Free Car Rentals For Frenchies! (Kind Of)

Imagine New York City, still with all of the cabs — but minus the cab drivers — and you were free to take one on a joy ride of your own. That is the anarchic system the mayor of Paris is suggesting for the French city. Voiturelib' is its name (literally "free car"). And like the classic Ami 6, it's a bit wacky.

Approximately 2,000 electric cars would be spread out around the city. Subscribers to Voiturelib' would get to hop in one of the cars, take it for a joy ride in the city and dump it off for another Voiturelib' subscriber to pick up, no doubt smelling like cheese curds. No reservations or pre-planning would be required. The system would have minimal fees based on mileage used. The inspiration behind this program are statistics that 45 percent of Parisians own cars, but 95 percent of those cars are parked at any given time.

The vehicle pictures is one of the potential cars for the program. It is the Cleanova II that features the Renault Kangoo body, top speed of 80 mph and a four to eight hour charge time. This is one of those ideas that is just crazy enough to work. [Treehugger]