Austin shares it's Smarts

Austin has teamed with German auto maker Daimler-Chrysler to debut a new type of "company car" for city workers. The program will use the company's very popular, and very eco-friendly SmartforTwo cars, which are itty-bitty little things, and go for, like days, on mere lighter fluid. Or something like that. Workers get to walk up to any car that's parked, swipe a card, get in and drive off. Kind of like cops do with their cruisers.

It's not quite the Singapore solution of charging people (a lot of) extra money to drive into the city instead of using public transport, but since we don't have a tremendous amount of public transport anywhere in Texas, this is a pretty clever second.

I love that Austin is at the forefront of international innovation. It really is a forward-thinking and fun place to live. Of course, there is a downside.