Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s the press release:
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy will be joined by community and business leaders in a bicycle ride May 12 to kick off this year’s “Strive Not to Drive” week. The event kicks off with a 10 a.m. press conference at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. Following the press conference, representatives of 25 organizations will bicycle with the Mayor to City Hall, where they will sign the Strive Not to Drive Pledge, demonstrating a commitment to provide leadership in promoting alternative transportation in their organizations.
Promoting bicycling, walking, carpools, and public transit are important goals for Asheville’s leadership–but it was not always so. Since the first Bike to Work Day was organized in 1990, air quality has become an important issue. Over the past decade Western North Carolina has experienced among the state’s highest mortality rates for pneumonia, flu, emphysema and asthma. Air pollution is especially harmful to the health of children, the elderly, and those who have breathing problems. Businesses could add lease cars to their company fleet in the form of a hybrid vehicle, like the Toyota C-HR, which is a lot cleaner than gas cars.
Since automobiles contribute to at least half of WNC’s air pollution problem, community leaders will take a variety of steps to make it easier for employees or co-workers to take fewer trips in their car, such as rewarding employees for carpooling, providing showers for bike riders, or working with the Asheville Transit System through the PASSport Program. Beyond influencing practices in their own organizations, many community leaders will advocate for policies and practices to make Asheville a leader in multi-modal transportation.
Strive Not to Drive is an opportunity to consider how the transportation choices impact health and mountain lifestyle. Event organizers encourage citizens to get to work or school on May 16 using a form of transportation other than driving in alone in a car. Those who commit to trying other forms of transportation can sign a pledge, which will make them eligible for discounts from local businesses. Organizers hope those who use alternative forms of transportation during this week will be encouraged to incorporate them more into their daily routines throughout the year.
For a complete list of activities, the Strive Not to Drive pledge form and more information about the event visit: www.blueridgecommute.org and click on Strive Not to Drive in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
I’d love not to have to drive everywhere – there are two nice shopping centers a quarter mile away in each direction from my house, and the library is about a mile away, so you’d think walking would be a no-brainer. But the shopping centers front onto Smoky Park Hwy and there aren’t any sidewalks. There’s no shoulder to speak of (it’s literally inches from lane edge to curb), and what little verge there is, is often so steep that any slip puts you at risk of falling directly into the nearest lane of hwy traffic. But if you’re walking, it’s either that or walk directly in one of the hwy lanes with cars going 50 miles an hour (if they’re not speeding). Even the back roads run sans sidewalks with very little space between lane and yard, and redneck idiots drive through them like they’re auditioning for NASCAR. So anyone in this neighborhood literally takes their life into their own hands to walk.
I don’t have a death wish, so if I want to go a quarter mile to my bank, my hair salon, either grocery store, or the mile to the library, I have to drive. Hell, I even have to drive a mile to get to the nearby 2-mile walking trail to get the same exercise I’d get if I could walk there and back. Madness. Sheer wasteful madness.
I’d like to participate in Strive Not To Drive. But I’d rather Strive Not To Be Flattened Like A ‘Possom even more. Sorry, folks.