Posted via web from EcoStreets on Posterous

When: July 28, time is TBD

Where: Element Hotel on 10555 Discovery Dr

Why: The Renew America Roadtrip comes through the desert boomtown for the first time. It’s gonna be big, according to Bob Tregilus, co-chair of the Nevada chapter of the Electric Auto Association.

If you’ve got an EV car, come down. If you don’t, take the bus. Or drive, fine.

I’ll be there with my white and green Flip camera. Come say hi!

Treehugger has been running a series called, “The Day After ZipCar Makes A Profit” all about the car sharing/rental business.

Car sharing works like this – you need to haul wood or dangerous petrochemicals from Home Depot but you can’t haul it all on the bus or your bike. You get on Zipcar’s site, tell them how long you want the car, and they give you a place near your area and a code to open the car. It’s like bike shares, but with cars.

Zipcar’s business has revolved primarily around universities, but has expanded community wide especially with its recent merger with competing car share biz Flexcar.

None of those universities or cities are in Nevada. Which makes me wonder – how would a car share program fly in Vegas? A more profound question Treehugger is asking, will this change people’s perception of cars as vehicles of independence to vehicles of utility?

I’ve done the car share thing by proxy while visiting a friend in Zurich. That’s where I took my first ride in a SmartCar. In typical Swiss fashion, the system operated beautifully: the cars were clean, they were less than a block away, and they had SmartCars, come on!

With people like PJ O’Rourke whining about the loss of car’s romanticism (I think breathing clean air is more romantic, but hey), what would it take for Las Vegans to change their attitudes about cars’ usage?

Though this video depicts women drivers, and I am a woman driver with a good record, it’s still hilarious. A case and point that some drivers out there shouldn’t be driving… and what’s the best way to avoid them? Pick up you’re two wheeler and get in the bike lane.

The electric car = a perfect example of the Jevons Paradox.

Let’s forget for a second that electric cars will still clog streets and threaten bikers. More importantly, they’re still bad for the environment. I don’t care if they save cash and reduce carbon in the short term by promoting an alternative energy option. Even if we switch our dependency to electric cars, the big picture isn’t becoming any more sustainable. Our overall energy consumption will keep on rising. We need to focus our efforts on mass transportation and eco-friendly transportation. Rails, buses and bike oh my!

This video provides the perfect explanation why electric cars are “efficiently unsustainable”…

Jevons Paradox from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

And oh yea, good luck when those old batteries start piling up.