So things are really starting to ramp up for Curb Your Car Month! Homeless Dave of Teeter Totter fame just stopped by and donated a custom made desktop teeter totter for Curb Your Car Month. Check it out:

In case you can’t read it, the label says the TT is “handcrafted from Michigan-grown, Michigan-milled black walnut wood, acquired through the Ann Arbor ReUse Center’s urban lumber reclamation program.”

And here’s another picture of the Totter featuring my office action figures, Lady Gorgon and Medusa. These figures are not included:

I plan on giving this beautiful Totter away as a prize for the Curb Your Car Month Commuter Challenge. I just have to figure out what someone has to do to get it . . . Any suggestions?

There was a great piece on NPR yesterday reporting that people’s behavior is actually changing because of increasing gas prices. 

According to the piece: “Since the beginning of this year, gasoline consumption has fallen about half a percent, according to the Department of Energy.”

So what’s actually happening?  Well one of the highlights of the NPR piece was a story of two guys that are now carpooling to work together.  These guys used to both drive to work alone.  But when they saw just how expensive it was (about $6,000 a year for one of them) they decided to carpool.

This piece highlights the fact that using more sustainable modes of transportation to get to work is catching on, and people are really starting to see the benefits.  And these are real, tangible cost savings, not just a happy feeling about saving the environment, etc.

This morning, I attended a presentation by Ann Arbor City Administrator Roger Fraser.  Fraser outlined some of the important issues that will be facing our downtown in the coming years.  One of those issues is finding more sustainable commuting options for downtown workers.

And a lot is being done to move this issue forward.  The AATA is going to be introducing a new Commuter Bus Service from Chelsea to Ann Arbor.  Talks on the rail systems are moving forward, with the projected start of the east-west rail to be in 2010.  We are working on initiating a new transit service for evening workers.  AATA is creating a new online system so people can find carpool an vanpool partners much more easily.  And the list goes on and on.

And that is truly one of the great things about being an employee in downtown Ann Arbor.  We have so many sustainable and exciting ways to get to work.  We actually have more people who walk to work that people who take the bus.  And the numbers are growing.

What is most encouraging about all these developments is that people are coming to realize that using sustainable transportation is not just something “other people do”.  Using sustainable transportation is something we are all getting more used to, and as a result we are saving money, loosing weight, and reducing stress.

This year’s Curb Your Car Month is going to focus on all of the great sustainable transportation choices we have to get downtown.  I hope you take the chance to get more out of your commute this May.