Photo Credit: Chethan Shankar | Creative Commons 2.0
The Seattle city government is looking for residents to part ways with their cars via the One Less Car Challenge. The idea's pretty straightforward: interested parties must register (spots are limited) and agree to give up their car for either one month (the "trial separation") or one year (the "break-up"). To soften the blow, this cold-turkey car sacrifice might deal to program participants, the city will provide incentives in the form of Commuter Vouchers that can be used towards public transit or goods and services that dovetail with a car-free lifestyle (like walking gear from REI, etc.). Additionally, One Less Car participants are enrolled in a bicycle club and get access to a variety of resources designed to help ease the transition to carless living. If you live in Seattle (residency in the city is a requirement) and think you can handle your daily routine without a car, you might want to look into the program. Worst case: you try it for a month, miss your car terribly and realize this won't work on a long-term basis. At least the city picks up part of the tab for your commute, and you save a month's worth of gas expenses for your trouble. Not a bad deal. Full details on the program here.
[Source: Seattle.gov via Bus Chick]
_thumbnail.jpg "Beijing 2008: BYD e6")
1. There has been a program (somewhat) similar to this in Santa Barbara for a while. Tourists get discounts for arriving via Amtrak instead of driving.
http://www.santabarbaracarfree.org/
Posted at 7:30PM on May 1st 2008 by motosaurus