Car-Free Challenge Days 1-5: Cut my car mileage in half!

In the first 5 days of the car-free challenge, I'm happy with the results: cut my car mileage in half, from 14-16 miles in a 'normal' week to 8 miles total (4 miles solo, 4 miles carpooling).

As I started thinking after the first day, it's not necessary all or nothing, it's about being more thoughtful about walking, biking or taking transit when I can - carpooling more and bunching driving trips together when I can't. There will be some days when work seems a bit crazy and Kaiya wakes up late where I will make the choice to not stroll her the 1 mile to daycare so I can make it to work when I want/need to. And there will be plenty of days when the whole family is up early enough to take the leisurely 20 min stroll each way to/from daycare.

Alas, today is the big challenge that I have not figured out how to tackle. We're having brunch at the SF Ferry Plaza: CUESA is putting on a Spring Breakfast with delicious souding food and a chance to talk to farmers who grow sustainable food. This is about 70 miles round trip. In theory getting to the Ferry Plaza is public transit friendly (walk 5 blocks to Caltrain, Caltrain to SF, MUNI to Embarcadero). The challenges are the combination of time (the trip each way would take ~ 1 hr 45 min taking public tranist vs. 45 min driving), timing (the trains to/from SF on the weekends only run every hour) and making the trip work for my daughter (the ride there would probably be fine but the ride back could be a nightmare if she is melting down). If it was just me and my daughter, I'd probably risk taking public transit on principle (and risk a rough trip), but I don't feel super comfortable subjecting my wife to the potential ordeal.

We're going with 2 other friends so we can all carpool together (and they would drive anyway so overall we're not adding mileage that would be driven anyways). But I still wish I could figure out a better way to balance all of this and cut this car trip out. We'll see...

http://transformca.org/blog/days-1-5-cut-my-car-mileage-half