Are You Willing to Carshare?
In a recent article on public transportation, Miranda Newsom commented that carshare programs are an excellent transportation option for environmentally conscious and money wise urbanites. Here, we follow up on the carshare option. So, the question becomes…
Toyota Prius Tuesdays and Ford Escape Hybrid Fridays?
What if you could drive a different car each day of the week? Carshare programs make this possible and often even beat the price of owning a car. Carshare members can experience both the freedom of living without a car, which increases interest in public transportation, and the freedom of having a car.
The outcome is more public transportation friendly cities, less congestion, and less auto exhaust pollution. But just who would want to participate in such a program? What are the advantages and what are the drawbacks?
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First, what is a carshare exactly?
Carshare programs are essentially clubs that give members access to a citywide fleet of cars. With roots in Switzerland, carshare programs can now be found in over 600 cities around the world.
Carshare programs are growing in North America as well. As with many good things, like… um… poutine , carsharing was introduced to the Americas through Quebec. Since it’s debut in the early ’90s, carsharing has caught on like wildfire in many cities across North America. In San Francisco, for example, it’s easy to spot cars from one of the city’s three carshare companies all over the city.
Advantages?
For many people, carshare programs are a convenient way to test the waters of not owning a car. They alleviate the costs of buying and maintaining a car as well as other costs, like insurance and parking fees. They also allow for the sense of freedom that many people cite as their primary reason for owning a car, providing access to any model of car in your program’s fleet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The benefits of carsharing are greatest for people who live in places where public transportation is good and there are disadvantages to owning a car, like parking constraints, high traffic, and congestion charging. Here’s a case study in of the environmental and community benefits of a carshare program in San Francisco, which has chronically limited parking and a famously good public transportation infrastructure:
- Since joining, 30% of CarShare member households have sold one or more of their privately owned cars, compared to 8% in a control group of nonmembers.
- Overall per-capita automobile travel among City CarShare members has dropped 47%, while travel among nonmembers increased 73% over the same period.
- City CarShare is saving 13,000 miles of vehicle travel, 720 gallons of gasoline, and 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each day in the Bay Area.
- In the City of San Francisco, 84% of the cases surveyed indicate that car sharing was less costly than renting cars or taking taxis.
Disadvantages?
While carshare programs offer urbanites a chic edge over owning a car in the city, still they’re not for everyone. If you’re a bicycle commuter or if public transportation serves all of your needs, then carsharing is just one more way two buy into something that has little value to you: cars.
Carshare programs also face hurdles in less densely populated areas, such as the ubiquitous suburban landscape of North America. On the other side of the world, Asia might also be hard to win over to the idea of carsharing since car ownership is being touted in many Asian countries as the status symbol du jour.
Lasting trend or passing fancy?
Even Ford Motors CEO and grandson of Henry Ford, William Ford Jr., sees carsharing and public transportation as the way of the future. As he famously said, “the day will come when the notion of car ownership becomes antiquated. If you live in a city, you don’t need to own a car.”
With over half of the world’s population now living in urban areas, and carshares gaining steadily in popularity, this day might be coming soon.
Resources:
Gas2.0, the GO site specializing in all things car-related | Green Options
Carshare Guide, an overview of carsharing with detailed benefits | The Transportation and Land Use Coalition
Where can you find a Car Sharing? | CarSharing.net
The Carsharing handbook | Rainmagazine
Bringing Carsharing to Your Community (be warned, this can be a big task) | City Carshare [PDF document]
Transit 511, #1 public transportation resource for the San Francisco Bay Area, as noted in the article | 511.org
Photo: Flickr
Big thumbs up from me. My husband and I recently started using Zipcar and it’s worked out really nicely so far. Way more convenient than rental cars.
I also wanted to mention http://goloco.org a website that connects people looking to carpool or rideshare. It’s still pretty new, but I believe it serves the US, Canada, and UK.
We have a scheme in Switzerland called Mobility Carsharing. They have depots at all main stations, and in other densely populated areas - in fact we have one 50 meters down the street from where we live.
It’s very useful for the odd days when Public Transport doesn’t fit the bill. Just book the car on the internet, then turn up, put the special card in the slot and off you drive. Billing is per kilometer and per hour.
Sadly we don’t use it any more because, um, I brought a car. Although Mobility is a great service, its expensive if you drive a long way. It is designed whereby one takes the train to near your destination, and then takes the car locally. Unfortunately that didn’t always work for me, not least because it is a pain to take skis on a train.
I’ve been really happy with Zipcar so far. I’ve only had a couple of occasions to use it since I joined in early December, but I guess that’s part of the appeal. I have a car when I need one and can forget about it the rest of the time.
Car clubs ROCK! We are a member of Streetcar, which has been brilliant for us. We don’t use it every week, but it’s so great just knowing it’s there when we need it (and not having to give it a thought when we don’t). Owning a car means a constant worry: that it will be stolen, damaged, broken into, or will break down. Plus the payments, insurance, paperwork/taxes. What a hassle!
I do think once people see how easy it is to use a car club car (as opposed to hiring a car for instance) they will be happy to get rid of their own vehicle. The only problem is when you have children. Schlepping car seats many blocks to your car club car is no fun. But the more people who join, the more cars will be available, so it will get even easier. Plus hopefully it will mean our streets won’t be so clogged with parked cars that aren’t being used.
Cheers
Miranda
http://www.TheAccidentalEcoManiac.com