Edwardsville Drivers Challenged To Try 'Week Without Driving'

EDWARDSVILLE - A new challenge discussed at this week’s Edwardsville City Council meeting raises a question for the city’s drivers: could you go a week without driving anywhere?

To give local commuters a firsthand look at the challenges faced every day by those who can’t drive (or choose not to), the city’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) is encouraging residents to participate in the “Week Without Driving Challenge” from Monday, Sept. 30 to Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024.

The local effort is inspired by a similar national movement led by America Walks, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes safer, more walkable communities. BPAC member Aaron Newcom shared more about the challenge and its purpose at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

“This is part of a national movement that was started a few years ago to bring attention to the challenges, the opportunities, and the realities that millions of Americans face every day by being non-drivers,” Newcom said.

Newcom cited U.S. Department of Transportation statistics showing about 30% of U.S. residents don’t drive, as well as one in every three Illinois residents. He added this includes those with disabilities, the elderly, children, and those for whom owning and maintaining a car is a financial impossibility.

“Edwardsville is a beautiful city with an incredible assortment of amenities,and we have a lot of people that walk or bike recreationally,” Newcom said, mentioning the Madison County Transit (MCT) bike trail system. “But we also have a lot of traffic and a lot of parking lots, which shows that for most people, driving is the norm … we can very easily slip into the mindset that everyone drives here, and that biking or walking is only for recreation, but that’s simply not true.

“How can we as a community better understand the experience of being a non-driver day-to-day? I would argue that we simply can’t begin to understand until we’ve tried it ourselves - that’s why the BPAC is encouraging local leaders, staff, and residents to try an experiment: starting on Monday, Sept. 30, we’re encouraging everyone to not drive themselves for a whole week.”

Newcom then clarified the rules of the challenge, which at its most basic, is to not drive yourself in a car for one week. That could mean walking, riding a bike, taking the bus, or being a passenger in someone else’s car, including using rideshare services like Uber and Lyft. He encouraged residents to think of the costs involved with each method and consider “whether that would be a long-term solution if you actually couldn’t drive.”

“Having to drive during the challenge does not signify failure - the point is to consider how someone without that option to drive would have coped, and what choices they would’ve had to make,” he said. “This isn’t the kind of challenge where we all do something difficult, pat ourselves on the back, and then we go back to the way things were - the goal here is to better understand the lived experience of potentially one-third of Edwardsville’s residents to make more informed decisions going forward and to see our city in a new light

He concluded by adding he expects residents will “find some unexpected joys from not relying on our cars so much,” potentially encouraging them to trade some of their currently driven routes for alternate methods of transportation.

Mayor Art Risavy was the first to sign the pledge at Tuesday’s meeting, with several aldermen and city officials also agreeing to take the pledge.

A “pledge form” to signify your participation in the “Week Without Driving” challenge is available on the City of Edwardsville website. Participation is completely voluntary and no personally identifiable information is made public, though the BPAC does plan to report the number of people who took the pledge.

To find out more about the BPAC, its mission, and activities like the Bike Bus, Bike & Hike, and Slow Down Town campaign, see their page on the City of Edwardsville website.

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