Commuter Profile
Name: Calep Howard
Lives in: Overland Park, KS
Works in: Downtown Kansas City
Mode of transportation: bicycle, bus, carpool
Everyone who lives in the suburbs drives everywhere, right? Think again. Calep Howard, Web director for a Kansas City-based company, is part of a small group of commuters who have challenged themselves — and others — to take small steps to reduce their driving. Earlier this year they formed a grassroots project called Ride Fridays that invites people to come up with creative ways to replace driving with another mode of transportation at least once a week. That creativity might come out for the work commute, errands, shopping or recreation, and doesn’t have to focus on one particular mode of transportation. (Calep, for example, rides his bike, takes the bus and occasionally carpools).
The Ride Fridays group hosts a Web site and blog where commuters can share their experiences. Below is a brief interview with Calep.
Describe your group’s motivation for doing the Ride Fridays project.
Our goal was to bring attention to the little things people can do to use their cars less. Little things can include riding your bike or walking to the supermarket, riding the bus just one or two days a week, or finding friends and neighbors to join you in a carpool. These little changes can make a big difference for the environment and your bank account. We launched the Web site to give us an outlet to publish our ideas and experiences and hopefully make options other than cars more accessible.
For you, what are the greatest benefits of what you’re doing?
Personally I’m saving money and feeling better. I don’t buy gas as often and I found with a little bit of planning I can ride my bike to most of my errand destinations. While a lot of the savings come from eliminating my daily commute a couple of times a week I also just feel better by finding a way to introduce some physical activity into my otherwise sedentary lifestyle.
What have been the greatest challenges?
The greatest challenge is staying motivated to get on the bus, ride the bike, or make the carpool happen. A rainy morning can make it tough to convince yourself to go to the park-and-ride when you could just go ahead and drive to the office. Another big challenge is getting additional people involved because everyone’s schedules are so hectic. Even if you live near a co-worker, just trying to get schedules synchronized enough to make a carpool work is a big challenge.
What has been the most surprising thing you’ve noticed since Ride Fridays started?
The most surprising part has been how easy it has been to take the bus. The JO makes all their schedules available online and there’s a park-and-ride lot near my supermarket so it was very easy to get the information I needed to get started and get to the bus. And the ability to put my bike on the front of the bus has been a bonus that allows me to be completely car free when I ride to the park-and-ride.
Has Ride Fridays had any effect on your family life? Anything you’d like to share?
The whole family is now starting to think about how we get places. The other night one of the kids and I pedaled up to the ATM instead of taking the car, one of the boys has a renewed interest in riding his bicycle instead of driving his car around town, and I’m actually working the bike into my regular activities rather than making riding the bike solely an exercise activity. And once you get used to saving money it is a great incentive to save even more!
What advice do you offer for other working adults who would like to reduce their solo driving but don’t know where to start?
We call our initiative Ride Fridays because we wanted to start small and see what we could do. We know it isn’t realistic to tell people sell their cars and walk, bike, and take the bus everywhere so we wanted to raise awareness of how easy it can be to make little changes. Give Friday — or any other day of the week that works for you — a try. Try the bus, try a carpool — try something new and see how it works. If it doesn’t work, try something else. There are lots of resources available from MARC, your local bus company, and possibly your employer. Talk to your neighbors and find out where they’re going. Contact me through the Ride Fridays Web site and we can talk about how we got started.