National Week With[out] Driving, the end

On Saturday, I walked from my hotel to my workshop on campus. We wrapped up early enough that I could dash over to the Everson Museum of Art for a quick look at their current ceramics exhibits.

Self Sufficient, by Lois Hennessey, 2002

Clockwise from bottom: Peter Voulkos, Voulkos, Antonio Prieto, Harrison McIntosh

Jug, Peter Voulkos, 1950

Fish Monster, Sascha Brastoff, ca. 1948

Sex Monster, Sascha Brastoff, ca. 1948

Assorted pots from the Rosenfeld Collection

I left earlier than I would have liked, due to intense set-up activity for a wedding...  

Afterward, I walked over to my favorite vegan restaurant anywhere, Strong Hearts, for a quick dinner, then filled another 45 minutes with more walking, until I had to catch an Uber to the airport.

Public art en route

Strong Hearts--so tasty!

S lived on this street for one semester, before we both got jobs at Nearly Ivy U 

It was a drizzly weekend, but I enjoyed being immersed in autumn

Can you see the three deer? There's a tail pointing out toward the end of the sidewalk... 

Brilliant autumn. Love it!

I arrived at the airport a little after 6pm. The clouds and setting sun were putting on quite a show. 

I changed planes at IAD. I wanted to walk from incoming concourse A to outgoing concourse D, but the only way to get between them is by shuttle. Oh well. 

Upon landing at RDU at 11:30pm, I walked to the parking deck, got into my car, and drove home.

Total cost for two days of airport parking: $40. Had I traveled to/from RDU via Uber, the cost would have been ~$90 including tips.

Total cost of Ubers from/to the airport in Syracuse: $60 including tips. Syracusans who park at their airport for two days would pay $26-$36.

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This morning, Sunday, I passed on an invitation to go hiking at Hanging Rock State Park. I've spent more time in cars during this national Week Without Driving than I do most weeks of the year.

As I wrap up this post, an email has just landed in my inbox from Consumer Reports with the subject header "Your next car is waiting." Oh dear, I don't think so. 

I'm heading out the door now for a long walk.

National Week With[out] Driving, take 3

On the Friday of the National Week Without Driving challenge, I flew to Syracuse, NY, because I was presenting a writing workshop on Saturday. 

How does one get from my home to the airport at 5am on a Friday?

Mass transit is not an option. We have no light rail to the airport. We have bus service, but the earliest weekday bus leaves the downtown Durham station at 5:42am, and takes a little over an hour to get to Terminal 2. My flight left at 6:45.

My choices: 1) take an Uber, $40+ one way excluding tip; 2) ask a friend to get up at 4:something a.m. to give me a ride; or 3) drive myself there in 20 minutes, park in the convenient garage right across from the terminal, and have my car waiting for me when I landed back at RDU at 11:30pm Saturday night so I could drive myself home.

I drove.

Once I landed in Syracuse, I had almost 6 hours before I needed to meet up with my workshop hosts. Since I was significantly behind on walking miles for the week, I plugged my cellphone charger into an outlet at the airport and looked up potential walking routes from the airport to my hotel near the university.

The two options I found were 9 and 11 miles. 

Since I was traveling with only a light backpack, walking was a real option--except that I didn't know the area. I googled crime statistics, and the areas I would need to walk through had lower reported crime rates than the neighborhoods around the university. 

The 9-mile option offered a designated bike trail--the Bear Trap Creek Trail--that offered a safe route for 3.8 miles paralleling the freeway, and would end near neighborhood roads that looked easily walkable on the map--except that getting from the airport to the start of the trail involved a big freeway interchange that looked potentially challenging. The 11-mile route required cutting around the back of the airport on a cargo road through an industrial area that looked like it would probably be an ugly slog.

I took an Uber (~$30 including tip, expense covered by workshop hosts).

I asked the driver his opinion about whether walking the whole way was actually feasible. He was confident it was, and changed his route to the hotel so that he could point out a potential road to walk on. "Look at how wide the shoulder is," he said; "it's like that the whole way!" Having walked on a lot of shoulders in Durham, it looked doable, if largely commercial. Maybe next time.

When I checked in at my hotel, I asked whether there was a safe walking route to Lake Onondaga. When my partner, S, briefly taught at SUNY ESF 23 years ago, Lake Onondaga was contaminated with toxic chemicals; swimming had been banned in 1940, fishing followed in 1970, and in 1994, the EPA  added the lake to the list of national priority Superfund sites. Now the lake is cleaner than it's been in over 100 years, and that seemed like a good reason to make it a destination for a walk.

I asked the hotel receptionist, "can I walk there safely, or am I likely to get run over by a car or shot?"

She thought I'd probably get run over. The adjacent receptionist interrupted another customer's check-in to agree. They insisted over and over--with the other customer patiently waiting--that traffic was awful, there was no safe route, and I'd surely get hit by a car. Adjacent receptionist advised me to take a nice 1.5-mile walk around a nearby park instead.

They didn't know--and I didn't know, until I walked to the lake despite their warnings--that the Onondaga Creekwalk could safely get me most of the way there, starting just a few blocks from the hotel. The Creekwalk is part of the Empire State Trail--New York's equivalent to NC's Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

Walking is my favorite way to get to know an area, and Syracuse offered a lot to see and learn.

The most challenging spot was crossing the street a few blocks from the hotel. Note that the teeny tiny yield sign (half the size of the right-turn arrow sign) tells drivers to yield to pedestrians--yet there's no zebra-stripe crosswalk. I found a safer place to cross.

Syracuse has public art. Which of these buildings are buildings, and which are murals?

Syracuse has monumental architecture...

Syracuse has statues. I could tell even from the back side that this was a statue of Christopher Columbus. Note that he's basically standing atop the heads of Native Americans. This 1934 statue in theory celebrates Syracuse's Italian immigrants, but I was surprised that the blatant colonialist imagery had lasted into 2023. Googling later for more information, I was glad to read that the sculpture has generated some controversy, and that city government is hoping to remove it.   

More welcoming than the Columbus statue...

Impressively flat flatiron building:

Art in front of Clinton Square Fountain...

A statue depicting the "Jerry Rescue." The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act required citizens in free states to cooperate in returning fugitive slaves to their enslavers. William "Jerry" Henry was a fugitive who had been enslaved in Missouri and had fled to Syracuse in 1849. His enslaver made a claim for his return, and Jerry was arrested in Syracuse on October 1, 1851. An abolitionist mob stormed the jail the same day, extricated him from his captors, and aided his eventual escape to Canada.

The 1932 art deco Niagara Mohawk Power Building: 

Well whaddya know, there's a designated trail the entire rest of the way to Lake Onondaga.... 

...with wildflowers...

...and safe routes under busy streets...

A detour was required...

...due to a bridge that was out.

I took a detour from the detour and instead crossed the creek one bridge earlier.

While the lake is now clean enough to swim in in some areas, it's still not safe to eat fish from the creek or the lake.  

Syracuse

(Unsafe fish: that's something the Creekwalk has in common with Umstead State Park in NC.)

Raleigh

The Trail was undergoing more construction near the harbor, which required additional detouring... 

I rejoined the Empire State Trail beyond the harbor. The trail along the lake was lined with solar-powered lamps:

Behind the lamps, the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection was burning gas from sewage treatment...

The trail crossed over the train tracks...

...and down to the lake.

Lake to the right, freeway to the left. The exit sign on the freeway aims drivers to the NY State Fairgrounds.

A lotta snails were out and about...

Heading back over the bridge above the train tracks...

I decided to take a different route back, rather than returning on the Creekwalk. As buildings became increasingly run down, I adjusted my route to aim back into downtown. The graffiti at the top of this building says "Love Will Tear Us Apart." It must have been painted upside-down from the roof--an impressive feat.

Back past the Niagara Mohawk Building...

And back past another not-quite-flat-iron building...

Ta da! 11.3 mostly scenic miles, and I didn't get run over even once.

National Week With[out] Driving, take 2

It's Thursday, Day 4 of the first National Week Without Driving, and my week isn't going as planned.

Yesterday afternoon, a friend phoned to say that her broken wrist wasn't staying properly aligned in its plaster cast, so she had been scheduled for surgery today--could I drive her? 

The correct answer in such situations isn't "I'm not supposed to drive this week"--it's "absolutely, at your service, glad I can help."

The surgery had been scheduled for mid-afternoon today. This was fortunate for me, since I have a teaching commitment at Claymakers on Thursday mornings. But even if I planned to drive to work in the morning, I wouldn't have enough time after my class to pick up my friend and get her to the surgical center by her check-in time.

We brainstormed solutions. The surgical center is located ~11 miles from my friend's home, and ~8 miles from Claymakers. 

Solution 0: We could take mass transit to the surgical center. (Hahahaha. This one's just here in the spirit of Week Without Driving. We didn’t actually consider it.)

For me, traveling from Claymakers, assuming I could time it right and buses were running on time, taking mass transit would mean a 35-minute bus ride with 5 minutes of walking on each end--about 45 minutes total. That would make me late for my friend's check-in time.

For my friend, from her home, with the same assumptions, taking mass transit would mean about 20 minutes of walking combined with two different bus rides, plus some waiting time between buses--about 1.33 hours total. 

Getting home together, after her surgery, with friend possibly feeling some pain and possibly still loopy from anesthesia, would require almost 1.5 hours, including two bus rides, some waiting, and 20 minutes of walking.

If a bus were running early, we might miss it; if a bus were running late, we'd be late. Mass transit would not be a reliable way to get from point A to point B.

Solution 1: I would drive to work. My friend would drive herself to the surgical center, and I would show up in my own car a little late. 

Assuming the surgical center would even allow her to check in without an accompanying human, this proposal would mean having two cars there, and only one able driver for the drive home.

Solution 2: I would drive to work. She would take an Uber to the surgical center, and I would show up in my own car a little late. 

She phoned the surgical center to ask if I could arrive late. They said they'd give me an extra 30 minutes max.

Solution 3: Friend realized I could walk to Claymakers, she could pick me up at the end of my class, and she could drive us both to the surgical center. I could then drive us both home after the surgery. 

This sounded so optimal, we never got to Solution 4, which presumably would have involved other Uber configurations or other friends.

So for Day 4 of this avid walker's Week With[out] Driving, my friend and I are trading driving places for a few hours. I hitched a ride with her to her surgery, and after her bones are properly pinned in place, I'll drive her home.

Once I get home, I'll hopefully have time for a long walk before the sun sets (or after--I'll take what I can get), because I'm now two days-worth of miles down from where I need to be to reach my weekly walking goal.

I'm typing in the waiting room...

The soothing view outside the waiting-room window: a parking lot.

Postscript 

The second photo bugs me. The parking lot is largely empty. All that impervious surface, designed to accommodate more drivers than typically need it (assuming today is a typical day). I can't see a sidewalk beyond it, although there's one across the street. 

Google says the closest bus stop is 0.4 miles away. When I click on Google Maps' proposed route from the surgical center to the bus stop, I'm shown a wee orange warning triangle with an exclamation point inside, and the text "Use caution - may involve errors or sections not suited for walking."

"Not suited for walking." Of course this area isn't suited for walking. Suburban commercial development is designed for cars, not people. Thankfully, though, some optimists--or realists--put a bus stop on a wide, well-traveled street running through a commercial area not suited for walking. The location isn't ideal if you need surgery a 0.4-mile walk away, but at least the stop acknowledges that people need alternatives to driving.

National Week With[out] Driving

This week, thanks to motivation from Bike Durham, I am participating in the first National Week Without Driving, a movement that encourages participants to reflect on what it's like to navigate the world without the privilege of being able to drive a car.

Before I get to how this week is going, here's some background.

I have spent the past two years seriously upping my walking game and intentionally avoiding driving. You can read more about that here.

It's a privilege to live in a neighborhood where my needs can generally be met within walking distance--although my definition of "within walking distance" has expanded over the past two years. Now, it generally means less than 10 miles round trip (15 miles on occasion if absolutely necessary and if I have the time). Distances greater than that often mean either skipping the trip or combining a drive with other errands so at least I'm maximizing bang for the carbon-footprint buck.

Where do I need to go to meet my needs?

I have two paid jobs. I'm a potter/pottery instructor, and I'm a science-writing consultant/instructor. Usually I get to and from those jobs by foot.

It's a few yards from my front door to my home studio; 2.77 miles (quickest route) to the community studio where I teach; and 3.5 miles (more leisurely route) home. Usually I walk. I drive to the community studio when I need to purchase clay, and I time those trips to coincide with other errands that require driving. I usually teach during the day. If I sub for nighttime classes, I drive.

It's zero miles to my laptop for Zoom consultations, and 3.5 miles to and from campus on days I work with writers in person. Usually I walk. I typically give two out-of-town writing workshops annually that require traveling by plane. One of those workshops--ha--is later this week.

It's about 2 miles each way to the food co-op and about 3 miles each way to Costco. I've learned how much I can carry in my 27-liter backpack and shop accordingly.

I usually drive or fly to visit family and for vacations. My son, E, is a student at NC State. When he takes the bus home to visit his doting parents (45-100 minutes one way to the downtown Durham bus station, depending on time of day and day of week, plus a 25 minute walk home), we'll usually drive him back to school (60 minutes round trip).

Now on to how this week is going...

Monday was an atypical workday, but an expected part of my seasonal work cycle. I was in Zoom meetings almost continuously from 8:30am until 5:30pm. I had a short break for lunch, and 1.5 hour break in the afternoon, when I worked in my studio. I had no time for walking (bad), and no need to drive (good).

On Tuesday, I worked from home in the morning. In the evening, I was scheduled to give a demo presentation for the Triangle Potters Guild.

I live in Durham; the Guild meets 26 miles away in Raleigh. The distance is not walkable. (Obviously, of course, but don't laugh! Figuring out a way to walk all the way to NC State has been on my recreational to-do list for a while. But even if I could split the walk into two days--it's 26 miles by car, but would be farther on foot--I have yet to find a route that anyone in their right mind would consider safe. Urban sprawl is designed for cars, not pedestrians.)

For the Week Without Driving, I needed to aim for alternatives to driving to Raleigh myself.

First option: mass transit. You'd think that with an international airport between Durham and Raleigh, we'd have easy mass transit options. We don't. We have no light rail, and taking the bus point-to-point would require at least two hours in each direction. Add in having to transport a heavy, awkward load of clay, tools, and pots: taking the bus becomes unfeasible.

Second option: Uber. Hiring a ride would have cost me ~$70-$120 or more round trip, depending on the time of day, and would have been worse for the environment than driving myself. My own car was waiting in my driveway, while an Uber driver would have had to drive to my house to pick me up.

Third option: ask a friend to take 4.5 hours out of their day to chauffeur me. Wasn't gonna happen.

So I drove.

To make the trip more productive, I combined it with three other objectives: picking up Durham Pottery Tour postcards at another potter's studio on the south side of Durham; stopping at Umstead State Park to fit in an out-of-town walk; and having dinner with E before the demo presentation.

Rush hour meant a lot of waiting in long lines of traffic...

What I gained from driving to Raleigh--other than getting to Raleigh with 35 pounds of stuff--was empathy for folks who have to commute every day, and irritation that this part of the country is not set up for alternatives. As an avid walker, I'm already intimately familiar with the lack of alternatives, since the lack limits my options for destinations, but having to drive yesterday certainly reinforced the point. We need alternatives.

My errand to pick up postcards added 20 minutes to my trip. From there, getting to Umstead State Park--which is directly en route to Raleigh--took an unusually long 30 minutes, thanks to heavy traffic and slow-downs caused by two different crashes. This left me less time to walk than I had intended.

Pretty, but traffic congestion en route left me with no time to linger.

Getting to NC State then took another 20 minutes due to rush-hour congestion, leaving me with less time than originally planned for dinner with E. He ended up driving with me to the Craft Center and then took a campus bus back to his apartment (hooray for NCSU's campus bus network!). Driving home after the Triangle Potters Guild meeting took a mere 30 minutes.

Total driving time so far this week: ~2 hours. Via [non-feasible] bus, it would have taken at least 4 hours, and I would have arrived home around midnight instead 10:15pm.

I immensely enjoyed meeting members of the Triangle Potters' Guild, discussing my work, and demonstrating one of my wheel-throwing processes. The experience was energizing and engaging and fun, and I'd love to attend more meetings--but that opportunity will only be possible if I drive (or find another potter to commute with from Durham).

Today, Wednesday, has been another work-at-home day. I took a break to walk downtown for an errand, and I will walk to the Co-op this evening to pick up some groceries.