My (Threatened) Car-Free Day Trip

Last week, to celebrate one year of getting around fine without a car, I took a day trip. It was an unusual day trip for the United States of America - it involved trains, bike paths and hiking trails instead of cars and interstates. It featured transportation modes that more and more people are using in our urbanizing nation, but that are threatened by Congress. This week, the Republican-led House of Representatives nearly voted on a transportation bill that cut off Highway Trust Fund allocations for transit and bike/ped projects. This would have eliminated a critical funding stream for active transportation projects originally authorized by President Reagan. Fortunately, the bill was so bad, and had so many people from both parties against it, that it never left committee. But Congress may try again in a few weeks.


Threatening to kill active transportation is an overtly partisan move that would reverse decades of progress toward a more sustainable transportation system. It would bring back an era we were finally moving past - one of increased automobile use, dirtier air, spreading sprawl, and reduced low-income mobility. Yes, driving a car is still the norm in our nation. But we’ve come a long way in providing and using alternatives. People are biking, walking and using transit in record numbers as they eschew suburbia and high gas prices.

My car-free day trip from Portland, Oregon to Olympia, Washington and back, was a showcase of the smart investments our federal, state and local governments have made in non-highway infrastructure. It was a leisure trip, but it used facilities that are well suited - and commonly used - for commuting, business travel, daily errands and recreation. I am very fortunate to live in a region with these travel options, but equally concerned that they are under fire.

The journey

I left home on my trusty Trek 7200 hybrid bicycle at 7am, pannier packed with water, snacks, maps and a change of clothes. I turned right onto my street, a neighborhood greenway modified in 2009 to prioritize bicycle and pedestrian safety by slowing or diverting car traffic. At the end of my street, I turned right onto the Springwater Corridor, a paved, multi-use trail that leads downtown along the Willamette River. The trail was completed in 2005 with funding from a regional natural areas bond. I proceeded over the Hawthorne Bridge, whose sidewalks were widened in 1999 to accommodate bicyclists, then biked through Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland’s famous reclamation of a mid-century freeway. I arrived at Union Station, an 1896 building with major deferred maintenance and seismic issues that are now being addressed through a grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

This was my first time bringing a bike aboard Amtrak. The woman at the ticket counter explained the straight-forward process: Get a tag from the guy at the baggage counter, get your seat assignment at the gate with everyone else, then wheel your bike down to the baggage car, where you simply hand your bike up to the attendant. Easy peasy!

Amtrak Cascades train. Photo: Cascadia Prospectus

The #500 train left promptly at 8:30am. This is the first of five daily northbound trains that run from Portland to Seattle. The 2:50pm northbound continues to Vancouver, Canada. Five trains also return southbound daily. Three continue southward to Eugene; one to California. Rail service in the Cascades corridor is funded through a partnership between Amtrak and the state highway departments of Oregon and Washington. It’s no Northeast Corridor or Europe, but it’s more trains per day than most Amtrak routes in the western U.S., and highly successful. Current plans call for two additional round-trips between Portland and Seattle, federal budget willing.

My morning train journey offered a multitude of pleasantries. The ride was smooth, thanks to recent track improvements (including concrete railroad ties), and a TALGO train set. These Spanish-made, US-assembled trains bank slightly during turns, allowing for higher speed and comfort. The view was not too shabby either, taking in 40 miles of the mighty Columbia River, followed by a patchwork of fields, forests and old railroad towns. For a brief stretch, the train was in the median of Interstate 5, where we outperformed cars and trucks struggling with nasty rain and road spray. When I wasn’t staring out the window, I was reading the newspaper, getting coffee down at the lounge car, or checking Facebook and e-mail on my phone (I could have used the train’s WiFi, had I brought a laptop).

Pulling into Olympia-Lacey station at 10:30am, I hopped off and walked quickly down to the baggage car where the attendant was waiting with my bike. This sure beats waiting for your bag at an airport baggage claim! (Cheaper too - $5 each way). I then pedaled into the rain. Two days prior, the forecast showed 60 and sunny, prompting this trip in the first place. I should know not to trust Pacific Northwest weather forecasts after six years living here.

Chehalis Western Trail. Photo: author

Olympia-Lacey station is rather isolated on the suburban fringe. But just two miles from the station via bike-lane-equipped roads is the Chehalis Western Trail. Thurston County acquired this former logging railroad from Weyerhauser in the 1990s, using a state recreation grant to develop 22 miles of paved, multi-use pathway. I headed north, woods and small lakes giving way to subdivisions and malls as I approached Interstate 5. This was a good opportunity to stop for lunch, which I found at Meconi’s Italian Subs in Lacey. I also picked up a helpful Thurston County Bike Map at Lacey City Hall. Continuing northward, I sailed over busy I-5 and Martin Way, courtesy of two impressive bike/ped overcrossings. Such bridges are among the most expensive line items when developing trails. But Thurston County and Washington State clearly found the funds.

Serenity now

Not far north, suburban sprawl gave way to green fields and quiet woods again. Cows and goats eyed me curiously, far outnumbering humans on this drizzly day. Finally, about 15 miles from the train station, I reached my prize: Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area on Puget Sound. Securing my bike and stepping into the peaceful woods, any troubles and weather-related complaining quickly faded away.

Woodard Bay NRCA. Photo: author

A one-mile trail leads to a peninsula jutting into the salty sound. The remnants of a railroad pier - once the business end of the Chehalis Western - now provide a perch for herons, cormorants and gulls. The water, likely busy with boaters in summer, was instead an undisturbed pane of glass on this February afternoon. Low tide revealed clams, barnacles, Dungeness crab remnants, and mysterious creatures spitting saltwater from beneath the sand. I suspect the latter were the region’s fabled geoducks (pronounced gooey-ducks). The rain miraculously ceased, and I took this opportunity to sit on the stony beach for about a half hour in a zen-like state.

Kudos are again due to the State of Washington, which permanently preserved this 800-acre shoreline gem in 1987. If not for the occasional Sea-Tac bound jetliner or Fort Lewis military test explosion, it was hard to believe I was in the middle of a metro region 4 million strong. I left the beach and took the long way back to my locked bike, navigating a loop trail through mature second-growth forest.

Inside time

My bike in Olympia. Photo: author

For the sake of balance, it was now time for cultural offerings. I made my way south to Olympia, the state capitol, using the generous shoulder of Boston Harbor Road. The sky darkened; rain returned. Soggy and encrusted head-to-toe with gravel applied during last month’s record blizzard, I was ready for indoor pursuits. After some brief photo ops at Capitol Lake (which pleasantly reflects the namesake domed edifice) and at Sylvester Square (the city’s New England-style town green), I headed indoors. I found some old CDs at Rainy Day Records, a store dating to the groovy 70s. Then I sampled brews and demolished a decent Cuban sandwich at Fish Tale Brew Pub. Known for their organic ales, I was a bigger fan of their non-organic amber.

Before total darkness fell, I settled up and made my way back to the train station on a succession of roads with bike lanes. Rush hour traffic and the ubiquitous snowstorm gravel stripped any enjoyment from the last leg of my ride. But I was nevertheless grateful that in the modern era, most forward-thinking transportation departments provide bike lanes along arterial roads, heeding the call for “complete streets.” This was not the case growing up in the 1980s and 90s. I reached the station at 6pm, closing a 32-mile, seven-hour loop. The return train trip provided much needed chill time, enough to recharge for my final six miles from Union Station to home. True to Szigethy luck, Portland had been dry and mild all day.

A car-free win (for now)

But weather be damned. The trip was a major success. I was able to travel 110 miles north of my house to the sylvan shores of Puget Sound and back, using a seamless network of multi-use paths, bike lanes and trains, all in a single day. Instead of white-knuckling it behind spray-spewing semis on the interstate, I sipped coffee and read the paper as fir trees whizzed by. Rather than getting leg cramps from hours in the driver's seat, I got leg cramps from biking 44 miles. I also emitted far less carbon than I would driving. Yes, driving is cheaper (if you happen to own a car), and offers greater schedule and geographic flexibility. But at $56 round rip, I found my train+bike voyage to be a great value.

Investing federal dollars in our nation’s active transportation system is a similarly great value. This is true in the most literal sense - rails and trails are almost always more cost efficient than new highways - and also true from environmental and social perspectives. However, just like new highways, active facilities require funding partnerships. Many of the facilities used on my trip - even ones funded mostly by state and local governments - could not exist without federal help. Let’s keep trains, buses, bike trails and sidewalks in our multi-modal transportation portfolio alongside cars and highways. In fact, let’s build more of the former, while maintaining and integrating the latter. I’d like to celebrate many more car-free anniversaries, and help others to do the same.