Today we’re launching a new series called Car-Free Day Trips. The goal is a guide to excursions on the Olympic Peninsula and around the Puget Sound that can be completed in a day and cost of $10 a day or less.
On these multi-modal adventures, you may load your bike on a bus to catch a ferry and then ride to a light rail station and hop on a train to your destination.
Three challenges.These help focus the emergence of good Car-Free Day Trips, or CDFTs.
- Do it without a car.
- Get back to your starting point the same day.
- Don’t pay more than $10.
Why now?
It’s summer. It’s vacation time. Take it easy. It’s not the season to be in a car, canned like a sardine.
It’s affordable. The Peninsula is served by free buses of Jefferson and Clallam Transit. Sound Transit buses and light rail and walking on any Washington State Ferry are free for people under 18. A fare of $1 gets seniors on Sound Transit (buses and light rail) and on Kitsap Transit’s foot ferries and buses. The traveler’s bike – whether simple or electric – always rides free.
Times have changed. Multi-day vacations have become more difficult. It’s hard to find a cheap motel. With the pandemic, most became housing. Camping means carrying stuff. Having a car means the pain of parking and gas or charging. And while you can bail yourself out when your everyday car breaks down in town, the same it not true when you’re farther away.
Got comments? Got CFDTs to share? Check in below with your two-cents.
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