Press release from Land of Sky:
How do you get groceries, go to work, or travel between towns in Western NC? Here’s guess, you drive a car. Our transportation system is designed to promote the use of literally the least efficient and out-of-scale means of moving people from place to place. So, we get it, but during the Strive Beyond Drive, we’re showing you a better way. All May, Strive Beyond promotes better transportation answers: pedal, walk, bus, or carpool to work, errands, or everyday moments in life. To support those options, Strive Beyond (formerly Strive Not To Drive) offers events throughout Western NC that encourage, inform and nurture transportation beyond the car.
Why though? Driving is so cheap and harmless, right? Nope. The average household spends over $8000 a year keeping their car rolling. And 40,327 Americans died from vehicle collisions in 2018, while 4.5 million were seriously injured. Not to mention, as we each spend nearly 300 hours a year driving, vehicular exhaust is now the number one point-source contributor to climate-altering greenhouse gasses. And finally, just in terms of accomplishing the task of moving people around, driving, compared to walking, biking, bus, or streetcar, is the worst functioning option, moving only 4,400 people/hour on a typical road, versus 17,600,14,400, 52,800, or 66,000 respectively for the other modes.
Now consider this. It wasn’t more than 100 years ago that we saw the change from horse carriages to cars. Asheville had a robust streetcar network but traded it for personal transportation. We’ve changed trading paths into stagecoach roads into 6-lane interstates. Transportation changes and those changes shape way we live and the communities we form. Strive Beyond believes that we connect more, enjoy more, and live more when we shift toward transportation that is active and shared, instead of singular and self-serving. Move forward with us.
Here are the highlights of the 2019 Strive Beyond Drive:
All May Long / Everywhere: Strive Challenge
Let’s add your miles to the Strive Challenge. Commute, run errands or just move through your town through different modes and be entered to WIN A Bike just by joining the challenge. You can add your miles and watch them accrue as you go, or save them up and add them all at once by June 1.
Sign up at http://www.strivebeyond.org/challengeWAYNESVILLE EVENT:
May 11, 3-8pm: Open Streets @ Folkmoot
Waynesville’s first Open Streets invites you to Brook Street at Folkmoot USA (112 Virginia Ave.) for walking, biking and super-fun activities of all kinds. This car-free event turns the street into your playground for the day, with games, live music, 4-square, yoga, anything-that-rolls-races, and room to move!Bike Skills Rodeo (3-5pm) with Bike Giveaway Raffles + Free Helmets (rain or shine)
Folkmoots Market (5-8pm) with food and brews available
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/614763038994127/ASHEVILLE EVENTS:
May 13, 3-6pm: Ride For Reading
Ride For Reading, presented by Asheville on Bikes and Strive Beyond, links the physical wellness of bike riding and the mental development of early reading. It’s one-part kids book drive, benefiting Asheville Primary School and one part bike-powered delivery ride. Ride For Reading is a national campaign and this is Asheville’s inaugural ride.DONATE CHILDREN BOOKS TODAY
Now through Monday, May 13 bring new and used early reading books to New Belgium Brewing’s Liquid Center. The drop box is just inside the main doors, on the left. Asheville Primary School students are ages 3-6DELIVERY RIDE – MAY 13, 3PM
Bring your bike with cargo-carrying capacity to New Belgium for a 3-mile round trip ride to Asheville Primary School to deliver the books. We’ll return to the Liquid Center where riders can socialize during beverage time.
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/594910677658327/May 15, 6:45pm: Ride of Silence
Wear white in memory of those who ride with us no more. Ride of Silence, hosted by Blue Ridge Bicycle Club & Asheville on Bikes, is a somber remembrance of those who went before us as we ride and work together to secure safe streets for future cyclists and pedestrians. Meet at at 6:45 pm at Pack Square Park (70 Court Plaza) ride at 7 pm. Parking available at 35 Woodfin St., 2 blocks north of Pack Square.
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1191732227661492/May 17, 12pm: Stroll Outta Work
Join a North Carolina Room Librarian for this lunch and learn style stroll around downtown Asheville. Bring your portable lunch and join other working folks for a breath of fresh air and what’s sure to be an informative tour of several blocks of downtown Asheville with an emphasis on transportation in Buncombe County over the past two centuries.
Space is limited. Please register via the library calendar, in the NC Room at Pack Library, or call 828/250-4740.May 17, 5pm: Roll Outta Work
Roll out like it’s Friday and you’re free to ride your city. Gather at Pack Square (70 Court Plaza), downtown at 5pm for a 5:30pm ride that ends at New Belgium Brewing for a Strive Week kick-off party. Or head straight to NBB for The Bus Load festivities, starting at 6:30pm. Hosted by Strive Asheville, Asheville on Bikes, and New Belgium Brewing
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/584647348680296/May 17, 6:30pm: The Bus Load
Test your Strive life skills on an AVLCX-designed beginner bike course with a bus-load challenge, featuring an ART Zero-Emissions Electric Bus. Prizes, Brews, Bikes, and a Bus. That’s a good time.
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/318065865537267/HENDERSONVILLE EVENTS:
May 19, 2-5pm: 7th Ave. Open Streets
Hendersonville’s first Open Streets invites you to 7th Ave. for walking, biking and super-fun activities of all kinds. This car-free event turns the street into your playground for the day, with games, music, exercises, and room to move!Get there: Take the Mud Creek or Oklawaha Greenways to Sullivan Park and enjoy a temporary bike lane to 7th Ave on Ashe St. Or park and walk at St. James Church.
Info: 7thAve.StriveBeyond.orgMay 22, 1pm: 3rd Ave Walk Audit
Simply the presence of a sidewalk doesn’t mean that a street is welcoming to people of varying ages and capabilities. With a senior nutrition center, a library, doctors’ offices, and multi-family housing on 3rd Ave., it will take a team of observers seeing the street from different perspectives to identify areas of needed improvement. Meet at Sammy Williams Center to walk along 3rd Ave to identify those improvements, and help make Hendersonville a more walkable and livable place for all ages and abilities.
RSVP: 3rdAve.strivebeyond.orgMay 24, 1130am-1:30pm: Aging and Living Beyond the Car
Part of Land of Sky Regional Council’s COGworks lunch-and-learn series, this talk considers the challenges facing our region’s ballooning aging community as a transportation system geared toward personal vehicle use breaks down. What options are there now and what could be developed for our older citizens who lose connection as age and fixed retirement incomes prevent them from driving?Topics:
Demographic Analysis: How many people in our region are aging past practical use of a car, now and in the future if trends hold.
Findings of recent Henderson County Aging Transportation Assessment Survey
Transportation Equity: What is the municipal obligation?
Future Thinking: Beyond current options, what can we work toward?Speakers:
Lisa Reigel (AARP Advocacy Manager and former Director of Bike/Walk NC)
Ali Climo (Coordinator, Buncombe County Aging Plan Consultant)
LeeAnne Tucker and Ritchie Rozzelle (LOSRC)
Cost: $20, which includes a catered lunch
RSVP Required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aging-and-living-beyond-the-car-tickets-60468862997May 31, 3-5pm: Strive Beyond Summit
This year’s Strive Beyond Summit, featuring Beth Osborne of Transportation for America, imagines Western North Carolina 40 years into the future. Through transportation and land-use planning, 2060 WNC has developed more walkable and bikeable places, addressed climate change, and grown our economy by leapfrogging into better transportation options. The summit answers the question: What do we strive for, starting now, to reach this ideal future?Info and RSVP: http://www.strivebeyond.org/strive-beyond-summit
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