A week without driving
When my twins were quite young, and I did not have regular access to a car, we walked across a bridge to pick up dinner. The sidewalk was adjacent to traffic, but it kept us separated and provided reasonably safe passage — until we reached the other side. Roads flanked the bridge, and cars flowed around the sidewalk we stood on. It had never occurred to me that the sidewalk over the bridge would just end, and remain disconnected from the rest of the sidewalk network. I had driven this route countless times and had failed to notice this glaring deficiency.
How easy is it to get around Hanover and the Upper Valley if you don’t drive? That’s the question raised by a Week Without Driving: October 1-8, 2026. The Hanover Selectboard was asked to participate, and I will be spending the week talking with people using active transportation and transit to find out what challenges they face. Anyone can sign up, with the idea being you try not to drive yourself and think about how you would accomplish daily tasks if you had to rely on the infrastructure, services and friends around you for basic mobility.
Our New Hampshire Department of Transportation has embraced this effort with New Hampshire Week Without Driving | Department of Transportation, and Gerry Bedard, the Active Transportation Engineer for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, encourages everyone to try and to invite their local leaders to participate.
This national movement increases awareness of the transportation challenges faced by the third of the population in the United States who, by choice or circumstance, do not drive a car. As noted on the national campaign’s website weekwithoutdriving.org, the Week Without Driving began in the state of Washington in 2021. America Walks joined the campaign in 2023 to raise it to a nationwide event, and New Hampshire leaders and average citizens have been participating since.