Nation's Capital Gets Greener

Bicycling past the Lincoln Memorial on a sunny day in the nation's capital.

I've been writing for the past few years about how my hometown of Washington, D.C. is leading the way in America's transition to a sustainable economy. The wildly successful Capital Bikeshare program that recently celebrated its two millionth ride, will soon be the second largest bike sharing system in North America when later this summer New York launches Citi Bike.

But bikes aren't the only mode of transportation being shared in The District these days. Car sharing service Zipcar now has some competition in D.C. with the recent launch of Car2Go. The subsidiary of Daimler AG features Smart Fortwo microcars that easily fit into the smallest parking spaces and are great for zipping around the city. Plus, unlike Zipcar you can pick up and drop off the Car2Go vehicle at any metered parking space in most places throughout The District city limits. While in D.C. and other cities the Car2Go vehicles are gas-powered, in San Diego and Amsterdam the company launched electric vehicle service with a fleet of Smart Fortwo ED (electric drive) vehicles.