Autolib in Paris

In the news today, Paris is introducing car-sharing, with electric cars, called the Autolib (similar to the bike-sharing called Velib). They will be building electric-charging stations, and you swipe your card and get a car, and then drop it off at any other charging station. Pretty neat and I wonder how long it'll be before the U.S. gets onboard with the idea? The woman who is in charge of transportation issues at Paris City Hall is quoted as saying "Owning a car is passe." :) Good to hear! :)

I recently was on a bike tour in Washington/Oregon, and was the volunteer sag van driver. I told the group that I went car-free almost 4 years ago and that I get around by bike & public transportation. They admired that, and jokingly commented about the group having a van driver who didn't even have a car back home, and how safe was that?! :) Of course, you don't FORGET how to drive, that's never a problem. (I think I'm a SAFER driver now, more than before). Funny thing, one of the tour leaders was backing up the van one day and didn't see a pole with a gas meter on the side of it, and hit it and busted out one of the back windows! (I was glad I wasn't the one who had done that!). They had insurance on the vehicle and it was taken care of and replaced, so not a problem. It was a large cargo van and had its blind spots, for sure. In fact, on the last hour that I was responsible for the van, I was backing up in a hotel parking lot to move the van to its final resting place, and backed into a curb. Not a problem - but as I pulled forward and looked in my rear view mirror, I saw I had come dangerously close to a car that was by the curb! Whew! I was very glad to have missed it and was very relieved to park the van and be done with my responsibilities as a driver. :)