Faced with a parking shortage, my employer recently introduced an incentive scheme to encourage less people to drive to work.  Every day you arrive by any means other than in your own car you get a stamp, and ten or more stamps gets you a $25 gift card and entry into a prize draw.

Which is free money if you were cycling to work anyway!

 

Uploaded on October 28, 2005
by timmycorkery

Our car made me feel in over my head.

I don’t think I could have changed a flat tire on our Honda.  I would have called AAA.  I didn’t know how nasty AAA was back then, now if I had a car I’d belong to Better World car club, but I used to be an AAA member.  I don’t miss the feeling of helplessness that car problems always brought on.  Knowing I couldn’t fix anything myself, having to go a garage, not being able to drive a disabled car to a garage and having to call for a tow.

Now when I get a flat bike tire I pop my bike on a Muni bus bike rack and get where I’m going so I don’t have to change a flat by the side of the road.  Fixing a flat tire on a bike is pretty easy.

Helpless no more.

When a big winter storm hits, like over the past few days, there are often disruptions to “normal” life.  Streets flood, trees come down, and the ocean takes back a little more of the land.  Although we got a lot of rain this week, the storm in early January was even more fierce, with high winds, lots of rain and giant surf.  It can really mess up the roads….and even close them ……but mostly for cars!  On bike or foot, you can almost always get around the problem, but in a car, a simple pond of trapped water or a tree down can close an entire road.

One great thing about not owning a car and getting around by bike, transit, and foot is that you often view things completely the opposite of the mainstream car dependent folks (including most of the media).  What? the Great Highway is closed to traffic…..roads in Golden Gate Park as well?  High surf advisory?   Geez, what the hell am I still doing sitting down.  So naturally, during the last storm, we headed out to see the big surf and enjoy the power of the Pacific by foot.   The next day I biked in Golden Gate Park and discovered a wonderful stretch of MLK drive closed to traffic due to a temporary lake.  It’s a stretch of road usually dominated by speeding commuters, who spill into the park despite 4-lane roads ringing the entire boundary of the park.   It was a bit surreal.

If you want to explore Ocean Beach by foot, the N-Judah drops you right at the ocean, conveniently next to the great “Java Beach” cafe, which makes a great meeting spot for any winter exploration.  Rain gear, camera in ziplock bag, snacks, check.  Umbrellas…no way.. too windy anyways.  You can head North to the Cliff House and catch the 38-Geary back East or south towards the Zoo and take the L-Taraval.  Walking on the beach during giant swells and surf is exciting, but always keep an eye on the water as a big wave can innudate parts of the beach that had been untouched in 20 minutes, including all the way to the sea wall.

The “great” highway is a 4-lane road that runs along Ocean Beach and offers fantastic views of a dramatic stretch of beach; however, the only bike access is along the crumbling sea wall of on the shoulder of the busy road.  There is also a bike path that runs on top of the bluff inside the highway, but it winds, has blind crossings, and is now a pretty rough surface.  In short, there is lots of room for improvement along the Western waterfront. 

But sometimes the big storms close the great highway due to flooding, usually near the Sloat end.  But again bikes and peds can get through and enjoy a beautiful car-free coastal road experience.  It’s really wonderful and makes me think, why couldn’t we close the gates more often and open the road to bikes, kids, runners, walkers, and everyone without a car who wants to enjoy good views of the coast.   

Someday we won’t give so much of our beautiful city to those who choose to get around by car, but for now, we can enjoy the brief glimpses of a car-free future when nature helps us along.

 -Rich

 

Weekend get away by bike:

Bike to BART.

BART to Richmond station. (Amtrak ticket machine in BART station)

Change to Amtrak platform via elevator.

Capitol Corridor train to Sacramento.

Sacramento Light Rail Gold Line to Folsom (ticket machine on platform)

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In Sacramento take the light rail up to Folsom and ride the 30 mile American River Trail back down to Sacramento. This is a wonderful pathway.  Great views of the river, lovely bridges to cross, plenty of picnic tables to stop at, fabulous bird watching. Mostly flat with some rolling ups and downs.  You are going downriver so overall an easy ride. Buttery smooth pavement for the majority of the path.

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How easy is it?

BART is easy, take the elevators to avoid carrying your loaded bike up or down stairs.

The Amtrak line is right near the BART line at the Richmond Station, not cross platform but a very easy elevator transfer.

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On the Capitol Corridor train each car except for the dining car has a bike rack which can hold three bikes, the door near the rack is marked with a bike logo.  You hook your front wheel into a hook and secure a cable to keep the bike from swinging around.  These trains are easier to get your bike up onto then Caltrain since there is only one small step up to the train.

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The light rail up to Folsom is bike friendly.  Four or five steps up to the train, no bike racks but there was plenty of room for three of us and our bikes. Either have lunch in Folsom or take a picnic to enjoy at one of the many scenic spots along the river.

What could be better?

BART elevators tend to smell like urine.  Bikes are not allowed on the escalators so it’s stairs or smelly-vators. No bike racks in BART so you have to lean or hold your bike.  If you lean your bike you end up taking up extra seats.  The two of us and our two bikes take up four seats.

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Capitol Corridor - great as it is.  But boy do I wish it ran all the way up to Truckee - imagine a Lake Tahoe weekend getaway by bike!  Using Amtrak you must box your bike as luggage, and you cannot unload your boxed bike at Truckee.  There is a nice river path that runs from the Lake almost all the way to Truckee. Dream on.

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Will we do this getaway again? Yes.  We stayed over in Sacramento for 2 nights, but, with an early start you could do this as a 1 day getaway. The 1st Capital Corridor train leaves Richmond at 7:42 am on weekends and you arrive in Sacramento at 9:18. The light rail that runs all the way to Folsom leave every half hour.

Used to be that if we wanted to go to Tahoe for the weekend we had to rent a car (or cadge a lift) but late last year City Carshare updated their plans to include a daily rate—so last weekend we gave it a shot.

Renting from Hertz would have been $30/day for three days, plus $12.99 for insurance and then the gas on top of that. CCS is $40/day with 200 miles each day for 10¢/mile—so basically $60/day with 600 miles to use over the weekend, and that includes the gas and insurance. Plus you get to choose what car you get and pick it up from the local lot.

Being brave and foolish (and having looked at the weather forecast) we took a Prius rather than something all-wheel drive like the Honda Element. It was a great trip, but I might invest in a set of Prius-sized snow chains for next time just in case.

Booking CCS cars for weekends usually requires some forward planning (we booked a week in advance), but I wonder if making these extended reservations possible will make it even harder to get a car at short notice at weekends (I’ve heard tales of ‘zip-squatting’ in New York, where people speculatively book up all the weekends on zipcar just in case.)

It’s one of those necessary evils if you live in San Francisco and private school isn’t a viable option, you have to choose which school to send your kids to. When my 3rd grade son was about to take the big leap into kindergarten I did the unthinkable, I toured one school. Just one. The one that was  closest to our home. The one we could walk to and I could see from my bedroom window. The school was clean, the Principal was gracious and dedicated, the teachers had captivated their students and the kids were nice and well behaved. The other school tours I had scheduled went by the wayside. Not only did I not want to have to ride Muni to get to my destination, I didn’t want to make my kids get on the bus every morning. Nor did I want them to get on a school bus to some location that I couldn’t easily reach should an emergency arise. I think about living in earthquake country and how important it is for me to get to get to my kids without worrying about how I am going to get there. And I definitely did not want to drive my kids to school everyday.

Now I have two kids at the school and we walk there and back every day. We know our crossing guard. We see our neighbors walking their kids. The community knows us, they see us and that’s important to me. The school isn’t a perfect school. It isn’t immersion, some of the teachers need to retire, the new principal isn’t as friendly as the old one was but she’s committed to the kids and has set a strong course for the school. And I go there a lot. I volunteer in my kids classrooms because it’s so easy to get there. When my son forgot his lunch at home the other day, it was a quick walk back to school to give it to him. We are a family committed to a carfree lifestyle and though on occasion we do rent a car for a family trip, we prefer to walk, ride bikes and take public transportation to get us where we need to go. So far it’s working out fine.

“Long walks in the rain”:
Does this make you think of love
Or traffic safety?

Uploaded on July 26, 2007
by forwhatreason

My husband and I have been car free for about six years.  Whenever I lose track of when it was we sold the Honda Civic and picked muscles over motors I look at the about page of City Car Share. http://www.citycarshare.org/aboutus.do  There is it:  ”In 2001 a group of transportation activists launched City CarShare”.  We sold our car shortly after City Car Share launched. Car Share helped us decide we could live without owning a car.  We bought our bike trailer right around that time as well. 

Grocery shopping by bike trailer is one of the things I love most about not owning a car. I hook up our trusty BicycleR Evolution trailer http://www.bikerev.com/, hop on my bike and I’m on my way; reusable cloth bags and lock and cable inside the trailer.  I shop around, now that I’m carless.  Instead of always walking to the closest store, or driving to the one with the easiest parking, I play the field. If I just need one or two items I walk, but for a case of wine, or three bags full, I bike.  I didn’t expect being car free to mean my options were increased.  But that is exactly what happened.

Rainbow Grocery, 10% SFBC membership discount, wonderful grocery store, uphill on the way home. About 2 miles round trip.

Haight Street Market, family run, fun to shop there, easy to get to, sweet Page Street downhill ride home. About 2 miles round trip.

Trader Joes on Masonic, TJs, so many must haves, smile as I cruise by the line of cars waiting to park, downhill home - but boy do I hate the Masonic Speedway!  About 3 miles round trip

Or by foot:

Golden Natural Foods and Produce on Church Street.  They just opened a larger store closer to Duboce.  Super nice and good selection. 5 blocks round trip.

Safeway  on Church and Market- only if absolutely necessary. 5 blocks round trip, feels like 5 more once inside. Safeway - the universal leveler.

All distances eyeballed using the Cliff Bar 2 Mile Challange:

http://2milechallenge.com/home.html