized some of my other travel habits around the more frequent bus lines and complete parts of the bike network. Unlike Taylor, I still haven’t gotten rid of my car – but it’s an old, reliable Honda that I switched to per-mile insurance because I drive maybe 10 miles a week on average now. What I’ve saved in insurance and gas has almost paid for the ebike already.

I suppose the point I’m trying to preach to the choir is that carfree transportation options have many intrinsic benefits past the environmental, physical, and mental health aspects. Building a better city isn’t about forcing people to take the bus or “control” like some folks like fantasize it is. It’s about giving people the option to not use the car. It’s important, I think, for advocates to highlight that you can still own and use a car, but only when it’s the right tool for the job. Case in point, I have friends who live in Boise, Idaho. If you’ve never been there, basically the whole city is suburban hell. The 6-lane stroads are clogged with auto traffic, and even thinking about riding a bike is enough to get slammed by a 3-ton lifted brodozer. Downtown is split by 4-6 lane arterials that people drive highway speeds on. My friends live about 1.5 miles from their childrens’ school. They would love to bike or walk there, but there is no safe route to do so. I think about them a lot when discussions of infrastructure come up. They don’t want to get rid of their cars or save the planet or anything, they just want to vibe with their kids on the way to school.

I’ll definitely be encouraging everyone I know to participate on the 22nd! I think a lot of people could really see a bit more of where us “radicals” are coming from.

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