Car Sharing
For some good online resources on car sharing, take a look at: -- PhillyCarShare |
Right now, car sharing is more common in larger cities. But it's expanding to smaller places, especially where partnerships can work together to promote it -- and where neighborhoods have high enough densities to support it.
Private businesses such as Zipcar, U-Haul, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car are also expanding their neighborhood-based operations to more communities. For a recent article on this newly competitive environment, see "Warning to Zipcar: Traffic Ahead" (Boston Globe, Mar. 30, 2008).
But in smaller cities, it still usually takes a nonprofit to get a car sharing program underway.
PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz recently spoke with Annie Bourdon, Executive Director of a nonprofit car sharing program under development in Burlington, Vermont. Take note, in particular, of the supportive role being played by the county metropolitan planning organization (MPO), which sees the value car sharing can play in reducing overall vehicle use and benefitting the region's transportation infrastructure.
Car Sharing Comes to Vermont
by PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz
"Car sharing programs can be successful in a lot of communities," asserts Annie Bourdon of Green Mountain CarShare in Burlington, Vermont. "The key is in understanding the needs and habits of the community in which it operates."
Bourdon is heading up this new organization, on a mission "to provide an affordable, convenient, and reliable alternative to private car ownership that enhances the environmental, social and economic well-being of our region and planet." It is gearing up for operation in Burlington, a city of 39,000 residents, which includes several colleges, a major hospital, and a compact, vibrant, downtown business district.
Annie Bourdon introduces Green Mountain CarShare to forty local residents at an informational get-together in Burlington, Vermont, on a cold February evening. See also "Car Share Nonprofit Revs Up," in Seven Days Vermont (Feb. 13, 2008), and listen to: "Burlington group launching Green Mountain Car Share" on Vermont Public Radio (Feb. 8, 2008). By the way, getting good publicity is very important in generating interest in car sharing!
Car sharing programs provide a combination of mobility and access, and must seek to maximize the use of their vehicles by developing an appropriate customer base within the service area.
Car sharing creates "mobility." People without a car who are looking to go where only a car can take them, need the carrying capacity of a vehicle, or are on a schedule not always supported by local transit options might require only a short term use of a vehicle to be more mobile.
Car sharing also creates "accessibility" by providing a car (or other vehicle, like a pick-up truck or van) to those who can not or choose not to own, or to those who face other restrictions. This includes folks with limited incomes, students with restrictions on having cars on campus, or employers with limited parking availability but who need to occasionally reach clients or customers.
Daytime users of the vehicles include employers, medical patients, and stay-at-home parents or retirees. In the evenings, individual users might attend cultural events, go grocery shopping, or see family. Weekend users might require a vehicle for home-improvement shopping, recreational trips, or sightseeing.
My conversation with Bourdon highlighted the following points:
1. Car sharing programs must partner locally to attract a balanced customer base and to provide amenities to make the program work financially (such as securing parking spots for vehicle storage). The density of cities and universities tend to support a readily accessible variety of users and a range of needs, and may provide a strong market for many car-sharing programs, especially for-profit operators.
2. Organizations with a broader mission -- which may include environmental or social goals -- or those in small cities and suburban or rural areas, must attract substantial additional support to compensate for smaller margins of profit or less efficient use of shared vehicles. These programs must reach out to government agencies, non-profit groups, community activists, local businesses, and volunteer labor in order to maintain a successful program.
3. Informal market research or a community poll to determine potential demand is an important first step in developing a car-sharing program. This information is critical in determining how to attract (or finance, organize, and sustain) a car sharing group.
Green Mountain CarShare will be operated as a non-profit organization. Bourdon is encouraged by the number of key partners signing on, including the City of Burlington, the University of Vermont, the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization (CCMPO), the Campus Area Transportation Management Association (serving area colleges as well as the region’s medical center), Local Motion (a non-profit trails and bikeways group), and a prominent local environmental law practice.
CCMPO Executive Director Scott Johnstone explains his organization's start up support for Green Mountain CarShare by noting the value of "increasing the region's transportation infrastructure and creating additional capacity." It's also in keeping with the MPO's interest in finding "new ways to be attain mobility without single occupancy vehicles." With a modest investment, the MPO can help offset the organization’s start up costs, and then allow it to stand on its own.
Betsey Krumholz, besides being the PCJ's General Manager, is a former member and Chair of the Burlington, Vermont, Planning Commission.
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For some of the basics of car sharing, see this short video about Chicago's non-profit I-GO program:
And to see just one example of how Zipcar is marketing carsharing to younger adults:
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