Gee, what do we use to generate electricity? OIL!!! It's hardly an alternative energy source!!!

The electricity for these cars can be generated from a generator that is attached to a treadmill. Gerry Connelly walks on the treadmill trying to get to a developer's cash that is forever just beyond his grasp. Sort of a larger version of the hamster wheel. Come to think of it....hamster...Gerry Connelly...hmmmmmmmmm

gm123: Even the dirtiest and least efficient power plants are far more efficient than the cleanest internal combustion engines due to the vast size difference between the two energy sources. If your goal is to reduce carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy used, than electric cars are vastly better.

Nobody here has seen "Who Killed the Electric Car?" This idea is long overdue. Electric cars are indeed the cleanest cars. Look into it.

I have been commuting with a small electric car for the last couple months and it is great! I have solar panels on the roof of my house generating power for the grid that offsets all of the electricity that my house and car consume. Its not that hard to do and it even saves you money over time.

This combines a couple good ideas - electric cars, which as one reader pointed out is an already-available option, and the flex-car idea which would both make public transport more flexible and therefore more viable, and would result in less travel expenditure overall, as people consider the cost to them of each trip. Gm123 is right about the efficiency of electric cars. And changing the mix of energy feeding the grid is preferable to biofuel boondoggles which only contribute marginal improvements in emissions while driving up food costs and potentially creating other environmental problems due to the fertilizer-intensive nature of commercial corn production.

gm123: please check your energy statistics. The majority of electric power in this country is generated using coal, and if my memory serves me correctly I believe that the majority of the new power plants built over the past 10 or so years are natural gas fired. Please also keep in mind that in addition to dtmell's insightful comments on plant size efficiency, electric cars could be powered by electricity from plants fueled by solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and fuel cells.

If it is economically viable, there will be a market for it. WAMATA can certainly bid leased parking and metered electricity to entrepreneurs. However, it is not the role of Fairfax government to compete with Hertz, Avis or ZipCar.