What Is a Week Without Driving?
Week Without Driving is a national campaign which takes place this year from Monday, September 29th through Sunday, October 5, 2025. The idea is simple but powerful: for one whole week, those who can drive are encouraged to avoid driving themselves — whether for work, errands, or everyday routines — and instead rely on walking, biking, transit, asking for rides, or other car‐free options.
It’s not meant to punish or shame. Rather, it’s a chance to experience what it’s like to be a nondriver, to notice the barriers people face every day, and to reflect on how we might design our communities more inclusively. This year, I challenged myself to bike to work.
My Bike to Work Experiment
As someone who works at Greater Mercer TMA, it felt only right to practice what I preach about sustainable transportation. For me, that meant challenging myself to bike from Morrisville, PA, through Trenton, NJ, to our office in Princeton, NJ.
I’ll admit — I’ve always wanted to bike in Trenton, but I never had the confidence. I even avoid driving there because parking feels so uncertain. The truth is, it’s mind-blowing how a city so close by can still feel unfamiliar. This week gave me a reason to push past that hesitation, and in doing so, I realized how much I’ve been missing.
Trenton is full of fantastic food, vibrant art, and community energy — and the lack of opportunity to experience that is felt on both sides of the bridge. By biking through, I saw the city in a new way and recognized just how much more connected our region could be if traveling between communities didn’t feel so intimidating.
Of course, my timing was unintentionally perfect. Right as I began the challenge, my car politely reminded me it was due for an oil change. During the service, they discovered a nail in each of my back tires — thankfully, a quick patch did the trick. The whole situation instantly took me back to when I carpooled with my colleague Emma (self-proclaimed Passenger Princess). It started with carpool karaoke and ended with a flat tire — also from a nail. After we managed to swap in the spare, the car refused to start because the battery had died. Long story short: we made it through safely, but not without some stress.
Looking back, these moments serve as reminders of how demanding cars can be. Constant maintenance, traffic jams, surprise expenses, and breakdowns that always seem to happen at the worst time. All the more reason why having safe, reliable, and equitable transportation options — that let us depend less on cars — is so important.
That truth hit especially hard this week, when I saw the news of a tragic fatal wrong-way crash on Route 1 in Morrisville, PA, just minutes from my home. It was another stark reminder that our roads are unpredictable — and that the consequences of car dependency can be devastating.
Choosing a Route
As mentioned before, I start in Morrisville, PA, directly across from Trenton, NJ. The most direct route takes me over the Calhoun Street Bridge and through the city. As someone who enjoys biking but isn’t used to urban cycling or higher traffic volumes, I wasn’t sure I was ready to take that on just yet. To give myself more confidence, I recruited my dad, Mike Sobel, to join me. He’s your classic spandex bike dad — 20 years of road cycling experience, a closet full of neon lycra, and the uncanny ability to never miss a Strava upload. All jokes aside, his passion for cycling has helped influence my career and commitment to safer streets and a greener planet. When it came time to roll out, I froze. The thought of navigating busy intersections and heavier traffic made me nervous. So, I adjusted my plan. Instead of riding directly from home, we loaded up the bikes and drove to a spot near the canal, then biked from there. Safety first — always. I’ll cross that bridge another time — literally.
Lessons in Health & Safety: From the Bike Dad
My dad has always been meticulous about bike safety, in addition to his Garmin Varia radar system — which detects cars approaching from behind and gives both an audible alert and a visual display on his Garmin device. He also uses a Vis 360 helmet light, which has a bright white beam in the front and a flashing red light in the back, increasing visibility from all directions. He swears by this combined setup, and I believe him when he says these are bicyclist safety must-haves. He averages 7,000–8,000 outdoor miles a year, and through it all, his mantra remains the same: stay safe, stay 100% focused, and never assume drivers see you. That’s wisdom worth carrying beyond the bike lane. The Safe Passing Law requires drivers to slow down and move over a lane when they can. If that’s not possible, they must give people walking, biking, or using scooters at least four feet of space when passing. Pennsylvania has a similar four-foot passing law, so on both sides of the Delaware River, the expectation is clear: drivers must give people on foot, bikes, or scooters space. Tools like radar and high-visibility lights help cyclists do their part by making themselves more visible and alert to approaching cars. Laws like this are critical in setting the expectation that safety is a shared responsibility. Because while individual responsibility is important, no amount of gear or vigilance can make up for roads that aren’t designed with cyclists and pedestrians in mind.
The Gaps in Our Infrastructure
What stood out during this ride wasn’t just the traffic — it was the absence of even basic street markings. I stand by the statement that paint is not infrastructure. By that, I mean that while painted lines and crosswalks may help guide people, they don’t provide real physical protection. A stripe of paint doesn’t stop a car from veering into a bike lane or create a safe space for people on foot. That said, when you’re trying to connect a major pedestrian and bike path, like the D&R Canal, there should at least be a crosswalk. Even though paint alone isn’t enough, sometimes the bare minimum of dignity is needed to signal that people on bikes and on foot are supposed to be there. As Charles. Brown of Arrested Mobility often explains, the lack of safe infrastructure is not an accident — it functions as a form of exclusion. These gaps limit people’s freedom of movement and opportunities, especially those without access to cars.
Why Federal Policy Matters
This conversation has never been more urgent. Just last week, the federal government canceled more than $1 billion in planned grants for trail and bike lane projects, with officials calling bike lanes “hostile to cars.” For communities, that means fewer resources to build safe spaces where people can walk, bike, or roll without fear. These decisions don’t just delay projects — they reinforce a system where car convenience is valued over human safety. Rather than investing in networks that provide safe, dignified options for everyone, we’re left with gaps that undermine both safety and opportunity.
Why This Week Matters
My experiment with going carless gave me just a taste of what so many others face every day. People who don’t have the option to drive — whether due to cost, ability, or choice — the barriers are constant and exhausting. A missing crosswalk here, an unsafe intersection there, or a lack of lighting at night can make a simple commute dangerous.
I had the privilege of “opting in” to this experiment and the safety net of being able to drive when I felt scared. But not everyone has that privilege. That’s why this week reaffirmed for me that building safe, accessible transportation networks isn’t about convenience — it’s about equity, health, and connection.
Keep Turning Those Cranks — And Raising Your Voice
My dad always ends his rides with the reminder: Keep turning those cranks. It’s about persistence, discipline, and joy in the journey. But when it comes to building safer streets, it’s also about persistence in advocacy.
If you believe that walking and biking should be safe, dignified options for everyone, now is the time to act. Share your own stories about what it feels like to ride or walk in unsafe conditions. Policy decisions are being made today that will shape whether the next generation sees biking as a viable choice — or a dangerous gamble. So yes, keep turning those cranks. But let’s also keep raising our voices until every community has the safe infrastructure it deserves.