It is Strive Not to Drive week in Asheville. It feels kind of weird being the only person tooling around in a car. Even the highways look something like Tokyo with all the bikes and rickshaws.
The city has temporarily lowered bus fares and waived capacity restrictions to help.
The event was kick-started with a multimodal cross-town race featuring three members of Asheville City Council. Jan Davis drove a car, Marc Hunt bicycled, and Gordon Smith rode a bus. Buncombe County Commissioner David King was going to ride a horse, but he got tied up at the farm. As you might expect, the car won, but the news story is that all vehicles arrived at the finish line within four minutes of each other.
