For most of us, hopping in the car is a routine part of life.

But many Kentuckians don't drive because of medical or even financial reasons.

Lexington A Week Without Driving is part of a national initiative to encourage drivers to walk and use public transit in order to experience firsthand the obstacles and rewards of being a non driver in Fayette County.

Nothing beats that first hand experience of actually getting out of your car and trying something new and seem like, Oh wow, it's hard.

There are a lot of positives, like insulin.

I start to have to find a parking spot there and it's like, wow, you can see some of the downsides, like the gaps in the transportation system or unsafe sidewalks.

So there's good old fashioned walking.

Obviously, walking isn't always feasible.

So in an ideal situation, public transit would cover all of the non walking gaps in terms of hours.

We are going to get on the South Broadway route.

There's a little stop right here.

And so we will board the bus and if we will just surround it all the way to the transit center, all of the flexing or nodding down side of flex trans bus routes converge at the downtown transit center.

So we will ride it all the way there.

It will stop, let everyone off and then we will walk to office.

I've actually never taken the bus before before this week, so it was a really good like reason for me to take the bus.

I didn't have one of the cards that you can stand, but I did have a dollar bill and that was super easy to just throw in there.

It was just it was very smooth, very easy.

I knew when when to get off at the transit center and yeah, no, no.

Which is I loved it.

It was great.

It is about the same length taking the bus from here to the transit center and walking to my office as it is driving and parking and then walking to my office.

There are some like accessibility issues.

I think the bus stop that's across the street from Broadway here and crossing, it's a very dangerous crosswalk and there's not a protected crosswalk right there.

So I would love to see more like protected bus stops, more accessibility to them.

So I live in this neighborhood across Broadway and crossing at the red light down there at Gibson is always a stressful experience because cars run woodlot or break at the last moment.

This route here again, I ride it fairly often, so I don't very well stops every hour.

It's how often a bus comes to this stop and all the stops along the route.

And that is not very convenient.

You know, I have a fairly flexible workplace, so and there are other apps I can use as well if I need to.

But but for people who have for most people who have to be at work, like at 8 a.m., if they missed the bus by a minute, they're just completely out of luck.

It's all built for cars, it's all prioritized for cars.

Everyone else is sort of sidelined.

So for people who drive most of the time, I think this week is a good way to experience, you know, the downsides of that.

But also the good sides, again, of, you know, seeing the beauty of your city, connecting with people, you know, regularly throughout your commute is something most people just don't ever do.

I think it's pretty beautiful thing to experience.

I will definitely be using public transit moving forward.

It just makes it so much easier for me.

And I just love I love the accessibility of it.

The week is primarily a reflective experience, and we have on our Instagram in our email that people can sign up for it.

And I have some prompts to spur on that reflection.

But just like think about your experience, what was good, what was bad, what could be improved, And then the improvements can lead to some action items like what policy changes can I advocate for?

Mostly just it's a chance to see and experience what life is like for non drivers.

The week without driving is organized by residents, but several city officials are participating and there is growing interest for next year's event.