Car Dependence

Zivarts: How ‘Week Without Driving’ Is Having An Impact

Needing to drive in a car-dependent society is not some sort of moral failure. A one-week teach-in can help elected officials see that.

By Anna Zivarts

12:02 AM EDT on August 5, 2025

Zivarts: How ‘Week Without Driving’ Is Having An Impact

Needing to drive in a car-dependent society is not some sort of moral failure. A one-week teach-in can help elected officials see that.

Anna Zivarts

Anna Zivarts is a visually impaired parent and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press, 2024). Joining the team at Disability Rights Washington in 2018, Zivarts led the Rooted in Rights storytelling project and launched the Week Without Driving challenge to address the needs of nondrivers in planning accessible communities. Previously, Zivarts spent fifteen years as a communications strategist for labor and political campaigns, working as a storyfinder for the LGBT & HIV/AIDS Project at the ACLU and co-founding the NYC-based communications and storytelling firm, Time of Day Media. Zivarts earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stanford University.

Car Dependence | Costs of Car Ownership | Driving | Issues & Campaigns | Week Without Driving

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