Walkin' the days away

Is it wrong that this sign makes me smile?

Unfortunately the top half of the sign is missing...seems the vandals got vandalized. When I first saw this sign it read, "We are not canaries in a coal mine.  Quit driving.  Fix the fucking air." (My apologies to the sign's author if I've misquoted it). 

I thought that this would be a good way to end this blog since:

1. We are moving outta Salt Lake, so the title would be a bit silly to keep, and
2. We are breaking down and buying a car soon

We are only getting a car because the ranch/organic farm we will be working on for 6 months is 40-50 miles away from the closest grocery store and as die hard as we'd like to think we are...this would be a bit over the top...plus we have to get there (along with our dogs, cat, and crap to last us the season). We were going to get a pickup truck but decided that we don't really need a truck right now, so we'll likely get an older volvo or subaru wagon, something with room that gets good gas mileage. Of course I'd like a VW bus but Jake thinks it'd make us look to hippie...

So, looking back at our time without owning a vehicle I'd definitely say that there were inconveniences- not just for us but for others as well (thanks to all of you who have given us rides :) ), but they were never anything we couldn't deal with. Being in a city with decent public transit and a car share program made the transition much easier and more sustainable for us but Salt Lake has much room for improvement. I think a big part of the problem isn't necessarily the city or the transit system though, it's the people...the stubborn, arrogant people who don't see pedestrians (or bikes), who are more worried about their phone call or text than they are of the life in front of them on the street, and who feel entitled because of the vehicle that they feel is an extension of them. I'm not saying that all drivers are like this, but after walking my fair share of hours in this city I'd have to say that there are more out there than I previously thought.

Creativity, flexibility, and planning have been essential in getting places. Often it takes 2-3 times as long to get where we want to go, but as long as we planned ahead it seemed to always work out ok. Patience is also something which has been necessary in using public transit...missing a bus or the train by (literally) a matter of seconds can be maddening so you get used to leaving early and waiting, sometimes very long amounts of time in all kinds of weather so that you don't miss it by moments again.

Should this be my last post I hope my take away message is clear- YOU CAN SURVIVE IN THE CITY WITHOUT A CAR!!! It may be a pain in the ass at times but it can be done and one less car on the road can make a difference! Do it!! Drive less and clean up the fucking air!!

Red Air Days

I always forget what an inversion trap this valley is, but now that we are looking at 5 days in a row of increasing 'smog' I'm quickly remembering why I dislike the winter in Salt Lake so much.

Wait, isn't this what my last post started out like??? Hmmm...I guess that is because it seems like we keep repeating this inversion...clearing....inversion....worse inversion....slight clearing....inversion cycle. I guess living downtown and working up at the University makes it much more visible to me since I can look out the window at work and see the layer of gunk sitting over where I live, where we walk our dogs, and where we shop, (not to mention where many of us have gardens that are probably soaking up this warm fuzzy layer of ozone).

I guess I should confess though. We have been contemplating getting a truck....I know, I know, what the hell is this blog about and we are gonna get a truck???? But wait, it's not to drive around SLC or even to play in the mountains, it is to work...on a farm...outside of Utah. But as of this point we are still not car (or truck) owners and when we do buy a truck it will be because we are working to learn sustainable and organic farming methods in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. So we would still technically be car free in SLC... ummm, ok maybe not...I guess we'll have for forfeit this blog when that point comes, but until then we will continue to write about our frustrations and challenges and rewards of not owning a car in SLC. Cause who doesn't love to read about other people bitching??? :)

Take care and breathe safely-

The air out there

As of this hour Logan, Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake City Utah make up 4 of the top 5 highest AQI (Air quality Index which includes particulate matter 2.5 and ozone), in the nation. In other words our air is nasty as hell. This is not a new thing, last week we spend many a days on the top of this list as well... Not necessarily a list you want to be ranking the highest on.

On a normal day we can easily see the Wasatch mountains from our apartment but today you can barely make out the peaks of this normally clear range. It really does scare me, this air that we are breathing. And tomorrow will be worse. Tuesday should get still worse until we get a predicted snow storm to 'clear' out the air in the valley.

 It is amazing to me that people believe that this 'dirty' air is only here during the time of an inversion, that all other times of the year the pollution just disappears and gets taken care of. This inversion, this pollution we are seeing and breathing is that of our waste. Our driving. Our burning fossil fuels. Our wasting of finite resources to make our lives as comfortable as technologically possible (note that I don't say 'humanly possible because we are beyond that point). And yet we find ourselves in this ironic position of being advised not to drive on 'red days', but who really wants to be walking or biking to work when we are being recommended not to breath in this nasty air?

So still we are car-less, and heartily attempt to drive less (including getting less rides, renting less car hours and driving less distances). We are on the brink of ringing in 2010 and we still find ourselves being thought of as strange, weird, immature, idealistic, and many more adjectives because of our lack of car ownership. But we still breathe the same dirty, harmful air that our hummer driving neighbors do....but more likely we are breathing more of it since we have to walk much further distances than to our garage and back.

Maybe we should move out of Salt Lake City.

The glory of winter without a car

There are many, many reasons why it would be nice to own a car in the winter...most of them so obvious that I won't even list them...but, there are also many reasons why it is nice to not own a car in the winter:

• No scraping frozen windows or brushing the snow off your car
• You don't have to worry about getting stuck in the snow
• Although the bus or trax may run a bit late, I don't have to worry about 'snow day' traffic with horrendous commute times
• You don't have to sit in a freezing car and wait for the heater to kick in
• It's fun to walk in slush and snow, it's like ice skating for free! ;)

So anyways, we are coming upon our fourth month without owning a car. Ucarshare has been very nice for running errands that require more "stuff" than we can carry with our hands but UTA has really been our godsend.

We are trying to decide where we will be when spring comes and our lease is up...Jake is pretty determined to remain car-free but we'll see where we end up.

Daylight

There is very little daylight left by the time Jake and I make it home from work, often times it is dark by the time we come home. I've noticed that we have made the dog walks shorter (plus it has been REALLY cold for the past week or so) and we aren't doing anything outside after work like we used to. Not having a car makes this a bit harder, last year at this time we were going to the gym (driving to the gym that is) pretty faithfully but now we can't get motivated to walk or bike both ways in the dark...so we sit at home and get more outta shape. It was our plan to go to the gym tonight- but it is now 8:10 PM, totally dark outside, and I'm not feeling remotely like I want to bike or walk those 7 blocks there (let alone having to walk back after a work-out).

I can't wait till the days get longer.

I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from work today and ended up with 2 fairly heavy paper bags full of groceries. By the time I got home it felt like my arms and hands were gonna fall off! The store is only about 4-5 blocks from our place but when you are carrying some heavy things it feels a whole lot further...

Well, that's about all that I have to add for now, things are going on pretty uneventfully in the car-free area. We ride our bikes (well, just Jake is riding his bike nowdays), walk, take the bus or train, and bum rides off family and friends as needed...otherwise life is pretty much as usual.

The Adventure of using Public Transportation

Yesterday was a somewhat adventurous day when it came to visiting my parents in Kaysville. We decided to take the FrontRunner (Salt Lake City's version of commuter rail) to get from SLC to Kaysville (which is about 25 miles north of the city). In order to get to the FrontRunner station we had to either walk, take the bus, or take TRAX (our light rail system). Well, it ended up that we were running late leaving our house so we decided to walk until we saw a bus that was headed to the frontrunner station...but each time we saw a bus that was going where we needed to go we weren't at a bus stop...so we walked faster, then we ran, then we finally caught the TRAX just one stop away from the station. We got to the station with one minute (literally 1 minute) to spare. Jake had to buy his pass so I kept pushing the 'door open' button on the train so he could run and catch it before it took off. Just as we sat down in our seats, we were off!
Then on our way home there was a fire at one of the oil refineries near the train tracks, so we were able to take the train as far as the Woods Cross station, then had to be bussed from there to the Salt Lake station. From the Salt Lake station we got on TRAX which we took to City Center and from there we walked home. 
Whew, I'm tired just typing about it...this was defiantly not the easiest or fastest way to travel...but it worked, and we kept one more car off the street.