The Green Commute Challenge: Could You Leave the Car at Home One Day a Week?

Don't sell the car. Just see what happens if you don't use it tomorrow.

When we talk about greener transport, the discussion can become extreme surprisingly quickly.

Apparently, we must choose sides.

Keep driving everywhere and we don't care about the environment.

Give up the car completely and somehow reorganise our entire lives around bicycles, buses and railway timetables.

But for most people, neither position is particularly useful.

A car can be enormously convenient. For some people it is essential. If you live in a rural area, work unusual hours, carry equipment, have mobility difficulties, take children to school or simply live somewhere with poor public transport, abandoning the car may be completely unrealistic.

So I am not proposing that.

Instead, I have a much smaller experiment.

Could you leave the car at home for just one working day each week?

Not forever.

Not even every day.

Just once.

And rather than assuming it will be better, cheaper, healthier or greener, measure what actually happens.

Welcome to the Green Commute Challenge.

Start with an Experiment, Not a Lifestyle Change

One of the problems with environmental advice is that it can sound like a demand for permanent change before we have even discovered whether the alternative works.

So don't start by making a commitment.

Start by conducting an experiment.

Pick one normal working day next week.

Then ask:

Can I get through this day without commuting by car?

Depending upon where you live and work, that might mean:

walking;
cycling;
taking the bus;
travelling by train;
using park-and-ride;
walking to the station rather than driving there;
cycling to a railway station;
sharing a journey with somebody else;
working from home;
or combining several of these.

You are not trying to prove that the car is bad.

You are trying to discover whether you actually need it for every commute.

That is a very different question.

Measure the Journey You Already Make

Before trying the alternative, establish your starting point.

For one or two normal commuting days, record:

distance travelled;
journey time;
petrol, diesel or electricity used;
parking charges;
congestion or road charges if applicable;
number of steps walked;
how stressful the journey felt;
how tired you felt afterwards.

You don't need sophisticated equipment.

Your car already records mileage. Your phone will probably count your steps. A watch can measure journey time.

You could simply create a note on your phone.

For example:

Normal car commute

Distance: 18 miles return
Time: 55 minutes
Parking: £6
Steps during commute: 800
Stress level: 7/10
Weather: dry
Comments: heavy traffic on journey home

Now you have something to compare.

Then Try the Same Journey Without the Car

Suppose the following week you try the train.

Your figures might become:

Train commute

Walking: 12 minutes to station
Train: 24 minutes
Walking: 8 minutes to work
Total time: 52 minutes
Steps: 4,600
Cost: £9
Stress level: 3/10
Comments: read for 20 minutes on train

Suddenly the comparison becomes much more interesting.

The train may be more expensive.

It may be cheaper.

It may take longer.

It may actually be faster.

But there are other differences that don't appear if we simply compare mileage.

Perhaps you walked several thousand extra steps.

Perhaps you arrived less irritated because you had not spent half an hour crawling through traffic.

Perhaps you answered emails on the train.

Perhaps you read a book.

Perhaps you discovered that the bus is hopeless in the morning but excellent for getting home.

Or perhaps the whole experiment was dreadful.

That is useful information too.

The purpose is to find out.

Walking: The Simplest Alternative of All

Some commutes are obviously too far to walk.

But many of the smaller journeys surrounding our working day aren't.

Perhaps you normally drive:

one mile to the railway station;
two miles to the office;
half a mile to buy lunch;
a short distance between two workplaces;
or from one side of a town centre to another.

Walking those journeys can produce several benefits simultaneously.

You use practically no transport energy.

You spend nothing on fuel.

You increase your daily activity.

And occasionally walking is not much slower than driving once traffic, parking and the walk from the car park are included.

There is also a less measurable benefit.

When you walk through somewhere regularly, you actually begin to notice it.

You see trees changing through the seasons.

You notice new shops.

You discover footpaths.

You meet people.

You begin to understand the geography of your own neighbourhood in a way that travelling through it inside a metal box doesn't always encourage.

Could a Bicycle Solve the Middle-Distance Problem?

Cycling becomes particularly interesting for journeys that are too far to walk but short enough that driving seems slightly excessive.

A three-, four- or five-mile commute might be ideal.

Of course, cycling infrastructure varies enormously, and nobody should feel pressured into cycling on roads where they feel unsafe.

But where suitable routes exist, a bicycle can be remarkably efficient.

You aren't waiting for a timetable.

You don't have to find a parking space.

Traffic queues may become largely irrelevant.

And your commute becomes part of your daily exercise rather than something you need to compensate for later.

An electric bicycle extends that possibility further.

It can make longer journeys, hills and headwinds much less daunting while still requiring far less energy than moving an entire car and passenger along the road.

Again, don't begin by buying an expensive bicycle.

Borrow one.

Use one you already have.

Try a hire scheme.

Test the idea before turning it into another expensive environmental purchase.

The Bus Might Be Better Than You Remember

Many people dismiss buses because of experiences they had years ago.

Sometimes that judgement is completely justified.

Routes can be infrequent. Services can be unreliable. Rural coverage can be poor.

But services also change.

It may be worth looking again.

Try the journey rather than merely checking the timetable.

Does the bus stop near your workplace?

Could you walk to a slightly different stop?

Could you take the bus one way and use another method home?

Would a bus remove the need to pay for parking?

And there is an important psychological difference between driving and being driven.

Forty minutes behind a steering wheel requires forty minutes of concentration.

Forty minutes on a bus might become:

reading;
listening to a podcast;
answering messages;
watching the world go past;
or simply doing absolutely nothing.

We often calculate travel time without considering what that time can be used for.

Trains Can Turn Travel Time into Your Time

The same principle becomes even more obvious on trains.

A 45-minute drive and a 50-minute train journey look similar on paper.

But they are not necessarily equivalent.

During the drive, you are driving.

During the train journey, you might be working, reading, thinking, talking or relaxing.

That doesn't automatically make the train better.

You still have to consider:

ticket price;
reliability;
station access;
cancellations;
overcrowding;
and the final journey between station and workplace.

But the comparison deserves to include more than the clock.

Sometimes the most valuable thing public transport gives you is not fewer emissions.

It gives you some of your time back.

Don't Forget the Hybrid Commute

There is no rule saying that one mode of transport has to complete the entire journey.

Some of the most practical alternatives are combinations.

For example:

Walk + train

Walk 15 minutes to the station, take the train and walk from the station to work.

Cycle + train

Cycle to the station, secure the bicycle and continue by rail.

Park-and-ride

Drive only as far as the edge of town and use public transport for the congested section.

Car share + walking

Share the longest section of the journey and walk the final part.

Drive in, train home

Occasionally working arrangements make even asymmetric journeys possible.

Thinking of transport as a set of tools rather than competing ideologies makes it much easier to find solutions.

Working from Home Counts Too

There is another option that involves no commuting vehicle at all.

For people whose jobs allow it, one home-working day each week may remove the journey completely.

That doesn't mean working from home has zero environmental impact.

You may use additional heating, lighting, computing equipment and electricity.

But avoiding a substantial return journey can still be worth investigating.

There may also be financial savings from:

fuel;
fares;
parking;
takeaway coffee;
lunches bought away from home;
and other costs associated with travelling to work.

Again, measure rather than assume.

What Should You Record?

The interesting part of this challenge is collecting enough information to make a meaningful comparison.

Create a simple weekly table.

Measure	Car Day	Car-Free Day
Distance driven
Fuel/electricity cost
Parking
Public transport fare
Total journey time
Walking/cycling time
Steps
Stress, 1-10
Useful travel time
Overall experience

You could add:

Would I willingly do this again? Yes / Maybe / No

That may be the most important measurement of all.

Because a sustainable transport plan that makes your life miserable is unlikely to remain sustainable for very long.

One Day Doesn't Sound Like Much

And that is precisely why this experiment is achievable.

If someone works around 45 to 50 weeks during the year and avoids the car for just one commuting day each week, that can become roughly 45 to 50 car-free commuting days annually.

Now consider the mileage.

Imagine your return commute is 16 miles.

One car-free day each week for 46 working weeks gives:

16 miles x 46 days = 736 miles

That is 736 miles a year that the car didn't have to travel.

If the return journey is 30 miles:

30 miles x 46 days = 1,380 miles

Suddenly one small weekly change doesn't seem quite so insignificant.

You don't have to pretend that this will solve climate change.

It won't.

But millions of modest reductions in energy use matter far more than waiting for everybody to make one enormous lifestyle change.

The Financial Experiment Could Be Just as Interesting

The environmental argument is only part of this challenge.

For many households, the more immediate question is:

Does it save money?

Work out the real cost of the journey.

For a car, don't consider fuel alone.

There may also be:

parking;
wear on tyres;
servicing;
depreciation;
mileage-related maintenance.

You don't have to produce a complicated financial model.

Even comparing fuel or electricity plus parking with your alternative gives you useful information.

Then multiply the difference across a year.

A saving of only £5 per car-free day becomes:

£5 x 46 = £230 per year

A saving of £10 becomes:

£10 x 46 = £460 per year

Small weekly decisions can become surprisingly large annual figures.

But What If the Car Wins?

This is important.

Perhaps you conduct the experiment and discover that your normal commute takes 30 minutes by car and 90 minutes by public transport.

Perhaps there is no safe cycle route.

Perhaps the final bus finishes before your shift ends.

Perhaps carrying tools or equipment makes walking impractical.

Perhaps the train costs considerably more than driving.

Then continuing to use your car is not some environmental failure.

You have learned something useful about your local transport system.

You might still find that one part of your weekly travel could change.

Could you:

work from home occasionally;
walk short local journeys at weekends;
share one commute;
combine several errands into one trip;
or avoid driving into the most congested part of town?

Going greener should not mean pretending practical problems don't exist.

It should mean looking for realistic opportunities to use fewer resources.

What I Like About the One-Day Challenge

The thing I like about this approach is that it avoids turning environmentalism into a test of personal purity.

You don't have to announce that you are giving up your car.

You don't have to buy an electric vehicle.

You don't need an expensive new bicycle.

You don't need to redesign your life.

You simply choose one day and ask:

Could I do this differently?

Then you collect the evidence.

If it works, do it again.

If Tuesday is inconvenient, try Thursday.

If cycling doesn't work, try the bus.

If the bus is dreadful, investigate the train.

If none of them work, perhaps home working occasionally does.

The experiment can evolve.

Try the Green Commute Challenge

So here is the challenge.

Choose one working day next week.

Leave the car where it is if you reasonably can.

Then record:

How far you would normally have driven.
What the alternative cost.
How long the journey took.
How many extra steps you walked.
Whether you gained any useful time.
How you felt when you arrived.
Whether you would do it again.

Then repeat it occasionally.

You might discover that the car really is the best option for your circumstances.

Or you might discover something rather more surprising:

you needed the car much less often than you thought.

One Day at a Time

Some of the most useful environmental changes are not dramatic.

They are experiments which quietly become habits.

One day walking.

One day cycling.

One day on the train.

One day working from home.

One journey that simply doesn't happen.

None of these will transform the world's transport system by themselves.

But multiply one avoided commute by 45 or 50 working weeks, then by thousands or millions of people, and those small decisions begin to accumulate.

Perhaps that is a more realistic way to think about going green.

Not:

"How can I completely change my life?"

But:

"What could I do slightly differently tomorrow?"

So don't sell the car.

Don't make any grand promises.

Just leave the keys where they are for one day and see what happens.

You may find that the greenest part of your commute begins with an experiment.

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