Zipping Around Bloomfield
Ever wonder about those cars parked at the Ella Street side of the ShurSave parking lot? Those are Zipcars, vehicles that can be rented by the hour or day. Zipcars are available in key cities and neighborhoods, and are used by business and personal drivers who prefer not to own their vehicles for a variety of economic, health and environmentally-conscious reasons. On the Zipcar website you can learn more, find cars and rates around Pittsburgh, and sign up for an account on their online reservation system.
Low-Car Diet
In 12 North American cities, Zipcar has launched The Low-Car Diet Challenge: “for 30 days, put down your keys, dust off your bike, trike or roller skates and find out what the Zipcar way of life is all about.” Check out the Low-Car Diet website to meet the participants and you will see that Pittsburgh has more volunteers than almost any other city, including one of our forward-thinking City Councilmen, Bill Peduto.
City Councilman Bill Peduto, right, takes the Zipcar Low-Car Diet Challenge.
Yesterday at a ceremony in Market Square, Peduto gave up the keys to his Mini Cooper to join 16 other Pittsburghers in taking this challenge. When I asked about his decision, Peduto explained:
I want to break my dependency with my car. This is a great opportunity to prove to myself that I don’t need a personal vehicle to get to everywhere I am going. I can utilize public transit, take out a Zipcar, get my lazy butt on a bike or even walk and get to the places I need to be. To me, this is a great opportunity to change my lifestyle to a more healthy, more environmentally-friendly and more cost efficient way of living.
Read more about Councilman Peduto and others who are taking that challenge in today’s Pittsburgh-Post Gazette article “City councilman among those giving Zipcar a whirl”.