Volunteers cut back on car use for a week

Amber Evans , a self-described soccer mom from Berkeley, had to get her son to a Concord soccer tournament at 8 a.m. Sunday. For many moms the most challenging part of the trip would be getting their child out of bed and in uniform in time.

But Evans and her husband, Simon Troll , had a vastly more difficult challenge: They'd vowed not to drive their Toyota Prius.

Evans and her husband pledged to go carless from June 1 to today as part of the Car Free Challenge sponsored by TransForm, an Oakland-based transit advocacy group.

About 150 participants in the challenge set a low mileage goal for the week and tracked their progress online. This is the second year TransForm has challenged Bay Area residents in what they hope can be an annual - and eventually permanent - event.

The duration of the campaign was shortened from a month in 2009 to a week this year to encourage participation and make the challenge more realistic Maxisys MS908, said Marta Lindsey , the communications and development director for TransForm.

The pledge is intended to help people realize both the importance of public transportation and the extent to which they depend on their cars , she said.

"So many people are making those little trips on errands" with their car, Lindsey said. "They don't realize how they can add up."

Evans, a Berkeley city planner, and her husband already try to limit the car use. They live near a BART station and bike with their son, Kyle Troll , 10, whenever possible.

Their major challenge is weekends, when there are fewer transit options and a reduced schedule.

Using public transportation, there was no way Evans and Simon Troll could get Kyle to the soccer field Sunday by 8 a.m. They had Kyle carpool with a teammate so he could arrive on time while they arrived at 9:30 a.m. after taking BART and biking along the Iron Horse Trail. The three took BART home together.

"That is the dilemma of a family choosing to be car-free in the Bay Area," she said.

Other challenge participants who are more car-centered have used the last week to find a new way to get to and from work.

Andrea Osgood , 33, said the commute from her Oakland home to her office in Hayward grew from 20 minutes by car to 90 minutes by riding the bus to BART.

The new commute requires Osgood - a real estate project developer - to leave earlier and arrive a little bit later than normal, which is something Osgood said she has enjoyed.

"It is like being a tourist in my own town. I get to walk, so I get a little exercise in," she said. "It gives me time to read the big, long reports that you have to read."

She said she has been pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to navigate the transit system and has even made a few friends during the commute Automotive Diagnostic.

Osgood participated in the challenge last year and said trying to avoid a car for an entire month was difficult. Like Evans, she said she racked up most of her miles on the weekends when transit options were less available.

But last year, like this year, the carless commute to work just isn't doable on a daily basis, she said.

"The day gets busy, and suddenly an hour and 20 minutes is just too much time each way," she said.

Everyone has the best intentions of going without a car, but sometimes that reality can be harder to achieve.

Last Monday, El Cerrito resident Kristine Solseng , 34, who pledged to drive only 30 miles, had to reconsider her goal when her daughter woke up sick and Solseng had to get her to their new doctor in Hercules.

"Trying to figure out the public transportation and a new health plan at the same time is just impossible," she said.

While this week hasn't been what she hoped it would be, Solseng thinks that her efforts will bleed into her regular habits.

"It is part of a process," she said. "It is the beginning of trying to reestablish the old forms of transportation Launch X431 IV."

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