I know there’s been a lot of walk talk [0] here on LIME, and that, along with gas at $3.51 a gallon, motivated me to try Car Free Tuesdays. I knew I was going to have to get Georgia on board or have an agonizing weekly discussion with my pre-school contrarian about why we were walking or taking the bus.
Momster: Hey G, I’m thinking we shouldn’t use the car so much.
Georgia: Why?
M: Well, remember how we were talking about how driving cars pollutes the air? I was thinking if we walk or take the bus sometimes our car wouldn’t be polluting the air so much.
G: Great! And when you take your magic classes you can do magic to make me Tinker Bell and I will sprinkle magic dust on you so you can fly too and we’ll fly everywhere.
(Sidenote: Georgia’s “I wish I may I wish I might” wish on the first star every night is that I take real magic classes so I can make herbivore dinosaurs come back and she can fly.)
M: Hmm, I didn’t see any magic classes offered in the paper today, but that will be great. But in the meantime, let’s decide on a day when it will be fun to walk and take the bus.
G: I think… Tuesday!
That’s one of those freaky moments, because Tuesday is the day I was thinking would be easiest, when we have the least to do. And she barely knows the days of the week. I swear she can read my mind.
So for the last month we have not used the car on Tuesdays, and it’s been pretty easy. When she wakes up I say, “Hey! It’s Car Free Tuesday!” to remind her as if it’s a nice treat. And in lots of ways it is: we get to take things slow, dedicate the day to getting there instead of being there. Last week I borrowed my friend Jenny’s bike with the attached child seat, and that was amazing! I was afraid I’d never be able to ride it, or ride with Georgia on it, but we had the best time. Now I want a safe bike of my own. (I have a lovely old brakeless Dutch Union Oxford bike with a Trenton bike license plate, but it’s more of an art piece at this point.) I feel like that one ride on Jenny’s bike changed my life, I can imagine being much less dependent on the car as G and I zip over the Hawthorne Bridge [1]—wait, the image flashing through my head tells me I’m not brave enough for that yet. Back to walking…
On Car Free Tuesdays I do have to plan out the course of the day more carefully, if there are things that must get done. I have to build a lot more time into travel, and pack extra treats. Of course we haven’t tried to do a major grocery shopping trip, or had any far away appointments to get to. It’s mostly been going to the library, play dates, and the park, but we have run errands we would normally take the car for. I like not having to do the car seat struggle, and I don’t have to explain to Georgia why I am cursing under my breath when someone with a Create Peace bumper sticker aggressively cuts me off. Again. And I can avoid billboards and fast food joints!
Which is great even if we do have to stop the stroller to examine every smashed slug or interesting rock on the way. And often we manage to walk by the Ben and Jerry’s, for which Georgia has a keen brand awareness and I have a handful of two-for-one coupons. Lucky for me I’m walking—I can justify a once-a-week treat that I can burn off (well, a fraction of it anyway), and it costs less than a gallon of gas!