Adventure 38: A Car Free Day

After my recent adventure with Ben of the GREENbike, SLC bike share program, I had two free passes on my hands that have been itching! I decided I wanted to turn this into a day-long, car free adventure. 

We start this adventure in North Salt Lake. Though I spend a good deal of time downtown, I actually live in the city of North Salt Lake. Yes, North Salt Lake is a separate city. In fact, it's not even in Salt lake County. However, as the title suggests, it is in fact just north of Salt Lake.

Though there is a bus stop near my home in the 'Foxboro' part of town, I have never seen a bus come through my neighborhood, so I decided to walk. I love walking anyway, though I avoid it in NSL.

My friend, and fellow adventurer, Garrett joined me on this day, sans the beard.

We started out this 3.5 mile walk by taking the straightest shot to the station, which included the 1.5 mile walk up 1100 North. From the start, the fields on either side of the road were absolutely beautiful!

However, there are no sidewalks, and NSL is an industrial area, so we were dodging semis and cars as they zoomed past us. I actually think I feel safer on this road on foot than I would if I were on a bike. At least I can run off the road into the ditch if a driver not paying attention gets too close to the shoulder.

As happens on roads frequented by big trucks, there was rubber debris. This mangled truck tire actually looked like a work of art. If I hadn't been on foot, I would have thrown this in my car to take home for a found art project. I think Garrett was glad I left it there.

Also along this road, approaching the 4-way stops (which I often do in my car) I noticed the drivers did not pay a bit of attention to the pedestrians next to them. I actually became one of those pedestrians to yell out at car... well, talk loudly. I simply said, 'hi, we're here, hello, I'm right next to you! Yes, I'm standing here." Luckily the gentleman's window was down, and he he heard me. He looked over, smiled, and waved us across the street. I don't think the drivers mean to be inconsiderate, this city just wasn't meant for a person to walk. Our eyes are trained to look out for other cars, not people.

The end of this road brought us to the intersection that is scary to navigate in a car, let alone on foot! The 2600 South Bountiful I-15 exit/enter ramp. We made it through without a scare though, luckily.

The road north, 800 West, was all sidewalks, and much more scenic.

After the hour and 15 minute walk, we arrived at the Frontrunner station. 

We had just missed the train, so got to wait the 25 minutes for the next one.

The trip to 'Salt Lake Central,' (yes that same station I just visited) was a quick 15 minute ride. I saw my old friend Jon, from my recent visit. He informed me the GREENbike terminals were experiencing a bit of a computer glitch, and 5 of the stations were down. He gave me a map, on which he circled the stations to avoid. He told us they were fixing the one in front of Squatters, so that one should be up and running by the time we got there.

Off we went through beautiful Salt Lake City!

We did a short 30 minute ride to get a feel for the bikes, and a pleasant taste of the city before checking in at a station for our 30 minute allotment.

Then off were went to get some lunch at Squatters. Since there is a station right in front of it, it seemed like a good place to stop.

I ordered the veggie burger with clam chowder. The chowder was amazing! Not the best veggie burger I've had... pretty bland actually. Which is not a normal experience for me, Squatters (as we all know) has great burgers.

Garrett got the bourbon burger, and he was not disappointed. Also, I just want to note, I am always pleased when a restaurant salad looks like this, with great, fresh looking ingredients.

Unfortunately, we discovered when came out of Squatters that the terminal was still, in fact down. So we walked a block to the closest station to get another bike. We had to make a customer service call to work it out, because the system thought we still had bikes checked out. We were able to use the promo code a second time, and off we were again!

The cars that shared the road with us seemed to be aware of us. I never felt unsafe. A totally different experience from sharing the road on foot in North Salt Lake. Of course, we had a bike lane, we didn't  even have a side walk in NSL.

After that we decided to take a little walk. This wall of art is at the northeast end of the Gallivan Center. I have never noticed it before. It's delightful.

Here's the un-lady-like fact I don't like to admit, but I was a little glisten-y after riding around downtown for a couple of hours. I'm going to take that as a sign that I was burning 200% more calories than if I was sitting in a car... because I never sweat in my car.

Sun bursts!

We walked around City Creek for a bit. The smoothness of the water in this fountain just invites you to touch it! Am I right?

One of the highlights... we happened upon some zombies. They are part of an organization called 'Zombies Against Drunk Driving.'

I even got a blood stained business card handed to me by one of them for the 'marketing director,' it gave his grave # and everything!

A clever campaign for the UHP during the Halloween season. I'm sure drunk driving is a particular problem this time of year. I got close to them while waiting to cross the street, and was totally amused by their grunting, and staying in-character the whole time. I didn't realize Garrett stayed back until the light changed. Zombies make him a bit skittish.

After that we made a stop at the Gateway mall for a bit of shopping, then made our way back to Salt Lake Central, and were off on Frontrunner headed north! 

Our feet were a bit tired. We still have a 3.5 mile walk home! Those are Garrett's new socks.

Caught in the act! Garrett wanted a picture of me breaking the rule as stated on the sign... something about no feet on the seat. Oops! Sorry UTA.

I think we may have been relishing in the comfortable seats, and smooth ride of the train, because we missed our stop, and made it all the way up to Layton before we got off and luckily caught a train leaving at the same moment south. 

By the time we made it to the Woods Cross station, it was dark. This time, when heading west, instead of taking 1100 North, we took 1500 South, it had a sidewalk for most of the stretch. Thank you! Once we turned onto Redwood, the sidewalk situation was spotty. We'd get a nicely groomed, grass adjacent sidewalk for several hundred feet, then it would abruptly end into tall, dry, brier filled grass. It was these stretches of walking that we'd have to walk in the road. I was in constant fear that one of the zooming cars would clip Garrett. 

Eventually we made it to my neighborhood which is very pedestrian friendly, and then home. We enjoyed a nice good sit-down on my couch. Ahhh.

My take away: public transportation is wonderful... when it's available. Also, what if we want to just be human, and not rely on cars in a world that seems to revolve around them? Some cities do it better than others. North Salt Lake is definitely on the low end of that spectrum, though it's so close to SLC which seems to be thinking about pedestrians in all it's new design efforts. 

Time spent on adventure: 9 hours

Money spent: $30.67 ($5 for Frontrunner, $15 at Squatters, $10.67 shopping)

Recommendation: Going car-less in NSL: 3 out of 10 adventure points!

                              Going car-less in SLC: 8 out of 10 adventure points!