I didn't even realize it until today, but Friday's was my 105th post. Yay me. I started this blog in early March, I can't remember the day, but that means that six months will be coming up soon. And I haven't embarrassed myself into oblivion ... yet.
Anyway thanks for all the lovely comments on Rose's post and query. She and I will be in touch and announcing a winner soon. Well, I assume we will at least, it's really all up to her. I don't have much else today but I do want to share with you all a pretty cool story I heard on the radio on the way in to work this morning.
I listen to NPR in the morning and sports talk in the afternoon. Does this mean I'm old and boring? Yeah, pretty much. Anyway this morning they had an encouraging story about something planned for Paris. They've already got the best health-care in the world, what do the French need now you ask? How about a fleet of electric cars, publicly funded, to allow Parisians to rent them for a very reasonable rate at any time and place?
It's called Autolib, which is short for Auto Liberte. Think of it like the community car programs many major U.S. cities have like FlexCar except that these are all electric, publicly funded, and cheap to use. Paris has had a program called Velib going strong since 2007 in which Bikes can be rented dirt cheap by the public and then returned across town. Velib has already reduced traffic in Paris by 25%, officials hope the car program will do even more to reduce congestion and pollution.
Autolib is basically an extension of the bike plan in which a fleet of 3000 all electric cars will be available for rent at very reasonable rates across the city, can be used for a day or a week, re-charged at over 1000 stations around town, and then returned at your leisure. It's very simple. You pay to use a car when you need it, and there are no hassles like insurance, repairs, and the bane of every urban driver who ever lived: parking.
You can read more about the program here.
What will they think of next?
