Un Road Trip Santa Barbara Stop-Over from Traffic Solutions on Vimeo.
It was an especially exciting leg of the trip as it included three new modes of transportation. I got into Santa Barbara on Thursday night and was immediately struck by the amount of pedestrians and bikers walking and riding by. I walked to Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort, who was generously hosting me for the night. After a great night of sleep- probably my most restful one so far- it was time to meet up with the folks from Santa Barbara's Car Free program. They had arranged a whole morning of car-free activities in the area. First we took a spin in their electric shuttle.
We drove by some Santa Barbara landmarks including the zoo, Beanie Baby creator Ty Warner's mansion, and a park donated by the family who invented the Clark Bar. Mary Byrd, who heads up the Car Free initiative, also pointed out some of bike paths that traverse the city.
Next up, they had arranged a ride for me in a Tesla Roadster with May.
After seeing Who Killed the Electric Car, May was inspired to buy an electric vehicle and signed up for Tesla's waiting list. When she finally received her car, she was shocked that it was so sporty, but she fell in love the first time she drove it.
We arrived at the Santa Barbara Sailing Center and boarded the Double Dolphin Catamaran along with Captain Don and a bunch of the other local Car Free partners.
Though there may have been some clouds, it was a relief to get out of the heat of the past few days and it was a beautiful ride. The catamaran has a sail as well as two gas engines, although the wind wasn't allowing for any sailing. Skip Abed, the owner of the sailing center, said he's hoping to switch the catamaran over to an all-electric motor soon.
Pretty soon, we were returning to the dock with time to catch a quick lunch with Mary, Laura, and Kent. I raced back to the train station just in time to make the train to Los Angeles. For more pictures from the day, you can check out the photo gallery at the Santa Barbara Car Free website.
1 comment:
Really interesting stuff. Just one little thing though: I'd like to point out that the Tesla Roadster is in fact, a car. If your aim is to avoid cars, you just blew it big-time. So you can't call it a "car-free trip". Noozhawk describes it as a "journey across the United States using all forms of transportation except traditional gas-powered cars".
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