AARP Bulletin: Online Extra. . .Should You Share a Car? http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourlife/should_you_share_a_car.html?...
Online Extra. . .
Should You Share a Car?
Today 18 car-sharing programs serve residents of more than 40
U.S. communities. Find out if it would work for you.
By Mary Beth Klatt
March 2007
Karen Weiss, 51, didn't want to pay $12,000 for a second parking space at the condo she
shares with her husband, Keith, in Madison, Wis. So Weiss, who works for an insurance
company, got rid of her Jeep and started sharing cars with the 500 members of
Community Car. Now when she wants to run errands around town or even visit her
parents in Iowa, Weiss uses one of the local car-sharing service's 11 vehicles, located
within walking distance or a bus ride from her home.
"I consider it my safety net," Weiss says. "I love having it."
Whether owning a car is too expensive, maintaining it too much hassle or parking it too
difficult, more Americans are beginning to reason like Weiss. "I'm very happy and excited
that car-sharing has begun to enter the mainstream," says Kevin McLaughlin, director of
the nonprofit industry website CarSharing.net.
After concentrating in major cities beginning in the late 1990s, car-sharing programs are
cropping up in college towns like Chapel Hill, N.C., and Boulder, Colo., and in even smaller
communities like Nevada City, Calif. Today 18 car-sharing programs serve residents of
more than 40 U.S. communities, according to Susan Shaheen, a transportation research
scientist at the University of California.
They range from the small nonprofit Dancing Rabbit Vehicle Cooperative in Rutledge, Mo.,
with 15 members and three autos to the two major for-profit companies—Zipcar, with
more than 85,000 members and 2,500 shared vehicles in 13 U.S. locations; and Flexcar,
with more than 40,000 members and 1,000 cars in 10 markets.
What exactly is car-sharing? It's not like borrowing your sister's Lexus for the afternoon if
you promise to refill the gas. You pay an annual membership fee, typically $35 to $100,
for access to a group's fleet of cars, parked in designated spots. To use one, you
generally pay $8 to $10 an hour, including gas (typically paid with a group debit card),
insurance and maintenance. Sometimes the charge is by the mile; day rates are often
available as well.
Eligibility varies: Zipcar has no age limit for licensed drivers; Flexcar evaluates drivers
older than 75 individually.
Sharing autos has been popular in Europe for more than two decades, says Shaheen, who
began studying the phenomenon in 1996 after attending a lecture about its popularity
abroad. "I was so inspired by the impact on behavior," she says. "I wondered if
1 of 2 6/13/2007 10:05 AM
AARP Bulletin: Online Extra. . .Should You Share a Car? http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourlife/should_you_share_a_car.html?...
car-sharing could transfer to the U.S."
It has. There's usually an event—an accident, a new job, marriage, a need for an extra
car, a desire for simplifying—that prompts a car owner to consider car-sharing, says Dave
Brook, who founded CarSharing Portland [Oregon] in 1998. Even then, what often triggers
changes in driving habits is spending at the gas pump. "It's a variable cost of car
ownership that most directly affects us," says Brook. "Often when we're thinking about
taking a trip, we think, 'How many tanks of gas is it going to take?'"
Car-sharing isn't for everybody. Potential members who make a lot of trips may find it just
doesn't pay. And with convenient parking spaces limited, especially in urban
environments, getting access to a car might be complicated.
But car-sharing does mitigate some common urban problems, Shaheen says, though
exactly how much is hard to gauge. It can ease traffic congestion, she says, because
every shared car replaces at least six individually owned vehicles. It's not unusual for new
members to sell their own cars after joining, and other members postpone or avoid buying
an auto. Car sharers also tend to drive less than individual car owners, she says.
All of which tends to create a sense of community. Weiss is so taken with car-sharing
that she drove a Community Car vehicle in a parade and talks up the program to her
friends.
"Sometimes they look at me funny," she says, "like, 'You don't have a car? How do you
get around?'
Car-sharing is "perfect for a pair of downsized empty-nesters," she says.
Mary Beth Klatt is a writer in Chicago, where she uses I-Go, the local Flexcar company.
Copyright 1995–2007, AARP. All rights reserved.
2 of 2 6/13/2007 10:05 AM