Flipping the Transportation Heirarchy

Undriver #2,421:  Joel Flachsbart

“I grew up in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon and moved to New Orleans after college to teach middle school math.  While in New Orleans I lived, serendipitously, only two blocks from the school where I taught AND a wonderful grocery store.  For the first time in my life, I could work and eat without driving.  I drove my car so rarely that my battery would often die from lack of use.  The situation shifted my perspective on driving and transportation.  I realized during this time how incredibly backwards it is to live somewhere that requires you to use petroleum in order to EAT.  Yet, this is the unfortunate circumstance of so many of us.  How did this happen?

I have since made a commitment to locate my life in such a way as to require as little gas and driving as possible.  Walkable neighborhoods do more than save us on using oil.  They connect people and generate value by allowing us to appreciate the richness of a local community.

What I like about the Undriving movement is that it flips the transportation hierarchy and places cars at the bottom where they belong. My Undriver License reminds me to consider walking first, then biking, then taking light rail or the bus, then carpooling.  And if nothing else will work, only then do I take a car.”

Thanks, Joel, for this simple way of looking at Undriving decision-making!   We’d love to hear from others who give this a try.  How’d it go?