100 mile challenge

We're trying something brave around here. For the month of September, we're going to try to drive fewer than 100 miles on the minivan. Instead of driving, we'll use our feet, bikes, transit, and carpool arrangements.

There are a few important factors to this challenge. School starts next week, and the drop-off & pick-up alone could rack up over 30 miles in the car, so hopefully we can manage to get to and from kindergarten (and 2nd grade) without help from the "tour bus." Greater challenge will be the random errands that I run, often combined with a drive to school, which will now need to be combined into a single-route loop with careful planning for cargo space. The added time to do all of our outings will be interesting to coordinate with the routine I hope to offer Obi-3, so I'm not sure how naps, feeding, and general activities will work for him. I will have to plan well, as we have several commitments that are over 15 miles round-trip, and we'll need the van for people and stuff in those outings. Then, there's our church services, which have moved locations to quite a trek from our house. I'm not sure that Obi-1 will be able to pull it off on his own bike.

Yes, I said on his own bike. The majority of our biking, to and from school, soccer, dance, and etc. will require both older boys to ride their own bike. As we rode home from our first outing yesterday morning, I realized that I didn't even know how to pedal a two-wheeler when I was 5 years-old, much less had to ride in the street safely. Obi-2 is doing great, though, and following the excellent example of his older brother in learning all the safety factors of a bike commute. Thankfully, we also live in the "bike friendliest" city, making it a little easier to ride.

One hundred miles seems like a lot, but I'm painfully aware of how much I use my van, and it's going to be a stretch to cut it down to this limit. I take encouragement from friends who have completely given up their cars, and I'm learning from their lifestyles of efficiency and limits. While none have three young children and the variety of activities we take on, they do have work, childcare, and other commitments that give me a good example. I'm hoping that their insight will help me modify not just this month, but general habits for our family transportation.

And yes, I get the irony - we drove over 4,500 miles in the month of July, and now I'm looking to go fewer than 100 in a month. That was a road trip, and this is life!

Still, I'm not overly confident that we can make this work. I'm concerned about weather cooperating. It won't take too many days like yesterday, where it rained all through our bike trip and morning meetings, to discourage us all. I'm also curious to see if we can actually get up, fed, dressed, collected, and out the door each morning in time for school, anyway. Add to that challenge the extra time for riding and locking up bikes, and we just might need an extra dose of discipline and grace around here! All things pretty much have to work really well in order for us to reach our goal, but at this early stage, we're all on board.

Anyway, cheer me on, or laugh from afar if you like. The 100-mile challenge is on.