Low-Car Diet Participants Getting Around Just Fine; Early Results Indicate That Living without a Car is Easy, Just Requires a Little Planning.

SAN DIEGO -- Two weeks after giving up their cars in a month-long challenge, 14 San Diegans are surprised at how relatively easy it has been. Using a mix of bus, feet, bike and Flexcar, the participants in the first-ever San Diego Low-Car Diet are still in the game.

Low-Car Diet participants have been given 25 hours of free Flexcar use during the month, as well as a transit pass and other "goodies" including two roundtrip Amtrak tickets to Los Angeles and free passes to Universal Studios, which were provided to make their month-long car "diet" enjoyable. Should they complete the month without driving their own car, they will be awarded free hours of Flexcar use each month for a year. And if they decide to sell their own car and continue to use Flexcar, they will enjoy savings of up to several hundred dollars per month over owning a personal vehicle.

Participants are keeping journals of their experiences, a number of excerpts of which are included below.

--Robert Eichwald wins the award for the honorary Flexcar marketing employee with his journal entry, as follows: "I had my first effort using Flexcar. And I'm afraid to report that...it was no big deal! I felt like I was missing something. It has to be more complicated than this. I need to give some sort of iris scan or give a drop of blood or something. But, no, it was simpler than using an ATM machine, minus answering if I would like to give my responses in English or Spanish."

--Janet Comer, a Broker Assistant for Burnham Real Estate learned one of the benefits of Flexcar -- a diverse fleet. She used one of Flexcar's pickup trucks for a trip to Home Depot to purchase a number of large plants, a trip, she says "that would not have been possible with a car."

--Sage Waetjen, a producer at NBC 7/39 experienced the freedom of skipping past the traffic by using the Honda Civic Hybrid to cruise in the HOV lanes. She plans to use "a couple more hours this week for school and errands. I am also planning to use the trolley and bus for a doctor's appt later in the week."

--Todd Ruth, a member of the only family taking part in the challenge, utilized transit, walking and another partner in reducing dependency on cars -- Amazon.com. He writes that on Monday, "Special chlorine-free diapers arrived at our door from Amazon.com: one less reason to drive to a store!"

--Dee Mason, an executive with Amtrak was impressed with how convenient it is to not drive at all, when she reported on a trolley trip to Mission Valley. "The entire trip was stress free and took about the same time if I had driven in my car there but would have had to search for a parking space."

As with any new program, a few members found that they needed to think a little differently, or plan a little more, to use Flexcar.

--Evan Himfar, President of TheVenueMenu.com, noted that he took "Trolley to/from Gaslamp for social/business meeting with downtown professional group--short walk, after 6 pm downtown trolley runs every 30 min (20 minute delay waiting for trolley); next time, need to account for this.

--Janet Fairbanks, who works for SANDAG, wrote that she thought it was "difficult to figure out exactly when a car will be needed and for how long on a non-structured day like a Saturday." But she had a spontaneous need for a car at 5:15 one night, and the Flexcar in her building was available, so she used it to get to her running club.

More information on the participants, including journal entries and biographies is available on the event website, www.lowcardietchallenge.com.

Flexcar's innovative program provides its members with on-demand access to a fleet of low emission vehicles, including gas/electric hybrids, pickup trucks and minivans located throughout seven major metro areas, including San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Washington, D.C. It is the only carsharing service with operations throughout the state and up and down the West Coast. In San Diego, there are more than 20 cars, trucks and minivans located in Downtown and Sorrento Valley.

More information on Flexcar is available online at www.flexcar.com/sandiego or via phone at 619-262-FLEX (3539).

About Flexcar

Flexcar founded the U.S. car-sharing industry and now operates car-sharing programs for about 35,000 members in seven metropolitan areas, covering 37 cities in 6 states and the District of Columbia. With flexible pricing plans, members can reserve and drive any of these cars whenever and wherever they need to, without filling out complicated paperwork, paying for insurance, gas or repairs. Flexcar Business Memberships enable companies to augment or replace their fleet with Flexcar vehicles. Flexcar's fleet includes sedans, gas-electric hybrids, and specialty vehicles including pickups, AWD, minivans and convertibles. AOL Founder Steve Case and auto industry legend Lee Iacocca are board members and investors/owners of Flexcar.

Editor's Note: Correct spelling and punctuation of name is "Flexcar" (not Flex-car FlexCar, Flexicar or Flex Car).