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- Hotel bikes
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- Car2Go dashboard
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- A Sign in Seattle
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- Van
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- Nancy’s daughter with the Car2Go
By Micheline Maynard
Nancy Meier, one of the first backers of Curbing Cars, is known in Ann Arbor, Mich., as one of the city’s best Pilates teachers and personal trainers.* She’s a triathlete, an avid cyclist, someone who kayaks and canoes and loves the outdoors.
Earlier this month, she left her family’s island summer home and headed for Seattle to visit her daughter. Nancy tackled her Transportation Diary with her usual enthusiasm for getting around.
Here’s her report.
Sunday August 10 – motorboat from cottage on Georgian Bay to mainland, car for 450 mile drive back to Ann Arbor, MI.
Monday – rained all day – stayed home.
Tuesday – used car for errands.
Wednesday – flew to Seattle. Took the LINK instead of a cab to get downtown from the airport. The LINK is Seattle’s light rail, which cost $2.75 instead of about $40 for the cab. We got off about 5 blocks from our hotel and walked.
Everywhere we went that day, we walked.
Thursday – Walked to all activities.
Friday – Got a Car2go (only accommodates two people) with my daughter who lives in Seattle. We wanted to swim at Madison Beach on Lake Washington. The Car2go charges by the minute and is easy to find with the phone app. With Car2go, you can park wherever you like at your destination and then the car becomes available for others to pick up.
After our swim we were hoping it would still be there, but we saw someone drive by in it, so we took the bus back downtown.
Saturday – Three of us wanted to go kayaking from the Agua Verde Paddling Club on Portage Bay in the University district, and also sight see a little. So with my daughter’s Zipcar membership, we rented a car for about 5 hours. A daily car rental would have been a similar price but more complicated and further to get to. A Zipcar parking space is near her apartment.
Sunday – took the LINK back to the airport, flew to Detroit and got a shuttle back home. Parking for the 5 days would have been about the same as the shuttle each way but it is nice to be picked up and dropped at the door. It also supports an Ann Arbor business
So, in one week we took boat, car, plane, Car2go, Zipcar, local buses, light rail, airport shuttle and our feet to get around. Also of note, our Kimpton Hotel offered bikes for free but we didn’t get time to use them. We saw many biking commuters but Seattle is very challenging because of the steep hills.
*(Disclosure: Nancy is my Pilates teacher and personal trainer. She’s also Research Director Rick Meier’s mom.)
Would you like to share your Transportation Diary? Email us at curbingcars@gmail.com. We’re happy to feature your photos and video, too.