When I filled out the survey applying for a spot in the 2010 Portland Zipcar Low-Car Diet, I didn’t expect I would be accepted. For one thing, I’m already a Zipcar member (heck, I was a Flexcar member).
Oh yeah, and I’ve been car free since 2003!
I signed up in anticipation of maybe, just maybe, convincing my new wife Heather to join me on the Low-Car Diet. Alas, she had little interest in filling out the survey.
But the good news is she has promised to try a Low-Car Diet too this month, even though her efforts will not be officially Zipcar sanctioned. Fortunately the schwag bag Zipcar gave me has enough goodies for two!
You may be wondering at this point what the Low-Car Diet entails? Annually Zipcar issues a 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. In each Zipcar city a group of volunteers is selected to participate.
The Portland kickoff event took place yesterday at Pioneer Courthouse Square. The participants gathered around a podium while representatives of Zipcar, Trimet, and Multnomah County gave brief speeches. Then the Ceremony of the Keys took place. As our names were called, each of us stepped forward, dropped our car key into the Zipcar-branded fish bowl on the table in front of the podium, stepped to the side, and received our bag of schwag.
For the next 30 days we promise to go as car free as possible!
For updates on our efforts, visit the Zipcar Low-Car Diet website, and follow the Twitter hashtag #lowcardiet. And I may blog more here – stay tuned!
The 2010 Multnomah Days festival takes place Saturday, August 21 in 
