Friday Roundtable: Week Without Driving

The 5th annual Week Without Driving is next week, from September 29 to October 5. Started by Seattle-based disability advocate Anna Zivarts in 2021, Week Without Driving has since grown to national level. Last year, local events were organized by 520 groups in all 50 states.

On the surface, the goal of the campaign sounds simple: do not drive for one week. Week Without Driving organizers America Walks and Disability Rights Washington intend for the challenge to provide an opportunity for decision makers and individuals to experience and empathize with the experiences of nondrivers. Unlike other events that encourage non-driving transportation, the focus of Week Without Driving is on nondrivers. In a recent Streetsblog USA article, Zivarts says:

Week Without Driving Logo

Week Without Driving comes from our campaign to have those in charge of our transportation networks and investment priorities understand the needs of nondrivers in their communities - in particular involuntary nondrivers who can't drive or can't afford to drive. This includes everyone from youth too young to drive, to people whose anxiety makes driving unsafe or really uncomfortable, to folks like my parents who are aging out of driving and can only drive in certain conditions. It includes people like me who can't drive because of vision disabilities, others with chronic health, mobility, autism, epilepsy and other disabilities, people with suspended licenses or without licenses, without access to a working vehicle, who can't afford gas, who have to share a vehicle they can't reliably use to get where they want to go.

Altogether, nondrivers are about one-third of the population - and we all share the need to be able to get places but the inability to do so by grabbing the keys and going. The Week Without Driving is about our needs and imagining communities - urban and rural and everything in between, that could work better for us.

Join me, and thousands of others, by not driving next week. To get more involved, check out one of the many events in Washington State next week.

This is an open thread.