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Car sharing slowly gaining popularity
Marcel Decraene, Radio Netherlands
High monthly costs and parking problems are increasing the popularity of car sharing, especially in the Randstad, the densely populated western part of the Netherlands. While car sharing used to be something for idealists and counterculturalists, today also businessmen and lawyers get into a car that they don’t own exclusively.
It’s a simple idea. You reserve for a car for an indefinite period of time, via the phone or the Web. The car will be ready at a designated parking place. You open the doors with a user card, while your PIN code provides you with the key. An onboard computer registers your mileage. A pass issued by the rental company allows you to tank up. At the end of each month you pay for your mileage. In short, you have a car at your disposal in a simple manner, and for not too much money.
The concept of car sharing certainly isn’t new. At the end of 1960s, the Amsterdam counterculture activist Luud Schimmelpenninck already experimented with the witkar (‘white car’, photo).
(23 August 2007)
Bikes: We like fun, but we really like functional
Steve Woodward, Portland Oregonian
Portland’s personality as a biking city evolves from recreation and fitness toward transportation for the average Joe and Jane
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Emily Gardner, a car-driving native of Detroit, Mich., grew up a self-proclaimed couch potato. She spent time snacking and watching MTV. She didn’t ride a bike, much less commute on one.
Then, in 2004, she moved to Portland.
“I had heard about biking in Portland,” Gardner says. “I saw everybody doing that. It didn’t really catch on with me at first.”
But like many everyday Portlanders — young and old, thin or overweight, button-down or button-less — Gardner, who turns 34 on Wednesday, gave in to the lure of the open bike lane.
Embracing cycling in one of the nation’s most bike-friendly cities may seem like a cliche. But this year, the city appears to have become so friendly that average Joes and Janes are saddling up in record numbers to ride side-by-side with the spandex crowd.
Moreover, many Portlanders now buy bikes to commute, run errands and even move entire households pulling attached trailers full of belongings to new homes. They don’t want a bike to race in the Tour de France. They’d rather have Portland’s hot seller: an easy-to-use, all-in-one hybrid for commuting, recreation and exercise.
“There’s definitely a shift from recreation to transportation,” says Mark Pickett, owner of Revolver Bikes. “Bikes used to be considered a toy, but now they’re looked on as a way to get around.”
(21 August 2007)
