For those in the Nation's Capital, today marks the first-ever "Car Free Day", an event sponsored by DC Metro. The point is to get as many people as possible to avoid driving and use alternative modes of transportation -- train, foot, bike, or other forms of activity. It's a great idea - and a good way to reduce car emissions and other pollutants. It's nice to see local and Federal government getting in the mix, and there are some cool new initiatives out there to help. The Federal government is even going so far as to offer people the opportunity to "telework" from one the Federal telework centers for the day so they don't have to drive in to work.

Speaking of the government and things you may not have known existed, I was  surprised when I recently learned that that members of the House of Representatives can get a lease for a car that's paid for by U.S. taxpayers --  yes, you and me. I found a 2007 report by Taxpayers for Common Sense on what Representatives drive, and there are at least the 130 that participate in this program. To be fair, it's a wide range, but some are real gas guzzlers.

I did a quick check at the gas mileage-using the government's own Fuel Economy website (great site if you are looking for a new car) and found the following. The average city MPG, for the 117 vehicles that had enough information to determine a specific MPG, was slightly more than 17 MPG, while the average highway MPG was just over 24 MPG. There were some outliers on both sides, including a fair number of SUVs and luxury cars. Representatives Miller (CA), Fortuno (PR), and Ross (AR) drive Ford Expeditions; and Rep. Rush (IL) drives a Lincoln Navigator - all of which have a measly 12 MPG city. Rep. Conyers (MI) has a Lincoln Signature LM that, according to the EPA, gets only 10 MPG city. On the upside, there were two Priuses (45 MPG city) on the list from Rep. Becerra (CA) and Watt (NC).

On a related note, the DC city government has really taken a step forward in trying to get people to avoid using cars, when it introduced SmartBike DC. This is a bike-sharing program where people pay a yearly fee to use bikes in three hour increments. There are 10 locations with approximately 50 bikes spread between them. Hopefully, this will catch on and so we can reduce our oil demand and keep our air clean.

And, in case you were wondering, I took the Metro to work this morning, but I'm gearing up to start riding a bike soon.