The Circle Game
Excerpt from "Divorce your Car!" by Katie Alvord.
The Circle Game: How to Reduce your Driving
Thanks to John Schubert, who devised the original version of this game when working with an EcoTeam in Bend, Oregon.
1. Find your neighborhood on the map.
2. Place the point of a divider compass on the approximate location of your home.
3. Draw a circle with a two-mile radius with the compass.
4. Now, find the places you regularly visit and circle them or mark them with a highlighter. Include your workplace, bank, grocery store, gym, school, place of worship, movie theaters, parks, the library and any other places you visit at least once every two weeks.
5. Note how many of these places fall within the circle.
6. Choose one of the places that falls within the circle and commit to walking, biking or taking transit to it instead of driving every time you go.
7. Every week, every two weeks or every month (depending on how fast you want to go) commit to walking, biking or taking transit to another location from within the circle. Continue adding locations until you routinely use alternatives to the auto for getting to every location within a two mile radius of your home or workplace.
8. Choose one of the places that falls outside the two mile radius, and commit to finding a closer alternative. Example: if your grocery store is outside the two mile radius, change to a grocery store that is inside the radius.
9. See how many of the places outside the two mile radius from your home you can replace with an alternative closer to home, ideally within your circle.
10. Experiment with expanding your circle or using concentric circles to determine places within walking distance and biking distance from your home. For example, if you decide to walk to all places within a mile, and bike to all places within four miles, draw circles with those radii on your map and identify all walkable and bikable destinations within them.
11. When you move, draw a two mile circle around potential new homes to help you find a new location based on its proximity to services, work and school.
12. When looking for new services or a new job, use the circle technique to help you find services or jobs closest to your home.
*Note:I would do 4 first, then 3 to decrease bias.