| 2009 Car-Free Week Challenge |
| | brucew  |
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| Lifetime: 19,978 mi
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| Member No. 14379 |
| Member since: May 2006 |
| Home: Rochester, NY  |
| Trek Portland
Road bike |
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| Rochester Bicycling Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 11:12:30 AM |
| viewed 506 times |
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This challenge is based on the 2008 Car-Free Week Challenge by Raleighdon.
The Car-Free Week Challenge is possibly the toughest in all of BikeJournal Land.
What makes it tough is not the cycling aspect, but rather, forcing yourself to go against societal norms, your own habits, and the general desire for creature comforts, and do without a car for a whole week.
Changing habits is harder than racking up miles, days or altitude.
This challenge is more about awareness than ranking. Everyone with one week or more is a winner. If you only think about reducing your dependence on cars, the challenge has served its purpose. But this is BikeJournal, so there will be a rankings table.
You may think that people (like me) who don't own a car have it easy in this challenge. That would be wrong. Last year I managed only 37 weeks (71%) without riding in a car. And I regularly had to refuse rides and work hard against the knee-jerk reaction of saying "Okay" when someone offered to pick me up.
Need help? Visit the Living Car-Free Forum.
I've refined the rules a bit this year to make it clear what counts for the purposes of this challenge.
In short, a week is a row across the calendar (not a "clump" of seven days), and a car is any personal motorized transport.
See post #1 for the complete list of this year's rules and exceptions.
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thread edited on 1/1/2009 at 7:12:05 PM
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| | brucew |
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| Lifetime: 19,978 mi
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| Member No. 14379 |
| Member since: May 2006 |
| Home: Rochester, NY |
| Trek Portland
Road bike |
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| Rochester Bicycling Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 11:15:40 AM |
| post #1 viewed 310 times |
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Official Rules of the 2009 Car-Free Week Challenge
The purpose of the thread is to challenge yourself to go a full week without driving or riding in a car.
What is a week?
A week is a calendar week, not any old arbitrary seven-day period. For purposes of this challenge, I recommend using a Monday through Sunday week so that a weekend car trip kills only one week for you, not two.
Short weeks/Free days
The first week and the last week of the year are short weeks. Participants are given the days in the previous/next year free and we count only the days in 2009. This accounts for the 53-week year used in the ranking. Car-free on Jan 1–4? Great! There's your first week!
Monday Holiday Rule: Mondays that are part of a three-day holiday weekend count with the weekend. This way a driving holiday weekend will kill only one week.
What is a car or car-equivalent?
Any motorized vehicle (gas, diesel, electric) seating 15 or fewer passengers is a car or car-equivalent. This includes (but is not limited to) cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, taxis, limos, motorcycles, scooters, mopeds, electric or electric-assist bicycles, snowmobiles, aircraft, boats and jet-skis.
Exceptions- Motorized wheelchairs with doctor's prescription.
- Ambulances or medical motor services
- 15-passenger vans where a route or schedule and other passengers are involved. Example: Church vans and airport shuttles do not count against you if it's not a special trip made just for you.
- Anything human-powered (pedicabs, gondolas) or animal-powered (horse-drawn carriages, dogsleds).
- Escalators, elevators, moving walkways, ski lifts and the like are all excepted.
What if I drive for work?
If you drive a vehicle making regular deliveries or a public transit vehicle (15 or more passenger capacity), this does not count against you. Driving in a company vehicle or driving your own vehicle for work for purposes other than regular deliveries does count against you. (Examples: UPS drivers are exempted. The boss sending you out for something, or driving to inspections, suppliers or work sites counts against you. Taxis are cars, so taxi drivers aren't car-free at work.)
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post edited on 1/1/2009 at 6:48:30 PM
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| | mrprudhom  |
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| Lifetime: 7,157 mi
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| Member No. 3940 |
| Member since: Dec 2004 |
| Home: Racine, WI |
| GT Nomad
700c Hybrid bike |
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| KR Bike Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 1:15:00 PM |
| post #2 viewed 293 times |
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Wow. This could be tough. I work 20 miles from home, so that would be a record distance in one week without counting church on Sunday, and any miscellaneous trips. Because of the time involved, I would have to find a week where I didn't have any post-work meetings. Hmmmm.
I could take the easy way out, and take a week of vacation and be a couch potato, but that wouldn't be in the right spirit now, would it.
I looked at the calendar for a mid-week holiday, and even July 4th doesn't cooperate. Thanksgiving week - three work days - would be an option, but my daughter invites us to Milwaukee for dinner.
It does sound like a challenge. I hope it is one I am up too.
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| | BadgerLand |
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| Lifetime: 34,867 mi
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| Member No. 784 |
| Member since: Aug 2003 |
| Home: Shawnee, KS |
| Rivendell Atlantis
Touring Road bike |
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| posted
1/1/2009
at 1:34:07 PM |
| post #3 viewed 290 times |
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Really tough for me since I drive for a living....  I did commute 215 days last year however; if I keep that up I will be over 1000 by the end of the year.
Badger
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| | DebbieBikes |
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| Lifetime: 9,878 mi
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| Member No. 16797 |
| Member since: Aug 2006 |
| Home: Salem, OR |
| Fuji
Road bike |
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| Salem Bicycle Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 2:24:57 PM |
| post #4 viewed 288 times |
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Hi brucew, Put me down for 10 weeks, please!
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| | Howard  |
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| Lifetime: 41,739 mi
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| Member No. 17262 |
| Member since: Sep 2006 |
| Home: Fort Collins, CO |
| Scattante CFR Elite
Road bike |
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| Club Hypoxia  |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 3:44:49 PM |
| post #5 viewed 276 times |
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Wow, brucew, I didn't realize that when I picked you up in Denver in August to drive you to the start of our Mt. Evans bike climb (14,264 ft.) that I was killing a car-free week for you. Had I known, I would have let you ride your bike to the start instead. 
You can put me down for ZERO weeks. That way if I get one it'll be monumental.
And thanks for exempting UPS drivers. 
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| | maschwab |
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| Lifetime: 13,012 mi
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| Member No. 3718 |
| Member since: Nov 2004 |
| Home: Springfield, IL |
| Rans V2 Formulae 26HD xtracycle.com
LWB Recumbent bike |
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| Springfield (IL) Bicycle Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 4:43:38 PM |
| post #6 viewed 271 times |
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Due to a large number of holidays on Monday, a 3 day weekend trip leaving after work would kill 2 weeks. How about a Friday 5pm to Friday 5pm schedule?
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| | brucew |
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| Lifetime: 19,978 mi
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| Member No. 14379 |
| Member since: May 2006 |
| Home: Rochester, NY |
| Trek Portland
Road bike |
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| Rochester Bicycling Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 6:50:21 PM |
| post #7 viewed 261 times |
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Wow, brucew, I didn't realize that when I picked you up in Denver in August to drive you to the start of our Mt. Evans bike climb (14,264 ft.) that I was killing a car-free week for you. Had I known, I would have let you ride your bike to the start instead. -- posted by Howard
Yeah, that killed one week and then the ride from Loveland back to Denver with DBB killed a second.
You'll note that this year's Colorado trip begins and ends in Amtrak Checked-Baggage stations. Of course, I'll be riding from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs.
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| | brucew |
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| Lifetime: 19,978 mi
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| Member No. 14379 |
| Member since: May 2006 |
| Home: Rochester, NY |
| Trek Portland
Road bike |
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| Rochester Bicycling Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 6:52:31 PM |
| post #8 viewed 260 times |
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Due to a large number of holidays on Monday, a 3 day weekend trip leaving after work would kill 2 weeks. How about a Friday 5pm to Friday 5pm schedule?-- posted by maschwab
How about instead, I add a free day for the Monday holidays? I know where you're going, but a Friday to Thursday week is just not normal, you know?
Edit: Made the change to the rules. See the new Monday Holiday Rule. Thanks for pointing this out.
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post edited on 1/1/2009 at 6:49:37 PM
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| | brucew |
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| Lifetime: 19,978 mi
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| Member No. 14379 |
| Member since: May 2006 |
| Home: Rochester, NY |
| Trek Portland
Road bike |
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| Rochester Bicycling Club |
| posted
1/1/2009
at 6:53:32 PM |
| post #9 viewed 258 times |
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Really tough for me since I drive for a living.... I did commute 215 days last year however; if I keep that up I will be over 1000 by the end of the year. -- posted by BadgerLand
Tell me about it. Maybe we can make it work.
Edit: And I don't recall seeing you in last year's Commuter Cycling Century. Are you joining that this year?
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post edited on 1/1/2009 at 6:45:48 PM
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Count me in for 26 weeks. I am car-less, but every two weeks my parents take me out to lunch.
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