Undriving and Undriver Licensing

We are Undriving Ballard and beyond, issuing Undriver Licenses to people who make a pledge to reduce their car use.

Our Undriver Licensing Station opened its tentflaps at the 4th Annual Sustainable Ballard Festival, September 29-30, 2007, and is now appearing around Puget Sound. To get an Undriver License, people just need to make a pledge to UNDRIVE in the coming month, in a way that works for them. Here’s what we ask them to do, and so far 668 people of all ages have responded, creatively and enthusiastically:

“Challenge yourself to try on a new way of getting around for a specific activity you’d normally drive to. Get curious! How necessary is a car for each of the trips you take? (Or maybe you don’t have a car. How could you reduce your car use or influence others?) Many Undrivers have discovered the many benefits of Undriving, some of them surprising: fresh air, exercise, community connections, saving money, less stress, even more time.”

“BE CREATIVE! Take the Undriving Challenge. Make a pledge that’s do-able but also a stretch, then try it out and see what you discover. Here are some thought-starters for you:

• Limit your driving to 50 or 100 miles for the month
• Commit to not driving on Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Bike to work three days a week
• Form a carpool to get to church or a regular meeting
• Start a Walking School Bus to get the kids to school
• Get a bike trailer for cargo or kids
• Walk to the grocery store with a rolling cart
• Combine errands with dog-walks
• If you are already a committed Undriver, there’s always more you can do: consider pledging to not RIDE in cars for the month, or not accept rides when someone is going out of their way to pick you up, or to share your experiences as an Undriver with friends and co-workers and encourage them to make their own pledge.”

Our Undriving Advisors are on hand to help people shape their pledges, and Cascade Bicycle Club supports Undrivers with route-finding and bicycle safety information. Licensed Undrivers receive 10 free bus tickets courtesy of King County METRO, as well as a packet of resources from METRO, Cascade Bicycle Club, and Undriving. Undrivers choose their own license “Undorsements,” and we have lots of fun props on hand to allow personal expression for License photos - Viking hats, propeller beanies, bicycle helmets, even a crown.

A BIT OF PHILOSOPHY:

With the playfulness of an Undriver License, we are engaging people to consider their car use patterns in a new light, to challenge an assumption by trying something different of their own devising, and perhaps to discover that there’s a better way of getting from here to there for one thing they do.

Our Undriver Licenses can remind us of our pledges, awaken us to seeing new possibilities, and invite us to explore what else we can do to lighten the impact of our transportation choices. Each License is like a stone landing in a pond - who knows where the ripples will go and who they will touch!

It’s been our experience that one change leads to another, and another. (Some Undrivers have come to the point of selling their car, or changing jobs to be closer to work!) As we make different transportation choices, we are also likely to stumble into reconsidering other daily choices: looking anew at what we eat, how it’s produced, and where it comes from; how we might reduce our home energy use; how we can increase community and reduce consumption; etc. This snowballing and ever-evolving process of coming to live more sustainably is energizing and empowering! When we share our experiences and discoveries, we inspire others dip their toes into the same adventure. We hope that Undriving becomes incredibly infectious. We are all in this together!

ON THE ROAD WITH UNDRIVING:

We hope to start a national, even international, Undriving movement!

If you are interested in hosting or sponsoring the Undriver Licensing Station or incorporating Undriver Licensing into your program, please contact julia {at} sustainableballard(.)org.

UNDRIVER LICENSING NEWS:

With the support of a generous grant from a private foundation, we have purchased new high-tech license-making equipment to produce licenses even more efficiently and “officially.” Our heartfelt thanks to the King County Police Union’s My ID Club for the loan of the equipment that got us off and running. (Watch for them at festivals and fairs around Puget Sound, and get free ID cards for your kids.)

Here’s what our original licenses looked like: (produced using an obsolete Polaroid camera that takes 4 pictures on a sheet of instant film, and a laminator)

and our new high-tech licenses, made with a modified company-ID-card-making system:

Creative Commons License