Some Bay Area residents are discovering the virtues of car-sharing. They can have the use of a car on an as- needed basis without the burden of ownership—or, you might say, instead of owning one car they can share in the ownership of many cars.
One such program, which has quickly accelerated since starting in early 2001, is City CarShare. It is based in San Francisco and is expanding operations to Oakland and Berkeley in the East Bay. The goal for this non-profit's first year was 500 members. There are already 900 members who share 31 cars, most of which are green VW Beetles, stationed at 12 sites.
City CarShare has received start-up funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the City of San Francisco and numerous environmentally-oriented foundations, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District funded a direct-mail brochure. Oakland and Berkeley are also providing funding for expansion into their cities. City CarShare expects to be self-supporting in three years.
Members pay a refundable $300 deposit plus a monthly fee of $10. They all receive a "smart key." When they need a car, they reserve it over the Internet and pick it up at a nearby parking garage. They are charged $2.50/hour and $0.45/mile, which covers gas, maintenance and insurance.
By and large, members use the vehicles in the evening or on weekends. City CarShare is in the process of expanding its program to businesses so that cars will not sit idle during business hours. Businesses would have use of a car as needed, without the cost and headache of owning a fleet of vehicles.
Car-sharing is neighborhood based. A similar concept, called station-cars, is linked directly to transit. There are two examples of this concept in the Bay Area, Caltrain's CarLink II, and a program run by Hertz at the Fremont BART station.
Carlink II is a pilot program aimed at Caltrain commuters, with start-up funding of about $750,000 from Caltrans. Their 27-car fleet of 2001 Honda Civics is based at Palo Alto's California Avenue Caltrain Station. Honda donated the vehicles and is using them to test innovative technologies including a built-in global-positioning navigation system.
Individual members who pay $300/month and use the car to travel between home and the station can keep it overnight and on weekends. Companies pay $350/month to use the cars during the day. These costs include insurance, gas and 1000 miles of travel. The aim is to maximize use of the cars by some users driving them between the station and work and other users driving between their home and the station.
Hertz has a similar pilot program for individual users which began in May at the Fremont BART station. Rates start at $325 and include maintenance, gas and 1000 miles of travel.
Shared-vehicle systems have been working in many cities in Europe for over ten years, but the Bay Area is only the fourth region in the US, after Portland, Seattle and Boston, to implement this concept. Shared use of cars makes both environmental and economic sense. One very significant result of implementation of such systems in urban areas could be a decrease in parking requirements, thereby making housing more affordable.
Joyce Roy
For more information:
The CarSharing Network: http://www.carsharing.net/
City CarShare: (415) 995-8588 http://www.sfcarshare.org/
CarLink II: (866) 276-5303 http://www.gocarlink.com
Flexcar
Portland: (503) 328-3539
Seattle: (206) 323-3539 http://www.flexcar.com/