Hello all,
Looks like we will still be going ahead with the Green Fair, Bike Fest and Green Commute since the forecast is only calling for a 40% chance of rain. So do the no rain dance and come on down!
It’s all happening between 6pm-9pm on Main Street and Liberty Street in Downtown Ann Arbor
As part of the Mayor’s Green Fair, getDowntown is helping organize a Bike Fest and Green Commute section of the Green Fair. We will have tons or great activities, including rides on the Seven Person Conference Bike, an AATA Hybrid Bus, a Zipcar, and much much more!
above: The elevators at the First National Building where Dunrie works.
Here’s another Curb Your Car Month post from a citizen. This one’s from Dunrie Greiling of Pure Visibility.
I curbed my (elevator) car in May
So, I’m loving Curb Your Car month. It makes me proud to live in a city where there are other folks who value walking, biking, busing, and carpooling to work enough to make a month-long-celebration of it!
I already walk to work. I’ve walked to work since I moved to Ann Arbor, in 1993. My first home here in Ann Arbor was a shared house on South Ashley, I walked from there to the Kraus Natural Science Building, where I was a graduate student in Biology. In 2000, I finished my doctorate and got a job at spatial analysis software company BioMedware on North State Street. I was living in a different apartment (this time on North First) by then, but still walking to work. Later that year, my husband and I bought a home on South First, and since then, I’ve used walkability as a criterion in my job hunts. Since BioMedware, I’ve had 3 jobs, I’m now working at the internet marketing company Pure Visibility, and I’m happy to report there are lots of great companies within walking distance of my home.
So, when it came time for Curb Your Car month, I wasn’t sure how to “up the ante”. I mean, giving up my car in May wasn’t really a commitment, as I hadn’t commuted by automobile since living in New Jersey in 1993!
Last August, Pure Visibility moved into the First National Building – into the 5th Floor, with spectacular views of Ann Arbor (come up and visit!). Since then, I’d been taking the elevator from the ground floor to our floor. I gained a few pounds, and I wanted them to come off. I also started measuring my daily footsteps with a pedometer, and tracking my walks on Ann Arbor’s WalkerTracker mini-site for pedometer enthusiasts. I began to covet those steps, and I wanted to up my daily exercise to work off the winter weight.
So, I decided to make this month curb my (elevator) car month.
Each morning, I walk past the waiting elevators and into the stairwell. I walk up the 82 steps from the first to the fifth floor, and I arrive, slightly winded and proud, at the 5th Floor to start my workday. Each evening ends going down the same way, and on a good day I get another round trip or two during the day.
What are you going to curb for curb your car month?
Dunrie Greiling
Carless posts on my blog, Scientific Ink
Ann Arbor Googler Ashley Schubert, 24, is an AdWords Account Coordinator who works on supporting Google’s growing base of advertisers. After graduating from Wake Forest University in May 2007, she moved to Ann Arbor and has been working for Google since December.
Ashley is an avid supporter of sustainable transportation. She shares her thoughts below.
Why should you walk, bike or bus to work instead of driving?
There are so many answers to that question- it’s hard to know where to begin. As a young 24 year old that has just started her first job at Google after many years of schooling, it is a simple answer: money. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a hippy at heart and I try my best to help the environment, but I also need to be fiscally responsible right now. And have you seen the price of gas lately?? Taking the bus or biking to work everyday for two weeks will save me over 40 dollars in gas. And that’s not even adding on the cost of car maintenance and insurance.
I take the bus most days to and from my office in downtown Ann Arbor. If it is a particularly beautiful day, I’ll bike or walk. In addition to money, it actually saves me time by taking the bus because then I don’t have to walk to and from the parking garage, the bus picks me up right outside my office door! And in the winter you quickly realize after spending 10 minutes scraping snow off the car and defrosting it, that if you’d just taken the bus, you’d be in transit by now- and be significantly warmer. I also hate driving in the rain. And who wouldn’t want to walk to the bus stop on a beautiful day?
My favorite days are the ones when I can bike downtown and complete all my errands without ever having to park. I especially like being able to get places faster, like Kerrytown, because I don’t have to follow all the one-way streets on my bike. The Farmer’s Market, my Pilates class above Café Zola, and the Dawn Treader bookstore are my three most common places to commute to-… but it would be a shame to miss all the stuff in between. Ann Arbor is full of great people, but you can’t appreciate its diversity and how unique it is from inside your car.
So just to recap why YOU should bike, bus, or walk:
- Save MONEY (and we love to do that)
- Feel good about curbing CO2 emissions
- Save time and worry over driving in snow and rain (which we have a lot of)
- And connect with the city- really appreciate all the great people and opportunities we have in Ann Arbor. You miss so many great restaurants and little unique shops when you are cruising past them at 30 mph.
I hope to see you on the bus or sidewalk soon!
–Ashley
getDowntown would like to announce the following winners of our weekly prize drawings:
Monday go!pass drawing winners: Ann Jacobs, Arbor Research Collaborative for Health and Elizabeth Sharon, Miller Canfield
Carpool/Vanpool Tuesday drawing winner: Casey Brooks, Arbor Brewing Company
Walk to Work Wednesday Winner: Julie Sverid, People’s Food Co-op
To see what these people won, and the prizes for the upcoming drawings, go here: Weekly Prize Drawings.
Since there is going to be a car-lite, car-less discussion tonight at the Ann Arbor District Library, I thought I’d take this chance to highlight some of the Curb Your Car Month Ambassadors.
Here are some Ambassadors that are clearly living car-less and car-lite, as indicated by their reasons for being an Ambassador:
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Jeff Gaynor
AAPS-Clague Middle School
Bike and Bus Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? I have gone happily carless for 2 months, and plan to continue. I bus or bike to work - 11 mi round trip. (I did not buy my first car until 15 years ago - when I was 42 years old, and had children to drive).
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Michael Rice
U of M - Kresge Business Administration Library
Bus Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? I have been a full-time U-M employee for just over ten years now and do not own a car. I enjoy walking to work, but the bus becomes *invaluable* in the winter and when the weather is inclement… I don’t know what I would do without it! — I am very fortunate that U-M and the AATA have an arrangement that allows me to commute to work and I use it quite often; I am therefore, very grateful to both of them and hope that this would be one way to show it. Thanks!
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Astrid Larsen
US EPA on Plymouth
Bus Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? I finally started riding the bus to/from work this past February after living in Ann Arbor for 3.5 years. And it’s been GREAT! I can’t imagaine driving my car to work anymore. There’s a bus stop near my house and a bus stop very near the office. My commute couldn’t be anymore convenient. I’m encouraging my office “cube-neighbors” to give bus commuting a try during Curb Your Car month. Maybe wearing a T-shirt and posting signs outside my cube will inspire other’s to give AATA a try.
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Jason Voss
Zingerman’s Mail Order
Bike Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? I love riding my bike to work and hope to completely curb my car for the whole month of May, commuting entirely by bike. I would like to share my passion by encouraging others to use alternative commutes.
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Jackie Bendsen
Ann Arbor YMCA
Bus and Walk Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? Since moving to Michigan, I’ve committed to riding the bus and/or walking as much as possible. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the bus system and am so grateful that I’m able to ride the bus to and from work almost every day. Busing, carpooling, biking, and walking are terrific ways that everyone can make a positive impact in the communitiy and environment. Walking and busing are an important part of my daily committment to living a more enviornmentally, socially, economically sustainable life. This is a terrific way to introduce others to the benefts of making changes that will have a profoundly positive affect on their community, and in their individual lives as well.
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Jennifer Zimmer
UM - Ross School of Business - Kresge Library
Bike Ambassador
Why do you want to be an Ambassador? Riding my bike to work is the best part of my day. When I get to work I have a smile on my face because I just got some fabulous exercise and didn’t have to drive my car. I want to share this feeling and experience with others and help them realize that they CAN commute by bike to work, especially here in Ann Arbor, and that getting to work can actually be fun and good for you at the same time!
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Tonight, getDowntown is partnering with the Ann Arbor District Library to bring you a panel discussion featuring local commuters who are living car-less and car-lite. The idea is to also have audience participation for this event, so please come and share your stories, too!
Here’s the blurb about the event (from the AADL website):
Car-lite, Car-less: A Panel Discussion On How We Commute to Work
Thursday May 8, 2008: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm — Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Ever marvel at the bicyclists zooming by you in traffic downtown? Or gaze enviously at pedestrian commuters? Hear what local commuters Ed Vielmetti, Alaine Karoleff, Scott Munzel and Tamara Real have to say about their alternative commutes. The panelists will discuss their methods, challenges and surprises they encounter, and how using a sustainable mode of transportation helps them get more out of their commute.
This event is cosponsored by the getDowntown Program and the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce in celebration of Curb Your Car Month. The getDowntown Program (www.getdowntown.org) encourages/assists downtown commuters in the use and development of sustainable transportation choices and is a partnership between the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, and the City of the Ann Arbor.
getDowntown has partnered with Walker Tracker to create an
During Curb Your Car Month we are going to be having a competition on Walker Tracker to see who can log the most steps for the month of May. The winner gets a $25 gift certificate to the downtown restaurant of their choice!
All you need is a pedometer and you can start logging your steps on May 1. If you don’t have a pedometer, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority is offering free pedometers to the first 30 people who request them. So email me (getdowntown@annarborchamber.org) if you want a pedometer and I can get one for you from the DDA (if you are among the first 30). If you would like to buy your own pedometer, I know they sell them at Fourth Avenue Birkenstock.
So please sign-up on the Walker Tracker Ann Arbor Community. And tell your friends to sign up, too! Sign up here: http://annarbor.walkertracker.com/
For this year’s Curb Your Car Month Commuter Challenge, we asked folks to sign up to be Walk, Bike, and Bus Ambassadors. These Ambassadors are enthusiastic about sustainable transportation and want to encourage friends and co-workers to get in on the fun.
We have 24 Ambassadors so far, all with great thoughts and stories. You can check out all of the Ambassadors (and sign up to be one yourself) by going here: http://www.getdowntown.org/programs/commuter/2008_Ambassadors.html
Don’t miss out on all of the fun! Take the Commuter Challenge today!
A recent article on Entrepreneur.com discusses the increasing trend of businesses encouraging their employees to use sustainable transportation to get to work.
The article cites increasing gas prices and awareness of the realities of global warming as the top reasons behind this trend.
And the things businesses are doing to encourage sustainable transportation can be done right here in Downtown Ann Arbor:
So join the trend. All the other cool businesses are doing it!
