Three BART stops, 3.5 miles of biking and four tire-unfriendly train track crossings are part of the car-free commute Adam Beerman takes from his home in Berkeley to his job as a process control engineer at the Chevron refinery in Richmond.
Beerman, 23, is also participating in the Car-Free Challenge, a Bay Area-wide contest sponsored by Oakland-based TransForm CA to see who can limit their car use the most. Transform CA is a nonprofit that advocates for pro-bike and pro-public transportation legislation.
So far,130 people, including San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, have registered and raised $15,000 for the challenge according to Marta Lindsey, TransForm’s Communications and Development Director. Participants paid $45 to register.
This is the second year they have sponsored the challenge, which ends today, of one week of car-less or car-reduced commuting. On the Web site, transformca.org, participants log their miles for walking, biking, riding public transit and driving, car mileage goals and why they are taking the challenge.
“It’s interesting to see the different reasons for people doing this. This year people are listing the oil spill as their reason,” said Lindsey. “It’s just a statement about our dependence on oil and how we need to get away from that,” she said.
Mar is also going car-less for the challenge. Mar, who represents the Richmond District, has long advocated for biking to work. “While many people equate San Francisco with a hilly and non-bikable terrain, I am proud to say that with a bike map in hand, I have been biking to the office and various meetings. It has been very exciting this past year as long planned improvements to bike lanes have been implemented, including soft cones to separate cars from cyclists and green painted bike lanes to make drivers more aware of cyclists,” he said on his Transform CA Challenger page.
In Richmond, Beerman’s commute is a little less friendly. He zips off Harbour Way onto a portion of the Bay Trail. The path lasts only a few blocks before he veers off back onto the paved streets, only to be honked at by a car. Once at work, Beerman must leave his Motobecane 12-speed locked on one of the many chain link fences surrounding the large lot – there aren’t any bike racks at Chevron, and Beerman says he rarely sees anyone else bike to this site.
