A Streetcar Named Seattle

Living in Seattle often lends itself to walking from one place to another for daily life. After all, in the days before widespread use of cars and buses, residents got around just fine through a variety other means. They usually walked to the store, home and work. Additionally they took the street car from the extreme north of the city to its very south. Boat travel was also a must when needing to get from one of the islands to the Seattle Isthmus or navigating across the lakes.


 



These days, you can still navigate a lot of neighborhoods via walking, and Seattle is pursuing a revitalization of the street car in the South Lake Union, Capitol Hill and North Seattle neighborhoods.



 However, most people drive their cars to work and those who cannot tend to ride the bus. As a result, you have a lot of congestion on a few main arteries: Interstate 5, Interstate 90 and WA-99 (Aurora).
Aurora might be one the ugliest stretches of road in the entire city. You can almost feel the automobile's growing pains since its very invention along this stretch of tarmac.










 For those of us without daily access to a car, we usually take the bus to get to work. I ride 20 minutes north and south each day to reach the community college where I teach. Most of the time, it's not so bad. I swipe my ORCA Card, a prepaid plastic card with advanced electronics embedded, to pay my fair. For those without one (a minority for locals) they can purchase them online or at transit centers where they can put funds on the card or purchase a monthly pass. This monthly pass proves a better option for heavy users.












I find this daily habit fairly painless. But recently I have made the trip to work in my girlfriend's car, when she dropped me off. I will certainly and readily admit that a car ride is a more pleasant and comfortable experience. Sometimes on the bus you'll hear crying children, loud teenagers and weird conversations. The waft of weed might even drift your way. Also, I am prone to motion sensitivity. For many the opportunity to work on the bus would be welcomed, but if I read while moving I get nauseous.

I don't really want to ride a car every day to work, and, quite frankly, I would like to see most people either live near enough to their work to walk or use public transit. However, please, OH PLEASE, let's get away from the bus mentality and return to streetcars. The modern models are incredibly smooth. I believe I could actually work on them. We could even make them more comfortable if there were the political will and public financing available. I'm ready to spend my life advocating for such a transition, and I'm glad Mayor McGinn has made streetcars and rail transit a main priority.

I have thought about biking, and I may still purchase a bike one day and give it a go. My main contention, Seattle has hills galore. BUT, they have many bike trails for commuting throughout the city.


Maybe I'll get myself motivated to make the leap towards bikes. They say you never forget how to ride one...

Be on the lookout for a post from Kirsten about how she sometimes gets around Seattle, in a car. But... it's not what you think!

-Jimmy

Ditching the Car for a Reusable Bag

I’ve lived in Washington State for the better part of my life, moving from the frozen tundra of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to beautiful Bainbridge Island at the tender age of 14.  I was so excited to live anywhere that didn’t have snow, and gladly traded it for the grey days of Seattle.  From there, I went on to Washington State University and, after graduation, to San Francisco.  It wasn’t long before I heard the Pacific Northwest calling my name and returned home to Seattle.

Until this time, I had been reliant on a vehicle.  You can’t get around a secluded island or ice covered town with ease by walking.  I even found myself relying on it in SF – crazy because BART is such a great public transit system.  My car, nicknamed “Lulu the Malibu”, had been with me through the college years and my brief stint in California.  It was shortly after my move home that I sold her.  I had money in my pocket and I felt liberated!  That is, until I realized that I had sold my car and was living back home on Bainbridge Island.  I was living a repeat of high school.

The only logical remedy to this problem was to move into the big city.  Since moving to Seattle, I have lived in both the Capitol Hill and Queen Anne areas.  Each place has provided me with close proximity to grocery stores, gyms, parks, bus routes, and nightlife.

Like Jimmy, the biggest changes for me all revolve around grocery shopping.  I routinely forget those re-useable bags in my kitchen drawers and end up paying for the paper bags that break half way home.  On the days I do remember them, I end up buying the heavy stuff – milk, flour, spaghetti squash – the stuff I seem to live without on regular weeks but find oh-so-necessary when I have the proper carrying vessels.  Either way, walking home from the store ends up being a bit of a battle. A battle I plan to win one day.

In the next few weeks, I’ll let you in on how I made the switch to a walkable lifestyle and how I’m still working on that transition. 

From The Emerald Coast to The Emerald City

Time spent in your car can be absolute hell on wheels or floating bliss, depending upon the traffic. The worst jam I ever experienced came on a road trip with my mom to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. For miles and miles we crawled into the tourist mecca, lined with pancake houses, knick knack huts and ski chalets.

Most people expect heavy traffic when on vacation. However, if everyone where you live is obliged to drive everywhere all the time in your hometown, the resulting congestion can seem analogous to  moving parking lots filled with out-of-townees. In my hometown of Crestview, Florida and college town of Tallahassee, Florida, I had to drive everywhere. When I did choose to walk, the distances to the grocery stores and other daily destinations were often too far. In Florida, the humidity breeds discontent throughout most of the year.

After learning about the Congress For The New Urbanism, and their advocacy of walkable living, I began to research places I might live that embraced car-free lifestyles. In the past I had visited some model communities that strive towards walkability, such as Seaside, but I found them gentrified and white-washed.

In addition to living a walkable life, I wanted to gain a new perspective, in a new culture. I felt the Pacific Northwest offered walkability (with great transit systems), better politics and moderate weather. Additionally, Seattle Pacific University offered a swell MBA program, for which I'd been searching.

Since moving to Seattle, I've taken residence in both the Wallingford and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods. Before I'd only lived in "neighborhoods," housing developments separated from any retail or nightlife nearby.

Now, instead of having to spend money on gas, which pollutes the air, I can walk to most of whatever I need in life. When I can't, I take the bus to whatever I need, which is affordable and more friendly to the environment. Additionally, I get to see a lot of new and ongoing sights daily. The cats in the neighborhood greet me on my way to work and I get some morning exercise walking up a hill every morning.

One of the biggest changes has been a lack of the same chains I was used to back home: Cracker Barrel, Chili's, Longhorn, Publix, Wal-Mart (the list goes on forever). However, I don't miss them all that much because the quality of the food and products in my local retail matches or exceeds that of big box stores and national chains. Also, I've had to change from buying tons of groceries at once to a few items every day or two (whatever I can carry in my canvas bags). Again, not a headache, because I usually don't know what I want more than two days out anyhow.

In the coming weeks you'll hear more of my tales making the switch to a walkable life, but for now, I hope this serves as a brief overview. Please stay tuned in the next few days for Kirsten's post on her transformation to walkable living as well. After that we'll be covering how to get around in Seattle by walking and using public transit.

-Jimmy

These Boots Are Made For Walking

Welcome to Walkable Living In Seattle! This blog will feature a variety of tips and stories about living in neighborhoods around Seattle that lend themselves to navigation via walking.

For those of you already living a sustainable lifestyle, this site will provide you with new ways to save time and money by incorporating more walking and less car-driving in your community. Also, for those of you thinking about moving to a community where you can walk to everything you need, we will relate our experiences of making that transition.

We two authors have lived in towns that necessitated car travel to reach any destination. We realize that the current geography of most towns in America shuns walking or biking to get to work or the grocery store. However, Seattle's neighborhoods (such as Wallingford, Queen Anne, Ballard and Phiney Ridge) embrace and encourage a healthy and walkable culture.

 While walking may not always be in the cards if you need to get from one end of town to the other, alternative means of transit permeate the Emerald City. In this blog we will also incorporate tactics and tricks for navigating public transit, car shares, and other ways of getting around.

Finally, we want to make this a fun place where we share relevant current events on walking and sustainable living, including humorous anecdotes and zany stats. So, please join us each week as we enlighten your mind and whisk you off your feet....and into your neighborhoods!