One Season of Car Free Fridays
Final Conclusion at the bottom of the post - Updated July 2026
Introduction
This spring, I’m conducting a personal experiment: one season of Car Free Fridays.
The idea is simple. Once a week, instead of driving to work, I’ll take the bus from my home in Northeast Kansas City to Solaris Massage on the Westside. I’m choosing Fridays because the longer daylight of spring makes that feel more manageable, and because I have enough flexibility in my work schedule to get home before dark.
Public transit in Kansas City can be CHALLENGING. I’m not pretending that everyone can do this, or that every city makes this easy. I believe that the best way to change a system is to PARTICIPATE in it. I know flexibility, transit access, and daylight all matter. I also know that for many people, driving is the only realistic option.
But for me, in this season, this experiment is possible. And that makes it worth trying.
In some ways, the seed for this was planted a long time ago.
One core value I got from my mother was this: always live somewhere that allows you to get to work by bus. Even if you have a car, life happens. Cars need repairs. Unexpected expenses come up. And when they do, having another way to get to work can reduce stress in a very practical way.
Growing up, my mother made sure we took the bus places. Because of her, I learned how to feel comfortable on public transit, and how to navigate Kansas City that way. I’m grateful for that now.
A few years ago, when my car needed a major repair, I took the 11 bus for a couple of weeks. It took longer than driving, yes. But it also gave me something driving doesn’t: time to look out the window, notice the city, and let someone else do the navigating. Around that time, a coworker asked me a question that stuck with me: Why don’t you take the bus more regularly?
It was a fair question.
So this spring, I’m finally following that thought a little further.
Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that building one car-free day into my week will change more than just how I get to work.
I think it may do several things:
help me feel more connected to Kansas City at street level
make Fridays feel more intentional and less rushed
add a little more ordinary movement into my week
create a recurring rhythm that feels grounding rather than inconvenient
remind me that not all wellness happens inside a gym, a treatment room, or a formal routine
As someone who works at the intersection of fitness, recovery, and community, that last point matters to me.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how people care for themselves, how they build sustainable routines, and how movement fits into everyday life. So much of wellness culture focuses on optimization, intensity, and formal workouts. But some of the most meaningful habits are quieter than that. Walking to the bus stop. Waiting outdoors. Moving through a neighborhood at a human pace. Seeing familiar streets from a different angle.
I suspect Car Free Fridays will remind me that movement doesn’t always need to be impressive to be valuable.
I also think it may shift my relationship to time.
Driving often feels efficient, but it can also make the day feel compressed and transactional: get in, get there, move on. Riding the bus asks something different. It asks for a little more planning, a little more patience, and a willingness to move with the city instead of simply through it.
My hunch is that this slower pace may feel less like lost time than I assume.
Research
This experiment isn’t entirely hypothetical. I already know a few things.
First, I know the route is possible. I’ve done it before when I needed to, during that stretch when my car was in the shop for a major repair.
Second, I know that Kansas City looks different from a bus window than it does from behind a steering wheel. When I’m driving, my attention is narrowed to traffic, timing, lane changes, and parking. On the bus, I get to observe. I notice buildings, side streets, people waiting at stops, small details in the city that are easy to miss when I’m focused on operating a vehicle.
Third, I know that experience has stayed with me. The fact that I’m returning to this idea now tells me it mattered more than I realized at the time.
I also know a few practical things that make this experiment more workable:
I have access to a route that cuts diagonally across the city
I can shift my work schedule enough to make the timing functional
spring gives me more daylight and better weather
I already have enough familiarity with public transit that this doesn’t feel intimidating
That matters, because every experiment has conditions. This one is not happening in a vacuum. It’s happening because a certain set of circumstances makes it possible.
And maybe that’s part of the lesson too: sometimes a meaningful change doesn’t require a total lifestyle overhaul. Sometimes it just requires noticing that, for this season, something is available that wasn’t practical before.
Experiment Design
The experiment is straightforward:
For one season — spring — I will make Fridays my car-free day.
Instead of driving to work, I will take the bus from Northeast Kansas City to the Westside and back.
I’m not setting this up as a rigid challenge with a gold star at the end. I’m more interested in paying attention than in being perfect. If there’s a genuine reason a particular Friday doesn’t work, that’s part of real life. The point is not perfection. The point is repetition, observation, and learning.
What I’ll be observing includes:
how the commute feels compared with driving
whether the extra travel time feels frustrating, useful, restful, or all three
whether I notice changes in my stress level or pace on Fridays
whether I feel more connected to my city and neighborhood life
whether this weekly rhythm affects how I think about movement, time, and routine
I’m also curious about whether the commute itself becomes part of the value.
In fitness spaces, we often separate “exercise” from “daily life,” as though movement only counts when it is planned, tracked, or sweaty enough. But real life movement matters too. Walking to stops, standing, climbing on and off transit, carrying what you need, adjusting to weather — all of that is part of a physically engaged life.
I don’t expect Car Free Fridays to turn my commute into a cinematic wellness ritual. Some Fridays may be lovely. Some may be mildly annoying. Some may simply be ordinary.
That’s fine.
Ordinary is part of what I want to pay attention to.
Predicted Results
Before the season is over, here’s what I think may happen.
I think the bus ride will feel slower than driving in clock time, but possibly better in nervous-system time.
I think I’ll arrive with a slightly different mindset — maybe less activated, less hurried, or at least less tangled up in traffic energy.
I think I’ll notice more of Kansas City. Not just major landmarks, but small things: the rhythm of neighborhoods, the feel of different blocks, who’s out and about, the way light hits buildings late in the day, the simple geography of moving diagonally across the city without being sealed inside a car.
I think the routine itself will become meaningful. There’s something about designating one day for a particular way of moving through the world that can make the whole week feel more intentional.
I also think this experiment may deepen something I already believe: that wellness is not only about what happens during an appointment, a workout, or a class. It’s also about how we structure our days, how we move through our communities, and how much room we leave for attention, adaptation, and connection.
Maybe Car Free Fridays will feel refreshing. Maybe they’ll feel inconvenient. Most likely, they’ll feel like both.
But I suspect that even the inconvenience will be informative.
Because sometimes the question isn’t “What is the fastest way to do this?”
Sometimes the question is “What changes when I do this differently, on purpose?”
Why This Matters to Me
As a massage therapist, and as someone whose work is closely tied to fitness and recovery, I spend a lot of time encouraging people to think about sustainability.
Not just what feels good in a single moment, but what can actually become part of a life.
That applies to recovery. It applies to movement. It applies to community too.
For me, Car Free Fridays sit at the intersection of all three.
They are about movement, because walking and transit make activity part of the day rather than a separate task.
They are about community, because riding the bus and moving through the city at street level changes the way I experience Kansas City.
And they are about recovery, because shifting pace — even slightly — can change how a day feels in the body.
I’m interested in what happens when I align my routine a little more closely with the values I talk about all the time: movement, resilience, practicality, neighborhood life, and taking care of yourself in ways that are realistic and repeatable.
This experiment is one small way of walking the walk.
Conclusions
Update: Seven Weeks In
Seven weeks into Car Free Fridays, I can confirm that the goal of taking the bus is not speed or efficiency.
At least, not for me.
So far, this experiment has given me the sound of birdsong as I walk to the stop in the morning, extra steps on sunlit sidewalks in both directions, and short conversations in Spanish with a woman I’ve now seen several times.
It has also given me the strange delight of spotting people on the bus who I recognize from the Avenue when I’m usually driving past them. This feels oddly like a celebrity sighting.
There have been small, human moments too: playing peek-a-boo with a toddler while she sits with her mother, watching a father stand in front of his young daughter for the whole ride while she sits in the last available seat, and overhearing the ordinary neighborhood conversations that happen when people are sharing space instead of moving separately through the city.
Some of those conversations are funny. Some are practical. Some are heavy. All of them remind me that public transit is not just transportation. It is also a place where the city becomes visible.
There has been weather, of course. One Friday, I talked to a Westside neighbor on his balcony as a storm rolled in. Later, I got completely saturated on the way home after turning down two separate offers for a ride.
I’m still committed to my season of Bus Plus Fridays because I enjoy experiments.
And very simply, I like taking the bus.
I keep thinking about the joke that if humans could fly, we probably wouldn’t, because we would consider it exercise.
In a world where people are craving connection and needing more everyday movement, it is interesting how often we overlook something that can offer a little of both.
Public transit is not always the fastest option. It is not always the easiest option. But sometimes it gives you back things you didn’t know you were missing: a walk, a conversation, a little patience, a better feel for the neighborhood, and a reminder that we are not moving through the city alone.
One month in, my original hypothesis still holds.
The bus ride is slower in clock time.
But in nervous-system time, neighborhood time, and attention time, it may be giving me more than it takes.
Final Results: One Season of Car Free Fridays
What I actually did
A season of Car Free Fridays, by the numbers. From 20th March 2026 to 19 June 2026 =
14 Fridays
6 miles each way, 12 round trip, 168 miles NOT DRIVEN
9.3 gallons of gas NOT BURNED in my individual car
952 additional minutes spent in travel time
2 ride share trips home - when the bus didn’t come
Did the hypothesis hold up?
9/10 I recommend taking the bus one day a week if you can swing it. The pros definitely outweighed the cons for me, and in my situation, I can handle some of the downsides to taking the bus to work. I ENJOY the built-in walking and waiting, and the extra time I have to decompress on the trip to and from work. It reminds me of taking the school bus when I was a kid. It’s a special dose of in between time that helps me switch between tasks. I noticed SO MUCH about my environment! Keeping this weekly habit during Spring really helped me enjoy all the little ways trees and flowers transition. The bus itself was always clean, comfortable, and pretty quiet. Using Google Maps or the Transit app made it easy to know when to head to the stop. I really enjoyed seeing some of the same people on the bus, and on the walks to and from bus stops. The value of small talk should not be underestimated!
What surprised me most
Taking the same route for a season helped me become familiar with all the ways I could use this particular route. I realized that there’s an Aldi on the route, City Hall, Northeast Pizza, two parks, places to get tacos and margaritas, the YMCA. So not only do I have an easy way to get to work, but lots of new destinations and a few connections to other routes.
What was genuinely inconvenient
Taking the bus does take more time than driving, and you do have to be prepared ahead of time. Twice I had to use a ride share service, which was an expensive choice. And there were a few times when I had to miss out on an appointment because bus service after 5pm is too infrequent. It doesn’t feel good to say no to work because you don’t want to wait an additional 1.5 hours to just catch the next bus.
What changed in how I think about transit and wellness
One reason I wanted to commit to a full season of Car Free Fridays was to try something new in a way that was consistent and manageable. Too often in KC, the bus is seen as something you use only if you have no other options. I prefer to see it as something which should be a viable option for anyone. Yes, I have a car, but I don’t want for using a car to be my default. I already knew I enjoyed riding the bus, but I wanted to find out if regular use would dull the joy of the experience. I can’t say that it was more efficient or convenient than taking a car, but I did enjoy it more than driving. Choosing to take public transit in KC includes some tough trade-offs, but taking the good with the bad once a week was well worth the effort.
What I’m carrying forward
When I committed to Car Free Fridays, I decided to complete one season. Now that I have completed that goal, I plan to continue leaving my car at home at least one day each week. Going forward I will be more flexible on which day that is, which will allow me to say yes to work when I need to. Now that I have a sense of which days and times of day are more RELIABLE in terms of KCATA service, I can choose the days that fit in best with my schedule. For me taking the bus is a tonic for my brain, and I don’t want to stop. If I didn’t have to work so late, I would take the bus every day! The bus is always climate controlled, I get to look out the window, and I have not once experienced road rage on the bus! I’m going to keep this option on my plate, and look forward to the day that the reliability of the bus service increases so that I CAN take the bus more often!