Transportation and mobility barriers can restrict people and families from accessing the fresh food they need. Earlier this month, Just Harvest Director of Community Food Access, Dawn Marie, took the pledge and participated in the Week Without Driving PGH. The movement began in 2021 by Anna Zivarts at Disability Rights Washington and is now led nationwide by America Walks and the National Campaign for Transit Justice. Locally, it is led by Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Access Mob Pittsburgh, BikePGH and AARP Pittsburgh from September 30th to October 6th, 2024.
30% of people in Allegheny County do not drive. Take on the challenge and learn firsthand why we are calling on improvements for public transportation in Pittsburgh. Take the pledge to spend a week without driving, reflect, and share your story to take action. Check out other local voices sharing their Week Without Driving stories here.
Just Harvest’s Director of Community Food Access, Dawn Marie Clepper Hall’s, Week Without Driving:
What was the biggest challenge or barrier you faced during the week without driving?
“Definitely the lack of safe infrastructure around bus stops. I lived in Squirrel Hill without a car for about a year a few years ago, and that was really easy for me because I had a bus stop right by my apartment. Most of the bussing I needed to do from where I live now involved walking down a windy hill with lots of traffic and no sidewalks, then crossing a major roadway to get to a bus stop that’s just a little cement slab surrounded by unmown grass and litter.
Honestly, at one point I kind of cheated and had my wife pick me up because I didn’t feel safe walking back up that hill after dark in the rain, but if you don’t have a car and you’re coming home from work late or in the winter, you’d just have to do it anyway and hope for the best” (Clepper Hall).
What surprised you during your week without driving?
“I kind of already knew this from my year without a car, but I forgot how much more aware of everything you have to be. For example, on Thursday, I forgot my keys in my office. If I’d been driving, I’d have…well, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the parking lot, so I couldn’t have forgotten them at all. Instead, I was halfway home before I realized what I’d done, and going back for them was a pain.
The same thing is true with trips to the grocery store – it’s a much bigger deal to forget you need to add something to your shopping list if you’ll have to take a bus – or two – each way to get it later instead of just stopping in your car on your way home from work.
I also forgot how much carrying everything around with you can be a challenge, which I remembered pretty quickly when I bought 6 lbs of apples and some concord grapes at the Market Square market and then walked back to our office on the SouthSide with them” (Clepper Hall).
Why is public transportation important for food access?
“One in two Pittsburghers live in a neighborhood without immediate access to a grocery store, one in five Pittsburgh households don’t own a vehicle, and there’s a lot of overlap between those groups.
Even when I just look at my own neighborhood, the nearest grocery store is a 7 minute drive, or 14 minutes by bike, 18 minutes on the bus, or a 55 minute walk along the same sidewalk-free busy roads and hills I mentioned before. How do you make that trip without public transportation, if you can’t drive? Especially if you have a disability, or you need to take children with you? How would you buy milk, if you had to walk home for close to an hour on a hot summer day? In a lot of communities and for a lot of people, access to safe and affordable public transportation is food access” (Clepper Hall).
If you were to continue with no driving, what aspects of your life would change and how?
“I’d have to totally change my job, and I say that as someone who is kind of obsessed with their job. As the Director of Community Food Access, sometimes I need to go from our office to the West End and then Clairton and then McKeesport and then back over to Carrick, just looking at a recent day on my calendar. It’s not feasible to do the work I do without a car. I would realistically need to work at a job that was more accessible by bus and didn’t involve working in multiple communities in the way that I do now. I would also have had to take transit access into account when I decided where to live, instead of basing it on my car commute length to the office.
On a lighter note, I’d also have to go to Page for ice cream less often – it apparently takes close to 2 hours and multiple transfers from my house, and at least half an hour of that time is walking. That was sad news to me on Wednesday night” (Clepper Hall).
Why is it important for everyone to experience a week without driving?
“Honestly, it was a great experience! Even the parts that sucked were important, at least to me, because I think it’s always important to try to see how your neighbors might be experiencing the world differently than you are. I feel like that’s part of being in a society, to me – to advocate for the community you live in and not just your own personal needs. Also, your community’s needs can become your needs so easily – if you were to break your arm or something and not be able to drive for a while, you need to know you can get to the grocery store and to the doctor and to your job, so you should care about that access before you need it.
Some of this week without driving was actually a lot of fun, too – I had forgotten how much I like riding the bus, and how much I like walking across the Smithfield Street Bridge instead of transferring to a second bus from downtown to the south side. I love reading a book on my commute instead of worrying about how everyone else on the parkway is driving. I really love not having to look for parking spaces. I think I might start taking the bus to the office on days when I know I don’t have to go anywhere else from there, or to things where I know the parking is going to cost more than the bus” (Clepper Hall).
Did you participate in the week without driving? Share your experience on social media with #weekwithoutdriving and tag us! We want to hear how this week affected you – and your ability to reach the resources you need to thrive. If you didn’t get the chance to participate, we encourage everyone to take their own pledge and explore alternative modes of transportation for a week.
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