A New Adventure

Spring Break is over and with the end comes something new. Today was the first commute to campus from our new place, a very peaceful ride in the morning. All but 5 blocks is along the river trail, which is almost abandoned at 10 am. It’s a nice change of pace not to have to constantly be thinking of car traffic when riding.

This week will be the beginning of my year of car-free existence. I’m certainly a little nervous, not about giving up the car exactly, but more about what giving it up might do to other things in my life.

So… here are some ground-rules that I will attempt to follow. I say attempt because this is an experiment to see how easy it is to life without a car. I’m not perfect, and just because I might give in and use a car at some point in the next year doesn’t mean that this project is a failure.

1. Within Missoula, I will only use a bike, mass transit, or walking to any destination.
2. For the purpose of accessing public lands around Missoula, I will try and get there without a car, but carpool will be acceptable.
3. Long distance travel will be accomplished by mass transit, which means bus and train. I will try to avoid air travel, but if something should come up where I can’t avoid it, I will use it.
4. If I get hit by a car, riding in an ambulance is o.k.

And in the spirit of all things car-free. Real Geeks Ride is something I came along this morning. Its and interesting site following two guys as they cycle across America attemtping to get people to cycle to work.