Joan Edelstein of West Sacramento made a public vow last week. She will drive her car no more than 200 miles this month.

The go-green pledge puts her among a handful of Sacramentans who've announced similar intentions at the new "Car-Free Challenge" Web site – not for pocketbook reasons, they say, but because it's the right thing to do.

Just days in, however, Edelstein is learning an inconvenient truth about the movement to reduce driving.

Depending on where you live, it's not easy.

Edelstein, an education consultant who works on asthma issues, feels it's important though, and she wants to make a statement.

"I had issues about using cars to begin with," said the hybrid-car owner, who as a kid didn't think twice about walking to school or the store. "I'm excited to do this."

She jumped when she heard about the challenge sponsored by TransForm, an advocacy group hoping to send a message that there's a "critical mass" of people out there who don't want to sit in traffic and pollute and are willing to try something new.

Edelstein lives in a new energy-efficient, tri-level condo in West Sacramento only three miles from work. She's concerned enough about global warming that she's used online calculators to measure her carbon footprint.

Yet, from where she lives, she has to drive to work and to the store. The industrial streets on her route aren't safe or convenient for walking, and there is no bus.

"I find it very strange I can't just walk to do my grocery shopping," she said.

Her 200-miles pledge – it pencils out to less than seven miles a day – means she will use her car only to commute and buy food.

But Edelstein already was ahead of the game.

Even without the Car-Free Challenge, her driving profile ranks her among the daintiest of gas sippers in the Sacramento region.

On a typical day she estimates she may drive about 12 miles. That's far below the Sacramento average of 50 miles per weekday per household, according to estimates by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, the region's transportation planning agency.

Residents in downtown and midtown Sacramento as well as downtown Marysville rank at the low end of the driving scale, averaging fewer than 25 miles a day, SACOG data show.

They're like midtown resident Mary Marks, another Car-Free Challenge participant, who enjoys her drive-less lifestyle.

She tossed a dust cover over her car and bought a bike some time ago. Her commute to her downtown office is just a few blocks.

"I even ride my bike to church," she said.

It's easier, she acknowledges, because she lives in one of the region's most densely packed areas. Housing, offices, stores and nightspots are intermingled. Walking is easy and bus service frequent.

By comparison, households in more rural Granite Bay average more than 55 miles a day, according to SACOG's analysis. The region's true long- haulers, at more than 75 miles a day, live mainly in the rural foothill areas.

SACOG, made up of city and county leaders, has made it a top goal to reduce the number of miles people drive their cars by promoting tighter communities with better mixes of housing, jobs, usable transit, and bike and pedestrian routes.

Also, Sacramento Congresswoman Doris Matsui is pushing the locally engineered "Complete Streets" concept at the national level with a bill requiring that states and metropolitan areas define and design many streets as equal-rights territory for pedestrians, cyclists and buses, as well as cars.

Matsui and others in transportation and energy circles say they hope to take advantage of new Washington leadership to reduce reliance on foreign oil and to diminish greenhouse gas emissions.

SACOG head Mike McKeever believes that will make it easier – even enjoyable – for average people to make lifestyle changes that reduce congestion and air pollution, such as living where it's as easy to stroll to Starbucks as it is to drive.

"I don't think it's asking people to accept pain," he said. "We're looking for increased quality of life."

Edelstein of West Sacramento and others aren't waiting for government to design better communities.

They say they want to step up now and set an example by doing it publicly.

Edelstein calls it being eco-conscious.

This week she took the train to San Francisco for business. And if she has a meeting in downtown Sacramento, she'll walk, she said – but not in high heels or when it's too hot.

"I can't walk when it is over 90 degrees," she said.

Jim Brown of Curtis Park, who signed up for the Car-Free Challenge, says he is doing well but he, too, has run into a conflict.

He pledged to drive less than 100 miles this month, but also agreed to drop by a friend's house in Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood to feed the cat during a week the friend is away. That's a 10-mile trip.

"This is on my conscience," Brown said. "I made the pledge to keep my mileage low, and now I have this cat- sitting gig."

So far, his bike has been the answer.

Edelstein is no bike rider, though. She's just hoping more like-minded carbon footprint watchers will move into her neighborhood.

"Hopefully" then, she said, "we'll get more buses."

Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.