TreeHugger Picks: Car Sharing Services
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 05.15.06
The high price of gas has been a hot topic of late, and we suspect it will continue to heat up with summer temperatures and busy summer travel. We've mentioned some easy ways to bump up your mileage, chatted about some ways to reduce our collective dependence on cars, and found some ways to drive greener every day. One of our favorite ways to drive is without owning a car. That's right, car-sharing services are booming across the world; here are our picks for driving for people who don't own cars.
1) Flexcar has more than 35,000 members in seven metropolitan areas -- Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. -- covering 37 total cities.
2) Zipcar's fleet reaches from San Francisco to Boston, with Minneapolis, Toronto, Chapel Hill, NC, Washington, DC and NYC in between.
3) GoGet has over twenty car-share locations throughout Australia.
4) Streetcar has London covered, from Bayswater to Wapping and Archway to Wimbledon.
5) Club Sportiva can put you behind the wheel of a Porshe, Maserati, Bentley or Lotus in San Francisco or Munich without breaking the bank.
I belong to both City CarShare and Zip Car in San Francisco. I use them for both personal (hauling stuff around, going hiking out of town) and business (getting to client meetings). The services differ somewhat in style and rate structure, but they are both incredibly easy and convenient. I don't miss owning a car in the city at all.
In the Netherlands the company GreenWheels (www.greenwheels.nl) has been operating a car sharing scheme since 1995. It underwent major expansion in 1999 an has pickup points in 44 towns spread across the country. (Almost every town with an intercity station has a least one pickup point).
In 2004 the company took over Shell Drive in neighbouring Germany where it is present in 23 cities. (see www.greenwheels.de).
In the Netherlands the cost of a pass for occasional use is fairly low (5 euros per month and pary per kilometer). More expensive subscriptions including a number of free kilometers per month are available for those making more frequent use of the service.
I have the cheapest subscription but I have to say I use it very rarely (about once a year). However its good to know that's its there whenever I need it. I can book with very short notice and there are two pickup points within walking distance and about 5 within 10 minutes cycle.
In Quebec there's communauto (link to their English site), and I know that in Ottawa there's Vrtucar.
I belong to AutoShare in Toronto. They have offices in other cities as well, like Vancouver. Their fleets are growing every month, and include a wide variety of cars. Currently they have discount deals with major rental agencies and the regional rail system (GO Transit), and are working with the Toronto Transit Commission to institute a member discount on monthly transit passes.
It's an excellent system and has definitely made not owning a car very easy.
To comparison shop, I just updated this chart that compares Zipcar, Flexcar, and CityCarShare:
http://greenerside.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/update_where_to_1.html
and here's a list of services all over the world:
http://www.carsharing.net/where.html
cheers!
AutoShare rocks! they just picked up a Green Toronto Awardfor rocking so much... and proof inteh pudding-- Zip is now in tronto scoping out sites and muscling in.. viva la competiccionne!
I wish one of these services would come to Providence. I would gladly sell my car and rely only on my bike and the bus if I knew I could get a car on weekends when I need to shoot weddings.
Madison, WI has Community Car (http://www.communitycar.com/), which boasts 3 Toyota Priuses, and a Honda Civic hybrid in its fleet of 7 vehicles.
ps: Can someone please tell me how to add hyperlinks in a comment?
No love for PhillyCarshare?! They have over 40 locations here, with lots of Priuses, a few Scions and Matrixes, as well as the odd Mini, Tacoma, Beetle convertible and 3-series BMWs. They seem to be adding new pods all the time.
I use Charter Drive in Sydney. They offer a fantastic service from the CBD, where I can take a car home after work (there's a car parked in my building!) and return it the next morning for only $25. Its a win coz we have 1 car for the fam but often need a 2nd and can't justify buying one. Now I get a reserved parking when I return the car to work (which costs about $20 pre hour ordinarily) and the car is used by businesses during the day. VERY COOL!
Hmmmm, do any of these do long distance stuff? I'm likely to go into trucking in the latter part of the year, and right now, I live in Phoenix, and the company's nearest terminal is in LA. Since I'd be going out to LA to pick up my rig, then hitting the road for 2 - 3 weeks, it seems a waste to use a car to get out there for that, but I'm not fond of the Greyhound bus option easier.
In London and the rest of the UK CityCarClub is the largest operator of car sharing (known as car clubs over here). In London I use my Oyster card, the public transport smart card, to get into the cars - its great! One smart card gets me all kinds of transport so I never need a car of my own.
In New Zealand www.hitch.net.nz is a free carpool and hitchhike resource. It's the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get around New Zealand.
In Miami they have a Vespasharing program built on the same principals as car-sharing except the pprices are cut in half and the MPG is much higher and they PAY FOR YOUR GAS! What can be better than that? I pay $57.99 a month for a flat rate plan and as long as I don't use it more than 5 consecutive hrs. I don't pay the daily rate of $25.99 which is still low compared to the car sharing programs avaialbe.
Paul in Miami
Philly Car Share love! One person said it already, Philadelphia is getting a clue- I'd love to see zero cars owned by individuals in that notoriously terrible city to drive in- a girl can dream, right?