Motor City
Typically, when speaking of Motor City, people are referring to Detroit. Edmonton, however, could also be described as Motor City, albeit for different reasons.
Edmonton is a city designed for automobiles. The city is a sprawling mess of pedestrian unfriendly roadways, and it can take ridiculously long amounts of time to travel by bus in Edmonton. As good as the Edmonton Transit System (ETS) is, it tends to be pretty slow.
I’m lucky enough to live downtown. While I don’t live right in the heart of the city (any more), I do live pretty close. My apartment is on the north-western edge of downtown Edmonton. While I’m not necessarily within close walking distance of certain places, I’m easily within cycling distance. I could just as easily walk to many of the places that I’d cycle to, it would just take longer.
In an effort to get in better physical shape, and also to help reduce my carbon footprint, I’m going to start cycling a lot more this summer. There are certain places that I won’t cycle, simply because they are too far away, and I’m too out of shape, but most of the places I visit on a regular basis are no more than 15 minutes from my apartment by bike.
I’m also contemplating getting a longboard, and skateboarding to a lot of places that I tend to frequent. The advantage of a longboard over a bike is that there is no worry about finding a place to lock it up, and potentially having it stolen. I can simply pick it up and carry it inside with me, whenever I leave the street. Plus, I can skateboard on the sidewalk which, at certain times of day, is a lot safer than riding my bicycle on the streets of downtown Edmonton.
People living in Old Strathcona can probably apply a lot of the same ideas in their neighbourhood. Unfortunately, because the city is designed for cars, I’m not sure that my ideas about “green transportation” are practical for most Edmontonians. I might be wrong, though. Maybe there are a lot of Edmontonians, from all areas of the city, who have traded their cars in for more environmentally friendly forms of transportation.
If you’re one of these hypothetical people, let me know. Tell me about how you get around Edmonton without the use of an automobile. Maybe it’s as simple as taking the ETS. Maybe you have an electric bicycle, so you can travel long distances, without having to pedal that entire way.
Whatever it is, if you’ve got a way of getting around Edmonton that doesn’t involve using a traditional motor vehicle, let me know. If we get the word out, maybe we can turn Motor City into a greener place.
[...] PS: For more on this topic, see my post on River City Writer. [...]
Green Transportation
14 Aug 07 at 11:31 am
I’ve never bothered to get a car, even though my parent’s have offered to give me one of theirs (they have 4 cars between the two of them, its sick). I think the main reason is living downtown and working at the University. For work its faster for me to take the train than it would be to drive anyways. Add to that the convenience of having most stores and things I would need to go to within easy walking distance and suddenly the need for a car goes away.
As an aside: I think walking to the grocery store is making me more environmentally friendly in a different way. I try to use as few plastic bags as possible. Not because I’m an earth-loving hippie, but because they are uncomfortable to carry heavy things in for any distance further than the parking-lot. Instead I bring a backpack or cloth bags. Easier to carry and easier on the environment, and all because I don’t drive.
allan
14 Aug 07 at 2:46 pm
I use cloth grocery bags most of the time, as well. I admit that I tend not to use them if I’m just running to Safeway for a carton of milk or something, but when I take my big trips to Superstore, I do use cloth bags.
They’re actually those President’s Choice Green Bags, which are made out of recycled pop bottles, so they’re doubly good! Reusable, and recycled!
Adam Snider
14 Aug 07 at 4:44 pm
hi nice post, i enjoyed it
Kaelyn
18 Aug 07 at 9:57 pm