Thursday, May 05, 2011

Car Free Diet Skeptics



If you haven't seen what the City of Arlington, Virginia has been doing the past 2 years with their clever Car Free Diet Skeptics promotion, then take a look.  It does everything right - addresses the issues of car ownership and use, uses social media, has high production values and provides some laughs along the way.  I think it's a brilliant move to include the word "skeptics" in the title.

The concept is simple: through a public voting process two skeptics are selected who are willing to go without their cars for 30 days.  They post updates of their experiences during the 30 days of the challenge and the "winner" gets free transportation for a year.   Carsharing is certainly part of the mix, but bicycles, transit and walking play the major roles.

Right now they're in the middle of this year's challenge.  You can get a sense of the entire process by watching season 1, including the individual participants posts and a very nicely produced summary video here.

Nice job City of Arlington.