For the next 30 days, the Smyrna resident is ditching her personal vehicle in favor of “greener” alternatives, such as walking, public transportation or carpooling.

Crowder, 37, is one of 30 Atlanta area participants in Zipcar’s annual Low-Car Diet Challenge, which asks drivers to take a pledge to surrender their personal vehicle for a month.

“It isn’t like we’re watching over your shoulder,” said Sonny Del Grosso, marketing manager for Zipcar’s Atlanta branch, adding that the company tried to find people who were “urban dwellers and would be active in trying to accomplish this and see it as an important thing.”

Zipcar, a car-sharing service that features hourly rentals, used community outreach tactics and social media to identify potential participants. Then the company presented them with surveys inquiring about their professional and social lives before whittling down the 100 applicants to the final 30.

For Crowder, her job as a blogger and social media expert allows her to work from home frequently – “My commute is up or down my steps,” she said – but she’s been heading into downtown Atlanta a couple of times a week for business purposes.

Now, she’ll carpool with her business partner.

“If we’re going to the same place, why take two cars?” she said.

Living with one car is nothing new for Adrienne Ollerenshaw and her husband, Doug.

The Cabbagetown couple owns a single vehicle, which Adrienne usually drives once or twice a week to her job as a third-grade teacher at Rainbow Elementary School in DeKalb County.

The other days, she rides her bike a mile to the bus stop, then takes public transportation for a 20-minute ride to work.

Doug, a graduate student at Georgia Tech, already bikes the six miles from their home to campus.

“Both of us try really hard not to rely on the car,” she said. “It’s always so tempting because it’s so much quicker. This [challenge] was a little extra motivation to seek out an alternative.”

The couple, both in their early 30s, moved to Atlanta more than two years ago from Portland, Ore., an area that is generally synonymous with environmental awareness. Adrienne considers herself environmentally conscious, given her surroundings.

“I work at a school where we don’t recycle and my co-workers think I’m insane for seeking alternative transportation or eating organic. But in my mind, I don’t consider it making an effort or doing anything all that drastic,” she said.

Since the 30 Atlanta participants – as well as those in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and other Zipcar-friendly cities – receive a free year-long Zipcar membership (a $50 benefit), the Ollerenshaws plan to take advantage of the perk for weekend trips out of town.

So does John Oleynik, a 24-year-old Buckhead resident who works in the Perimeter Mall area and already rides his bike and MARTA frequently.

But for personal errands and social outings, Oleynik intends to utilize a Zipcar.

“It’s kind of hard to go to the grocery store and carry stuff on your bike,” Oleynik said. “I’m sure I’ll pick one up just to drive around a little at night.”

Del Grosso said that in the first two days of the challenge, five participants checked out Zipcars for a total of 35 hours in reservations.

While the challenge will likely jolt many of the 30 “dieters” into a new path of thinking, the tougher test will come at the end of the experiment, when they’re confronted with the choice to return to their cars or continue a friendlier environmental way of life.

Adrienne Ollerenshaw admits that on Day 31, she’ll likely hop in the car to visit the DeKalb Farmer’s Market, but believes that the month of transportation deprivation will leave a lasting impact.

“Ideally, I’ll be much more disciplined coming and going to work. It seems like daily routines are where we waste the most in our cars,” she said. “We’ve talked about selling the car altogether. Maybe we’ll have that conversation again during this month.”