If there is one thing that the U.S. can learn from Europe, it’s how to best balance urban living, transportation needs, and environmental consciousness. If there is one car that can best make that point, it’s the Smart Car.

Smaller even than the popular Mini Cooper, the Smart Car has become all the rage in many European cities where parking is scarce and gasoline expensive, and according to the New York Times, the Smart Car may soon be found on U.S. city streets. Reads the article:

DaimlerChrysler, which shelved an earlier plan to bring its Smart mini-car brand to the United States, plans to announce on Wednesday that it will introduce the tiny, two-seat vehicle to the American market early in 2008, according to several executives at the company.

The German-American carmaker is calculating that with stubbornly high gasoline prices, mounting concerns about global warming, and waning interest in sport-utility vehicles, consumers in the United States will welcome a car that is no larger than a good-sized riding mower.

Given that the District can be notoriously difficult on parkers and tends to see higher gas prices than many other metropolitan areas, we would love to see the Smart Car become an option for local buyers. Of course, it would take nothing short of a change in culture or a number of economic incentives to make the tiny car successful.

Urban dwellers are prone to going smaller and more fuel efficient in their car of choice, but that may stop at the Smart Car. Given its size next to even a small American sedan, we could see many buyers feeling nervous about taking one of these out on area roadways, especially some of the region’s notoriously congested interstate highways. If enough reasons and incentives were given to residents to purchase them, they might become popular over time, allowing the District to easily tackle its shortage of on-street parking. But that’s a big if. And given their price tag — $12,000, according to the article — the cars would likely remain a novelty item for the city’s more affluent residents.

We’ll probably see Smart Cars in the District sometime in the future. But we have to be realistic about their prospects — it could take a long time for them to catch on. But just imagine how much easier it would be to park in Adams Morgan on a Saturday night with those puppies.