Week Without Driving Diary (II)

This is a contentious season for mobility issues, as indeed it has been for practically everything else. Earlier this month, Kea Wilson of Streetsblog USA reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation is rescinding grants for multimodal projects, including in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bloomington-Normal, Illinois; and in the Naugatuck Valley area of Connecticut. Two of the applicants were specifically told the program was reallocating its grants to "projects that promote vehicular travel," which is consistent with the trend under Secretary Sean Duffy to shift away from previous goals of sustainability and equity (Wilson 2025, Ionescu 2025). 

Despite this sad pass to which we've come, the City of Cedar Rapids is back to celebrate National Week Without Driving, promoted by America Walks and Disability Rights Washington. While these organizations are not against other goals like physical fitness or sustainability, their focus is firmly on equity: Thirty percent of Washington residents are nondrivers--disabled people who can't drive, people who can't afford a vehicle or gas, have suspended licenses or lack documentation to get a license, people who are too young to drive, choose not to drive or who have aged out of driving. But nondrivers are largely invisible... ("How Would You Get Around" 2025).

Monday, September 29 (sunny, 87F)

City staff handing out bagels and coffee to morning commuters

Biked to: Ground Transportation Center, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Next Page Books

Yes, some people who are unable to drive, including When Driving Is Not an Option author Anna Zivarts, are able to get around by bicycle!

I started my morning with a "second breakfast" of a bagel and small coffee from Panera at the Ground Transportation Center, courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Department of Community Development and the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. (They did events like this last year, too, but I somehow missed them. How is that possible? What is this blog for anyhow?) The GTC is the transfer point for all routes except the Marion and Northeast circulators, and those riders whose attention we were able to get were pleasantly surprised. Buses provide a critical route to work or school for those whose mobility is limited, and because of the system's coverage orientation (Walker 2008) they are never going to be self-funding.

I arrived at the station about 8:00 a.m., which meant I navigated into downtown during the 10 minutes where the morning traffic is likely to be at its most intense. Nothing untoward happened, but I was conscious of being agile and knowledgeable enough to minimize encounters with cars. The most awkward moment was when I turned left in what appeared to be a brief break in opposing traffic, only to have the car I was turning behind slow way down to turn into a parking spot just around the corner (that probably shouldn't be a parking spot that close to the intersection)--unexpected but not dangerous. In all, I rode about eight miles to three places.

Bicycles are not only lighter and slower than cars, they are much easier to steal. When I stopped late in the morning at Next Page Books, Cedar Rapids' oldest independent bookstore, I locked my bike to a large post to which another bicycle was already locked. That bike immediately began emitting meek little beeps, which may have been intended to deter theft?

Passengers boarding the #7 bus

David Zipper's newsletter this morning discussed autonomous vehicles, which when fully ripe will contribute somehow to mobility. But there is a dangerous potential for "robotaxis," Zipper argues, to become so pleasant that everyone will spend more time in cars: The resulting spike in car traffic would be catastrophic for cities with limited street space. Crushing gridlock could exasperate residents, hobble employers, and cripple bus service. Mobility hubs, like one currently planned for Waco, Texas, haven't proven effective at changing travel habits. He concludes that since more than 90 percent of transit riders arrive at the station on foot, I sometimes wonder if cities and transit agencies should simply shift the resources... toward building high-quality sidewalk networks. Cedar Rapids, to its credit, had a huge push for sidewalk construction about a decade ago, though there are still places where they're needed. 

Tuesday, September 30 (sunny, high 87F)

Boarding the #5 to downtown Cedar Rapids at the Twixt Town Road transfer point.
The Northeast Circulator is in foreground; the Marion Circulator is in front of the 
apartment building across the street.

Bused to: (1) Trims Barbershop and Uptown Coffee, (2) Helen G. Nassif YMCA and Benz Beverage Depot [replaced at least one car trip]

Life and the transit system took me to Marion today. Google estimates the 4.5 miles from my home take about 11 minutes by car; the bus trip was about three times that, including the five blocks' walk to the stop.

Bus stop on 1st Avenue at 19th Street SE

I should probably consult Jarret Walker or someone about how much longer the bus can take versus a car trip and still attract ridership, but 3:1 is if I recall correctly pretty typical of Washington, D.C. Getting to Marion starts with the #5 bus, which runs up and down 1st Avenue every 15 minutes, making it Cedar Rapids' best bus line. The transfer point has moved over the years since the advent of the circulator a few years ago from Lindale Mall to the edge of the mall parking lot to where it is now, in front of an apartment building on Twixt Town Road. (Twixt Town Road, named by a poetically inclined city employee ages ago, runs along the border between Cedar Rapids and Marion.) The circulator got me to Uptown Marion ahead of my appointment, so I got to hang out in their remodeled City Square Park on a lovely morning. 

City Square, Marion

(It even has public restrooms!)

After the stop by City Square, the Marion circulator ranges far and wide over the town. For that reason I expect it's not practical for anyone above maybe 15th Street unless they're desperate. I expect that's a dilemma for any transit system, even one that's committed to coverage: how to balance convenient access to all the places people live with how much inconvenience we expect them to endure to get where they're going. But for me today, with the "right" trip planned, and a flexible schedule, the bus was great. There were 19 riders headed downtown on my return trip, so it was right for others as well.

Jean-Paul Sartre, author of The Critique of Dialectical Reason
 (Swiped from algundiaenalgunaparte.com)

On my afternoon ride downtown on the #2, we participated in what Jean-Paul Sartre called a "group-in-fusion," when a gentleman in a wheelchair had to maneuver around a woman with a walker. I wound up holding her walker while he got situated. Then, back on route #5 for the outbound trip, it happened again when a number of the 20-plus riders moved seats to make room for another rider and his wheelchair. "Yay, team bus riders," one lady said. On a day when President Trump proposed to use cities as military training grounds, our city's residents were taking care of each other.

Gil Penalosa's Cities for Everyone webinar today featured Phil Ginsburg, general manager of parks for the city of San Francisco. San Francisco aims to provide a park within a 10-minute walk for everyone in the city, including rerouting car traffic from Golden Gate Park and along the Pacific coast to improve safe access--not directly related to transportation alternatives, but definitely sharing the same goals of equity (cf. Hartlaub 2025).

Wednesday, October 1 (sunny, high 84F)

Biked to: Vault Coworking Space

Walked to: (1) Healthiest State Lunch at Greene Square, (2) Wellington Heights neighborhood

Today's official observance of Week Without Driving was the Healthiest State Walk, which originated from three locations and ended with lunch on the lawn at Greene Square. I joined a group that originated at the Cedar Rapids History Center on 2nd Avenue, which for me entailed walking an additional mile or so north from the Wendler (formerly Geonetric) Building where I'm coworking today. My route to the meetup point was highly unpleasant, up 6th and 7th Streets and dealing with a lot of medical and Interstate 380 vehicular traffic that wasn't expecting to have to deal with me. That included but was not limited to a woman on 7th Street signaling for a right turn at 6th Avenue who went through the intersection without turning--she was turning right into a parking lot past the street, not onto the street itself--and was not going to yield to the blogger in the crosswalk. Were I not fit and agile, I would never have attempted this walk.

The Healthiest State Walk proper and the lunch (catered by Craftd) were quite convivial; my group's walk was led by MedQuarter executive director Phil Wasta. Greene Square is a great space when it's activated. Betsy Borchardt from the City brought her dog to the park, who provided some drama as she squirmed to get at a nearby squirrel. Sadly or happily, depending on your perspective, her natural drive was denied.

Walking to lunch at Greene Square

In the evening, I went back out to do some door-to-door canvassing in the Wellington Heights neighborhood about a proposed restroom in Redmond Park. This effort is not directly related to Week Without Driving, but is aiming at the same goal of inclusive communities.

The latest Active Towns podcast episode arrived today. Host John Simmerman interviewed triathlete-turned-real estate mogul Michael Lovato, a resident of Boulder, Colorado. They describe Boulder as a haven for active people, which can include professional athletes but also people who want to stay physically fit and those who want to remain active through physical decline--all reasons to make it feasible to live well without driving!

Thursday, October 2 (sunny, high 86F)

Bused to: Helen G. Nassif YMCA, Lightworks Cafe [replaced car trip even though I...]

Drove 😒 to: CSPS Hall

As Rook Wilde took the stage at CSPS Hall tonight,
it was already dark outside

I made it to Thursday of the Week Without Driving without driving, but I saw this event on my calendar and knew it would break the skein. CSPS Hall, an eclectic arts venue where I frequently volunteer, is a hair over two miles from my house. I've frequently bicycled there during the day, and it's a mere three blocks from the #2 bus line stop by the Linn County Public Health building. But I'm not a confident night cyclist in a town that doesn't expect me, and the last city bus leaves the station at 7:15 p.m. With tonight's concert expected to go past 9:00, I opted to drive my car. I'm grateful I have that option available.

CSPS's one non-driving staff member, photographer Charles Black, lives in an apartment six blocks away, so he and his camera rely on an e-bike. He's going to be moving soon, though, due to the city's zoning-related demands on his current landlord. Happily he found an abode even closer--now he'll be only four blocks from CSPS Hall!

A new month reminds me to check my bike tires!

The Community Development folk were back at the Ground Transportation Center this afternoon, with treats for afternoon commuters, particularly high school students who use the city bus to get to and from school. They were planning to serve ice cream, but weren't sure about the logistics, particularly on another unseasonably warm day. I didn't get down there, but I wonder how it went?

Elsewhere, Cleveland-based blogger Angie Schmitt wrote today about an Ohio legislator's claim that traffic deaths are over-hyped. He told Schmitt's group that 1,300 annual traffic deaths in a state with a population over 11 million amounted to a very tiny risk. Yet, as Schmitt argues:

The thing is, these odds add up over time. Most people... live for 60 or 80 years if they're lucky. Risks compound... If we were to take those tiny fractions and add them up year after year, guess what? They start getting bigger. In the U.S., using 2022 data, the odds of being killed in a car crash over a lifetime are 1 in 93. More than 1 in 100 Americans can expect to die in a car crash over the course of their lifetimes.

Traffic safety, by this mathy logic, is a concern for everyone, not merely collateral damage from our (enjoyment of? attempts to accommodate to? assertion of individuality in?) car-dependent city design. That Ohio legislator was wrong to diminish the issue of traffic safety, but for many of us, he only said the quiet part out loud. 

The same can be said for non-drivers, whether they are that way from necessity or choice: they are people with legitimate stakes in how we roll, not mere statistical anomalies in what James Howard Kunstler once called "the era of happy motoring."

Friday, October 3 (sunny, high 88F)

Biked to: Coe College, Bricks Bar and Grill

My bike parked at Coe. The pergola at right honors the late Professor Dan Lehn.

I spent my day at my office at Coe College, from where I mostly retired a year and a half ago, then met some friends for happy hour at Bricks downtown.

Entrance to Bricks

Bricks has been in town longer than I have (1989), but is still going strong under the management of the Fun Not Fancy group. It is located where the main bike trail crosses 2nd Avenue SE, and though they hosted the after party for Bike to Work Week 2014, they haven't visibly appealed to cyclists as much as other bars along the trail have.

City bike rack outside Bricks, with my bike and my friend Chris's bike

In all, I rode about four miles to three places.

This year the city added to the commemoration of Week Without Driving a commuter bike ride in the style of Bike to Work Week. That happened today, riding downtown mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from McCloud Place on the northeast side in the morning, and back in the late afternoon. The same ride in May drew a small handful of riders, but everyone we can get into the spirit of this idea represents a step forward.

Rick Reilly's column in today's Washington Post demands greater regulation of e-bikes. The same technology that enables Charles to get his camera to and from CSPS Hall, and extends the possibility of bicycle rides, can be ridden aggressively and dangerously.  He cites a number of examples from his home state of California as well as suburban Chicago. Reilly recommends requiring drivers' licenses to drive any motorized vehicle, as well as fines and community service for violators. All this requires enforcement, however, and for a variety of good and bad reasons police presence on the streets has diminished nationwide. Accommodating non-drivers, especially those who are especially vulnerable, in our transportation system won't work unless the streets, and sidewalks and bike lanes, are safe.

Saturday, October 4 (sunny, high 86F)

Rode to: Bruegger's Bagels [replaced car trip]

Drove 😒 to: Zoey's Pizza

My bike in front of Bruegger's Bagels

A day after parts of Montana got socked with a foot of snow, we are still having summerlike temperatures, threatening but so far not breaking daily record highs. We have set a seasonal record with nine straight highs in the 80s.

I dodged a drive this morning because my list of errands stopped at one: to pick up bagels for Sunday breakfast. Bruegger's, the national bagel chain, has two Cedar Rapids locations, one only about two miles from our house. Mt. Vernon Rd. SE is a notorious stroad, but Bruegger's is on the north (our) side of the stroad, so I can get there by side streets. Once there, I spotted former mayor Ron Corbett among the diners. They offer free coffee if you order ahead through the app, and I managed to get that home in my drink holder without spilling too much. A four-mile bike ride with a dark roasted reward reminds me that Coffeeneuring starts in about a week; check the hashtag on your favorite social medium for more information, or you can live vicariously through the ride-by-ride coverage on Holy Mountain.

Saturday night I drove us out to dinner. We could have tried adhering to the letter of Week Without Driving--at the very least, Jane could have driven instead of me--but we didn't. The dining options within walking distance on a hot evening were not enticing, which carries a lesson for us all. Those of us who can drive sometimes drive because we don't feel like not driving.

Greater Greater Washington today posted an article by disability advocate Kelly Mack, who writes a blog on Substack called Rolling With It and uses a power wheelchair to get around Washington, D.C. She praises the improvements in mobility (transit buses with ramps, Metrorail elevators, more accessible taxis, sidewalks in good repair) during the 2000s. "I could access: work, medical appointments, stores for errands, and the many leisure activities I enjoyed, like visiting restaurants, theaters, and museums." Lately, though, she's "noticed a steady decline in the quality of accessible transportation options," with widespread broken elevators at Metro stations, erratic bus service, unplowed sidewalk ramps, and such. She refers to a "transportation rime tax" for disabled citizens whereby "Every piece of the transportation puzzle adds up to subtract time and energy from my life." As an advocate, she meets frequently with government officials on these very subjects, but finds only lip service, which she calls the "uh... hm factor." Mack, unlike me, can't drive herself when other options are too inconvenient or strenuous. It would be good to have a disability advocate, and I know they're out there, do some audits as part of next year's Week Without Driving in Cedar Rapids.

Week Without Driving is a good experience, if only for raising awareness. I found it not difficult to manage, with only a couple defections, because I'm [a] agile enough to walk places, [b] retired so I can roll with the bus's schedule, and [c] able to fall back on driving when all else fails. It would be more interesting to read about the regular experience of someone who literally can't drive.

City of Cedar Rapids Week Without Driving page

LAST YEAR: "Week Without Driving Diary," 30 September  

Week Without Driving diary

Cedar Rapids traffic is rarely congested, but there's a steady supply of it,
even during Week Without Driving

Week Without Driving is being observed for the first time this year in Cedar Rapids. Begun in 2021 in Vancouver, Washington, it has gotten bigger each year since. Founder Anna Zivarts of Disability Rights Washington has also published a book in 2024, When Driving Isn't an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island, 2024).

Week Without Driving is primarily about raising awareness of issues surrounding accessibility. The webpage starts with 

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it's like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States--people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can't afford cars or gas--this is our every day.

The four simple rules for the observance are a little farther down the same page.

So this is not about environmental conservation, or personal fitness, and not really about personal ethical choices either. People who choose to walk or bike to work are considered, along with motor vehicle drivers, as "those who have the option to drive."

I am an older, white male, as yet able-bodied, who lives about two miles from the center of our city. I am married, with two grown children; collectively we own four cars and a cargo van. I am retired, but I still have an office at the college, which is barely a mile from our house. This situation creates options for me that a lot of people don't have. Part of my week will be spent looking for those people, who are often invisible or at least indistinguishable from everyone else, and perceiving how others may not have the ability to navigate the week the same way I do.

Monday, September 30 (sunny, 82F)

Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church

I had things to do and people to meet at church this morning. It's less than a mile away, so not a difficult walk. Another member of our group lives near me, and rode his bicycle. Everyone else came from farther away. In this case walkability is partly a matter of choice of where to live and where to attend church; my last church was four miles away with some tough street crossings, and I never once walked there.

3rd Avenue SE: I can walk around this tree... can you?

But what's "not a difficult walk" for me isn't easy for everybody, nor do I expect it's going to stay easy for me as the years roll on. As I walked, I noticed fast-moving traffic on the thoroughfares (19th Street and 3rd Avenue) I had to cross; walnuts in various states of repair on the sidewalk; a car parked across the handicapped-accessible curb cut; and trees encroaching on the sidewalk. None was a barrier to me, but I wasn't using a cane or a wheelchair, pushing a stroller, walking with a small child, or being a small child. It was an unseasonably lovely day, not raining or icy. Even having a destination within a mile's walk can be an unwelcome adventure depending on the circumstances.

NOTE: Today, Greater Greater Washington and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association are co-sponsoring a walk audit in DC. I wonder if Cedar Rapids would ever be willing to try that? I'm sure there are disability advocates around here who could be hired to lead it.

Tuesday, October 1 (sunny, 68F)

Walked to: Hoover Guitar Studio

Biked to: Uptown Coffee, Marion

Grant Wood Trail approaching Marion

The Cedar Rapids metro is a few suspenseful connections from having a highly serviceable trails network. There have been some delays, so we're still about at the point I described here a year ago. We have a very strong trails advocacy group, the Linn County Trails Association, which deserves a lot of credit for what's happened. 

LCTA now lists 2025 completion dates for both the Grant Wood Trail which will connect Marion to the main north-south trail, and the (closer to my house) Cemar Trail which would arguably be the fastest route between the two downtowns.

To connect to the trails, or to get anywhere by bicycle until the network is ready for serious commuting, you're best advised to go by side streets, but like most metro areas in America our grid system is patchy. Today I tried going right up C Street NE (25800 cars per day); I made it, but I wouldn't recommend it for a child or an inexperienced rider. 

Uptown Coffee is in the historic (1901) Memorial Hall building

Uptown Coffee is not only delightful, they give double punches for bike riders! 

My card runneth over, because I cycled here

I brought my laptop to Uptown so I could check in with the excellent 880 Cities webinar series, this week featuring Bridget Marquis of Reimagining the Civic Commons--pertinent to this Week Without Driving, because public space is meaningless without accessibility, and accessibility is meaningless without places to access. I saw quite a few people walking on the Grant Wood Trail as I approached Uptown, generally my age or older.

In other news, the City of Waterloo (50 miles north of Cedar Rapids) is going to paint their bike lanes green, emulating Cedar Rapids (Winterer 2024). And The War on Cars podcast featured Sarah Bronin, author of Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World (W.W. Norton, 2024), which includes cases of urban zoning reform that have improved accessibility, which Cedar Rapids should emulate. 

Wednesday, October 2 (sunny, windy 78F)

Bus to: Vault Co-Working Space/Helen G. Nassif YMCA/Dairy Queen [replaced car trip]

Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church [replaced car trip]

The sign said "OPEN" but it wasn't

This was the first day that I would have driven, were it not Week Without Driving. For people who own them, cars are more than just means of rapidly getting around that live at your house, and whose costs are already sunk. They're places to lock your laptop while you work out, and to stow your wet swim clothes afterwards. The co-working space where I work has a picnic deck in front that no one was using today, so I hung them there until I began to worry they would blow off onto someone's windshield and get driven to Clinton or some place. They got pretty dry while they were out in the wind anyhow.

Drying in the breeze

I also prefer to use the car when I'm getting ice-cream-for-later. We don't have an ice cream shop in our neighborhood. We don't have any shops in our neighborhood. The closest Dairy Queen is a mile away, across 1st Avenue; there is no direct transit between us and them, and I didn't trust the soft-serve not to degrade if I walked or biked. There's another one in the opposite direction, 1.4 miles away, with the same problems but moreso. There's a third Dairy Queen on 1st Avenue, 1.8 miles away, propitiously located along a bus route that, quite uncharacteristically for Cedar Rapids, runs every 15 minutes. We are well served by this franchise, but with all those choices, I guessed wrong.

Dairy Queen, 3304 1st Avenue NE:
Oldest (I think) DQ in CR

I studied the bus schedule, and estimated I had 12 minutes from getting off the outbound bus to getting on the inbound bus with my frozen treats. It was actually 13 minutes this afternoon. However, after all that planning, I found the store empty. In a car, I might have driven to another DQ, but today I just caught the inbound bus and headed home.

The third trip on my day's agenda that I would usually take by car was church, where we have choir rehearsal from 7:30 til 9 p.m. It's not a long walk, and I don't even have to cross 1st Avenue, but in the dark it's not particularly pleasant. I walked after all, and it was fine. I'd only gotten a couple blocks when I realized I was wearing a dark gray t-shirt and black pants... not exactly hi-viz! I had just never thought about it. I guess one of the unexplored luxuries of driving is you don't have to think about things like what yoiu're wearing. Or where to stow your wet swimsuit.

All this over-thinking shows how accustomed I am to having a car at my disposal, even if I usually get around town other ways. Not having a car would shape my choices, and maybe I'd make different ones, like eating my ice cream at Dairy Queen rather than taking it home. Or maybe never doing anything in the evening. But we should also recognize that the design of our sprawled city, with daytime-only bus service and residence-only neighborhoods, also constrains our choices.

In other news today, the State of Iowa rejected the vast proportion of Cedar Rapids's traffic cameras (Sostaric 2024). I have mixed feelings about traffic cameras, but I think this is an indication of our stodgy state government's solicitude for drivers that devalues walkers, wheelers, and cyclists.

Tbursday, October 3 (sunny, 80F)

Bus to: Lightworks Cafe, Ground Transportation Center/Cedar Rapids Public Library/Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Stephanie and Emily of Community Development celebrate Week Without Driving;
I scored a package of Almost Famous Popcorn and a chip clip

I've previously written about our city bus system. Thinking in terms of accessibility, Cedar Rapids Transit is a good example of Jarrett Walker's ridership/coverage tradeoff (see Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Improve Our Communities and Our Lives [Island, revised ed, 2024]). Cedar Rapids definitely has a coverage system, which means many people around the city who might need a bus will have one reasonably close by. The system offers free rides to seniors, the disabled, and students at Cedar Rapids public schools. During Week Without Driving, all rides are free!

Round, round, I get around

The disadvantages are 

• even a coverage system can't get to everyone in a town as sprawled as ours, so not everyone is near a route; 
• covering as much of the city as the system does means routes are quite circuitous; and 
• buses run only during the daytime. Except for the #5 bus, which runs along 1st Avenue East every 15 minutes, buses run twice an hour during school commute times, and only once an hour the rest of the day. The system has limited service on Saturdays, and none on Sundays or holidays. For anyone who doesn't need a bus, these are inevitable deal-breakers.

Getting to Lightworks in Oak Hill Jackson this morning for coffee with arts impresario F. John Herbert was easy; living within two miles of downtown means I don't have to deal with as much of the circuitousness as someone who lives or is travelling farther out. The #2 bus stops about a block from my house, and it's a fairly direct route to Lightworks, which is two blocks from the stop by the Post Office. Returning by the #2 is less practical, so I walked four blocks to the stop by Greene Square, took the #5 to 18th Street, and walked five more blocks home. 

Friday, October 4 (sunny, 74F)

Biked to: Coe College/Helen G. Nassif YMCA, Coe College [replaced car trip]

Bus to: The Map Room

 

Approaching Coe College, 2014

I spent most of today on campus at Coe College, my employer for 35 years and where I still have an office. My short commute from home can be done any number of ways (except bus, where I wind up walking half the distance anyway). Moreover, most of the commute can be done on side streets, so the only real trick is crossing 1st Avenue when I get to campus. On a bike, I prefer using crossing mid-block to avoid turning traffic. 

The lights at Coe Road and College Drive are timed such that there's always a long enough gap in the traffic. This is not true for pedestrians, however, even me with my relatively fast clip.

I went downtown to swim before lunch. There is some cycling infrastructure, but it's complicated by crossing 8th and 7th Streets, which are the entrance and exit to Interstate 380, which was foolishly plowed through the center of town back in the day. One chooses between:

• 2nd Avenue: NO, blocked by Physicians Clinic of Iowa
• 3rd Avenue: BEST INFRASTRUCTURE, but you can be overlooked in drivers' enthusiasm to get onto the highway
• 4th Avenue: LESS CROSS TRAFFIC, with four way stops at both 7th and 8th, but narrow and the light at 10th Street is very very long
• 5th Avenue: NO, same as 4th except 7th and 8th don't stop, pavement is really degraded

The infamous light, 4th Avenue and 10th Street

I opted for 4th Avenue, and ran the light when I heard a car coming up behind me.

No Week Without Driving for Slager: appliance delivery requires a truck

 Saturday, October 5 (sunny 89F [tied record high temp])

Biked to: Bruegger's Bagels

Car to: Holley's Shop for Men/Target, China Inn/Paramount Theatre

Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Paramount Theatre, 123 3rd Av SE

I knew from the start that eventually I would have to drive somewhere this week, because we had tickets to the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra tonight. Conductor Timothy Hankewich's baton was scheduled to start waving at 7:30 p.m., long after the bus stops running. On my own I might have walked the two miles, but it's not a great walk. So we, and the other concertgoers, and those attending "Carrie" at Theater Cedar Rapids, and other downtown food and entertainment seekers all coated the streets with our cars. I would have loved to have had an option like a bus, but that is not to be. Nothing takes the romance out of a symphony concert like driving in traffic and searching for a parking space. (No, the answer is not more parking spaces. Parking is the enemy of everything for which a city exists.)

The alternative to driving to the symphony is not going. 

Holley's Shop for Men, Lindale Mall

So it was not a big deal this afternoon when we drove to Lindale Mall to get me a suit for our niece's wedding on the 18th. Bus service to the mall is pretty good, but then we ran an errand to Target afterwards, which would have required a more complicated plan. We left Holley's at 2:30. To get to Target, we would take the #30 bus that stops west of the mall by Jo Ann Fabrics, with the next one due at 3:20. This northeast circulator would get us to Target about 3:45, with the next one coming an hour later. We'd take this one to Wal-Mart, arriving at 4:55 (2.5 hours after we left the mall) where we could transfer to the #6 headed downtown, except it would have stopped running by this time. Meanwhile, the real life Nesmiths were about to start dressing for the symphony.

Sunday, October 6 (sunny 72F)

Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church

Biked to: Lightworks Cafe

I didn't drive on this last day of Week Without Driving, only because my wife does the grocery shopping. Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store, the leading grocery chain in Cedar Rapids, has moved its operations to large lot stores at the edges of town. There are buses that serve those stores, and others serve Fareway and New Pioneer Co-op, but of course those don't run on Sundays.

⛽

Week Without Driving wants to focus on accessibility, not on the environment, fitness, community or personal choice. Okay. My experiences this week have identified a number of obstacles to access: condition of walkways, bus schedules, location of destinations, and street design. I didn't mention loose dogs, larger and heavier trucks, or aggressive fellow travelers, though those are frequently barriers as well. Prioritizing remedies will depend on whether the obstacle to access is a physical limitation, age (young or old), or poverty. But whatever we do, it will also facilitate anyone's lighter tread on the environment, personal fitness, city financial sustainability, and building stronger communities. And whatever we do will inevitably be limited by the extent to which we have sprawled and continue to sprawl.

Regardless, we should do something. I hope for some specific policy initiatives from the city in response to this week's experiences.

Appendix

SIERRA CLUB SURVEY Take our Week Without Driving Survey! (sierraclub.org)

1. Are you able to participate in the Week Without Driving challenge by swapping one or more car trips with walking, biking, or taking public transportation?
1. If yes or unsure, what type of transportation would you plan to take instead?
2. If you're unable to participate at all, or to the degree that you would like, what are the barriers in your community that make it more difficult to reduce driving or avoid it altogether?
2. What's the one or more thing in your community that would make it easier to get around without a car?
3. How are you involved with the Sierra Club?

OTHER LINKS

Dan Allison, "A Trip to Fair Oaks," Getting Around Sacramento, 2 October 2024

Courtney Cole, "Week Without Driving Has Arrived--Here's Why It Matters," Smart Growth America, 30 September 2024

Nicole Dieker, "Living in Cedar Rapids Without a Car," The Billfold, 22 February 2018

"Week Without Driving is Rocking," America Walks, 3 October 2024

Anna Zivarts, "No One Left Behind: Nondrivers Are Facing Crisis Too," Strong Towns, 16 August 2024

Anna Zivarts, "When Prioritizing All Modes is a Lie," Planetizen, 16 September 2024