What did you do for Earth Day 2023?
April 22, 2023 - Earth Day!
As is usual for a Saturday, I start out with a long list of to-dos, half of which I fail to get to because I run out of time. Earth Day 2023 was no different. I wanted to start some seeds, but I ended up first tackling a to-do that I had been putting off for a while: changing the oil in my two cars.
Yes, I own two ICE vehicles: a 1994 Toyota Corolla DX and a 2017 Mazda 3. They get on average 24 and 32 mpg respectively, and I don’t drive them very much in a year, since my wife and I have the good fortune to work from home. I imagine that many who advocate for the environment are still stuck with ICE vehicles because of circumstances. You do what you can. Sometimes, it’s better for the environment to keep your old vehicles and maintain them than it is go into a lot of debt for an electric vehicle that in Utah, let’s be honest, will be supplied with coal-burning electricity. That said, I am looking into hybrid or electric for my next vehicle.
I finished the car maintenance just after noon and cleaned up. Next, my youngest daughter and I had set a daddy-daughter date to go to her first rock concert! A local band, Poolhouse, were opening for an up-and-coming Irish band, The Academic, at the Soundwell in Salt Lake City. I could have driven us up there in one of my newly greased cars, but since it was Earth Day, I chose to introduce J to Utah’s lackluster public transportation system.
I say “lackluster” because J has ridden NYC’s public transit and even at 14 is impressed with its efficiency. Trains run on time, mostly, and they are at regular enough intervals that it’s worth riding them to get where you need to go. You can’t say the same for Utah’s public transportation, although it is improving in some cities. In general, though, buses do not have Rapid Transit lanes to drive in, so going with the regular traffic is no better than driving your own car. And the trains and TRAX along the Wasatch Front are fraught with delays and inconvenience. Not only that, because of Blue Laws, the public transportation doesn’t run on Sunday, so even if I wanted to ride the train up to Ogden to visit my mom, or even to go to church, I couldn’t.
J and I took the Frontrunner train from American Fork and rode it all the way up to Salt Lake Central, a distance of 31 miles. The Frontrunner is a pleasant experience, but it’s unfortunate that it runs hourly, so if you miss it, you have to wait another hour before the next train comes. (You could be up to SLC and back in that time by car.)
From Salt Lake Central, J and I took the Blue Line TRAX to the City Creek shopping mall to eat at the Food Court. I won’t do that again. The food just wasn’t that good. Even the usual mall pizza place didn’t look appetizing. Afterwards, I saw that what I should have done was look for hip vegan places in the area, because coming out of the Food Court, I saw some establishments that looked more appetizing than what I had.
J and I then walked to the concert venue, a 15-minute walk. Downtown SLC has become more walking friendly. I haven’t biked there, but the consensus on Twitter seems to be that it could use some work protecting people who ride bikes. (Most Utah cities fail royally in doing that. Priority is given to ICE vehicles, the size of which are prosthetic extensions of egos.) SLC does have scooters and e-bikes that people can use to get around.
The concert was awesome! If you’re into upbeat indie rock, then check out Poolhouse and The Academic.
Afterward, at around 22:30, J and I rushed to the TRAX station. We needed to catch the TRAX to get down to Murray Central to then catch the Frontrunner home. Even though the schedules indicated we had a chance on making the connection, things did not go as planned. We arrived at Murray Central a couple minutes after the Frontrunner left, so we stayed on the Blue line until the end of the line in Draper. I arranged for a Lyft to take us from there to American Fork station to get our car and get home.
It was a whirlwind Earth Day, but memorable. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to spend it with J and to celebrate public transportation! Here’s hoping that it will improve in Utah and that more people will use it!
In other news, I did donate to Wren, an organization that invests in projects to offset carbon emissions. I also ran some clothes to Deseret Industries, a local Good Will organization, and I sent the glass bottles I had collected over the past month to a glass recycling bin in Lehi.
What did you do for Earth Day 2023?
