One woman pledged to check directions before leaving the house, another pledged to commute by bicycle even in the rain. Someone pledged to teach an adult how to ride a bicycle, yet another decided to lobby for a car-free area.

The business of licensing “Undrivers” was very brisk at the recent Green Festival for the 30 volunteers of Sustainable Ballard’s “Undriving” Program.

The crystal ball doesn’t reveal what invention or idea originated in Ballard will prove to have the greatest historical reach; will it be Bardahl’s oil product or the specialized coffee maker known as Clover? Or will the Undriving Program become a national and international model that puts Ballard on the un-map of the future?

Since its inception in 2003 Sustainable Ballard has proved an informal organization can educate (festivals, workshops) and get things done (bike racks) “while having fun.”

Several months before their 4th Sustainable Ballard Festival members were brainstorming a booth geared to reduce driving and car reliance. Julia Field recalls suggesting an “Undriver” Licensing Station where anyone could receive a license.

The idea clicked immediately, perhaps because it lent itself to props. Julia, who now serves as Undriving Program director, suspects the program popularity may also be linked to the unpopularity of visiting the actual Department of Licensing. For the Undriver License, individuality is encouraged, not against regulations.

Since its debut in late 2007, the program has licensed almost 2,600 undrivers; with 510 new card members licensed at the two-day Green Festival. Thirty volunteers worked in shifts of nine over the course of two days, sporting silk-screened licensing department gear and encouraging festival attendees who found their out of the way spot to apply for a license.

The licenses are free although donations are always welcome. Applicants are asked to brainstorm doable ways to reduce their carbon footprint based on their lifestyle.

“Self-directedness is the key,” Field said. “It’s about tapping into their creativity, and considering it to be a process, an experiment.”

At another festival a woman pledged to start taking the bus from Ballard to her job in Renton. It didn’t work out but once she resumed driving, she felt too guilty. “She decided to look for another job,” Julia recalls, “now she walks to work.”

After the undriving idea was hatched, Sustainable Ballard had to figure out execution. Julia’s background is in design and art; it struck her as a design challenge. At Seafoodfest she came across King County Police Union making identification cards for children’s safety.

When she asked about their equipment, they simply offered to lend theirs. They licensed 436 undrivers at the first event, and that was many, many events ago. Since that time the program has acquired special Polaroid software and printers that can immediately issue cards. They have received grants and gained sponsors, such as Urban Sparks, King County Metro, BIGInk. The program has been to Bainbridge (bus and ferry), schools (bicycle) and Portland (train).

The program also includes follow-up to encourage participants, share goals and evaluate what happens after someone sticks their head inside an over-sized mock license wearing a crown or bicycle helmet and becomes an official undriver. Survey response is nearly 40 percent. Within the respondents 96 percent have reported success in following through on the pledges; 70 percent to 78 percent established new habits. It doesn’t take a statistician to pronounce the program as very successful; no wonder there have been queries about how to recreate the program from various parts of the country.

One woman pledged to take the bus to work instead of driving and found it so much more relaxing that she began sincerely thanking the driver each day. A mother decided to take her children the full length of several bus routes and discovered they could bus to the dentist instead of driving. A licensed undriver (age 4) questions his mother whenever they do take the car, “Why are we driving?”

More props to enliven the photos, more opportunities for people to express themselves in an ID that thumbs its nose slightly at those that are government-issued. “It’s playfully encouraging,” Field said, “which is a signature of Sustainable Ballard.”

Who remembers that Red Hook Brewery started on Leary Way or that once upon a time there was Ballard Computer? The former Manning’s is gone, Googie or not, and ferries no longer dock at Shilshole. But one day it may be the Undriving Program that puts Ballard on the map, but it won’t be a road map like any we’ve ever used.

For more information on becoming an Undriver, see information at www.sustainableballard.org or www.undriving.org.