Tomorrow and Sunday will mark the Fourth AltCar Expo & Conference in Santa Monica. Admission is free and directions can be found on the AltCar's website.
In 2007, I went to the AltCar Expo in Santa Monica and reviewed it for Street Heat in one of my first posts and first ventures into transportation reform in Los Angeles. While I won't be going to this year's for the obvious reason, watching the growth of the Expo from a neat demonstration of car toys to a more balanced look at alternative transportation has been interesting over the past couple of years.
True, this year's Expo will feature the usual "green" car-show and a bevy of speakers extolling the virtues of "green" driving; but it is also increasing the presence of non-vehicular transportation at the Expo. A welcome sign that AltCar can mean "alternatives to the car" as much as "Alternative Cars."
If you have a chance this weekend, and you're not too busy going to see Crude or hanging out with David Byrne, the Expo can be a good, fun and informative way to spend some time. I'm not sure if any of next week's freelancers are planning on taking a stab at reviewing the Expo, but if anyone wants to put their thoughts to paper please drop me a line at damien@streetsblog.org.
