TAKING TURNS | Less traffic, fewer parking tickets, and cheaper than owning a car: Could car sharing be the wave of the future? | By Mike Rosen-Molina

EIGHT YEARS AGO, JUDY LEE’S CAR WAS ON ITS LAST LEGS. The busy San Francisco resident never had the time to properly maintain her car, and now it was falling apart. Worse, parking was so scarce in her Mission district neighborhood that she was always getting parking tickets.

“ Like everyone in the Bay Area, I originally came from the East Coast where everyone has a car,” says Lee, 32. “I was addicted to having a car. It was hard to imagine any other way of doing things.”

That all changed when Lee joined City Car Share, a nonprofit San Francisco organization devoted to a new concept in urban transportation: car sharing. For many, it’s just like having their own car—but they don’t maintain it, the tank comes prefilled with gasoline, and there’s always a parking space that no one else can steal.

“ My friends still have to budget $100 a month for parking tickets,” says Lee. “That’s one problem I don’t have anymore.”

For many of the people who join, the advantages are immediate. But environmental activists and car-sharing companies see it as more than just a way to save money, but rather as the answer to the problems of crowded city streets, traffic congestion, and pollution.

“ There have been environmental groups for decades, looking for ways to tread less harshly on the earth,” says Kate White, one of the original co-founders of City Car Share. “Most of them tend to hit people over the head, telling them what they shouldn’t be doing. But unless you provide a practical alternative, people can’t change their behavior, even if they want to. Car sharing is something that’s better for the environment and better for people.”

Three companies are betting on that. Along with City Car Share, Zipcar and Flexcar—other Bay Area entrants in the car-sharing race—are all hoping to drive the point home that car sharing is a win-win plan. It’s cheaper than owning a car, which is good for the wallet, and, without temptation sitting in the driveway, you tend to drive less, which is good for the air. A European study by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy found that car sharing cuts driving by over half. Another survey found that car-share members walked more instead of driving, taking 10% more foot trips. And here in the Bay Area, a U.C. Berkeley study showed that City Car Share alone saves 13,000 miles of vehicle travel, 720 gallons of gasoline, and 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each day.

City Car Share CEO Rick Hutchinson estimated that, in its five years of operation, the firm has saved one million gallons of gasoline and reduced carbon dioxide pollution by 20 million pounds.
Take that, global warming.

In a country where cars outnumber people, the idea of sharing cars is slowly catching on. Major cities including Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C. also have car-share programs, and experts expect the trend to grow as fuel prices continue to soar, along with concerns about global warming and other environmental issues.

“ With auto ownership and fuel costs rising, individuals are seeking alternatives to private vehicle ownership,” wrote U.C. Berkeley professor Susan Shaheen, in a paper published by the Institute for Transportation Studies at U.C. Davis. “Car-sharing programs provide such an alternative, especially for individuals living in major urban areas, households with one or more vehicles, and those with access to other transportation modes, such as transit and carpooling.”
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Kate White co-founded City Car Share with her friends Gabriel Metcalf and Elizabeth Sullivan in 2001. When they met in an urban studies program in Antioch College in Ohio, all three recognized their shared desire for radical social change and were drawn together by a common hope to improve city living. After college, all three moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, partly because of its reputation as an environmental hub but mostly because, in those days, that’s where opportunity waited.

Sure enough, they each got involved right away with Bicycle Coalition, a grass-roots advocacy group that fought to make city streets friendlier to bicycle travel. Later, Sullivan got a job with the Neighborhood Parks Council, a community-based organization dedicated to improving parks and playgrounds in San Francisco, and White became Sustainable Cities Program director at Urban Ecology, an Oakland organization that works to design cities more in harmony with nature.

City Car Share began as a fluke. White and her friends noticed an article about car sharing in a European environmental magazine. Having focused more on land-use issues, White hadn’t given much thought to cars. But the article made her realize that with their entrenched role in the lives of even the most urban Americans, cars have made a deep mark on cities. If you could reduce the number of cars on the road, she reasoned, you could cut back on the number of parking lots and free up space better used for parks and homes.

“ Car sharing had been going on in Europe for several decades,” says White. “We thought San Francisco would be the perfect venue for this sort of thing, because it’s close to a European city in terms of density, outlook, and lack of dependence on cars. There aren’t many places in the U.S. where a car-sharing system would work this well.”

In a city where some 80 percent of residents consider themselves environmentalists, the concept took off from the start: In its first month of business, City Car Share attracted over 100 members.
Since then, the program has grown considerably, now encompassing 140 cars and 5,000 members. In recent years, it expanded into the East Bay, with locations in Berkeley, Oakland, and, most recently, El Cerrito. Plans are underway to move into central Richmond next.
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Car sharing isn’t the same thing as carpooling or renting a car. While car-sharing programs maintain an entire fleet of cars, in much the same way that car rental agencies do, shared cars aren’t all stored at one central lot, but rather in special designated parking spaces, called “pods,” found throughout the city. Since car sharing is designed to help locals without cars, the pods have to be spread out, so that each member can walk to the nearest one from home.

When you join the program, you get a special electronic key that can be configured to operate any car in the fleet. When you want to take a trip to the grocery store or Laundromat, you call up the program to reserve a car at the nearest pod. When you’ve finished your trip, you return it to the same pod for the next person to use.
The price depends on which package you sign up for and how long you plan to drive; most charge per mile, per hour, or per day, while some “heavy user” plans require additional monthly membership fees in exchange for reduced hourly rates.

All the expenses of owning a car—insurance, gas, and maintenance—are handled by the car- share company, and come free with a membership. “If you own a car, most of the fixed cost is already spent,” says Rick Hutchinson, CEO of City Car Share. “There’s no motivation not to use it, so you end up using it all the time, even when you could just walk. If you have something with a variable cost—where you pay per mile that you drive—you tend to drive less because you’re more aware of the cost. People become smarter about their uses of cars; they’ll combine all their errands into one round trip instead of making separate trips.”

David Dull and his wife Margaret Shebalin saw a big difference once they only started paying for the time they actually used a car.

“ When we owned our old Mustang, we were paying $1,000 every month in insurance and maintenance,” says Dull, a San Francisco computer programmer in his 50s and City Car Share member for four years. “But I just found that we hardly ever used it. We live in downtown San Francisco, and it turned out that there was a pod next door. At $4 an hour and 40 cents a mile, the price is just right.”
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Cars have long been a cherished part of American life. For many, car ownership is not just a necessity but a point of pride, a vital part of the American dream and a symbol of wealth and status. Car sharing goes against something deeply ingrained in the American psyche, and requires a whole new way of thinking.

Living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dan Murtha, 35, was used to rushing everywhere in his car. Later, Murtha and his girlfriend headed across the country in an old Chevy Spectrum and settled in Tahoe—where, despite the bucolic lifestyle, Murtha kept up his old fast-driving habits. When they moved down to the Bay Area so that Murtha could attend San Francisco State University to study saxophone, they knew they didn’t want to keep living that same hectic lifestyle.

“ When I was in Tahoe, I just flew down the road,” says Murtha, who has just graduated from university. “Safety-wise, it wasn’t good. I started noticing that it was more than me. Every-thing’s so hectic, it’s almost like that anti-cocaine commercial from the ’80s—the one where the guy is running in circles saying, ‘I do cocaine so I can work more . . . so I can buy more cocaine . . . so I can work more.’ It’s ridiculous.”

Murtha’s more relaxed attitude is reflected in his look: A scruffy, stocky fellow in glasses, baseball cap, and Lake Tahoe T-shirt, he’s calm and casual as he prepares for his weekly day of driving. From his home in North Oakland, it’s a ten-minute walk to the nearest City Car Share pod at the Rockridge BART station, on the corner of College and Keith. In the vast parking lot, three box-like purple Psions wait, in a small corner clump of designated parking spots, below a sign reading: “Reserved for City Car Share.”

A little plastic tag hangs on Murtha’s keychain, similar to the electronic clicker keys common with newer cars. He holds the tag up to a little gizmo attached to the inside of the Psion’s windshield, wired to its dashboard. The car’s four doors unlock with a click. He climbs in and grabs the key dangling from a string under the steering wheel.

Murtha uses car share about once a week, for when he needs to transport laundry or groceries. Today, he’s going to pick up his girlfriend from her job at Cal, return some movies to Reel Video on Shattuck, and then finally over to shop at Whole Foods. Murtha carefully plans out his trips in advance, saving up his major errands for the days that he has a car. The rest of the time he bikes or rides public transportation to get around.

Murtha grew up in a family that believed in conservation. He recycles, composts, buys organic food, and “all that politically correct stuff,” Murtha jokes. His parents carpooled and never threw anything out—and some of their habits rubbed off on him. Sharing a car, he says, is just another extension of that.

“ Growing up in an industrial city like Pittsburgh really makes you aware of what you need to do to fight pollution,” says Murtha.

On the days he takes the bus or BART, he gets a chance to read and relax before work. He’s trying to slow his life down in general; he swims and does occasional yoga.

“ As you can see, I’m driving pretty slowly,” says Murtha, tapping the speedometer, which shows the car crawling along at 20 miles per hour as he turns onto the U.C. Berkeley campus. “That’s pretty new to me. I’m actually driving the speed limit.”
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Car sharing is nothing new. The first programs began in Europe in the early 1970s with ProcoTip in France and the Witkar project in Amsterdam. The idea gained speed in the 1980s, mostly in Switzerland and Germany, but the real turning point came a decade later, with the introduction of larger car-sharing companies like StattAuto in Germany, Greenwheels in the Netherlands, CityCarClub in England and Scotland, and Mobility CarShare in Switzerland. By 2005, there were over 200 car-share organizations in more than 600 cities worldwide.

Many old European cities were built in the days long before cars, and the narrow, cobbled streets make driving—and parking—a nightmare. Christian and Cherrie Lochner live in Amsterdam, a medieval city where parking is in such short supply that there’s a six-year waiting list for residential parking permits from the city council. The Lochners and their four-month-old daughter Cora are members of Greenwheels.

“ The Greenwheels car is our mode of transportation when we go for a family outing,” says Christian Lochner.

“This can be a drive to the North Sea to lie on the beach, or we might visit relatives that live more in the countryside.” To get around in the crowded city center, Lochner rides a bike, with a special child-safety seat for Cora. “We also use the car when we shop in bulk for the baby,” he adds, “when we drive to larger shopping malls outside of the center where we can get everything conveniently.”

In Berlin, Jakob and Anya Kohl and their 13-year-old son Marcus are members of StattAuto. Like the Lochners, the Kohls struggle with their city’s limited parking. Jakob and Anya take the subway to work, and Marcus has a special student pass that lets him ride the public bus to school for free.

“ For us, the car is something we usually use on weekends,” says Anya Kohl, 37. “Since we use it when we’re all together for family outings, we don’t fight over who uses it. Sometimes I’ll take Marcus to his swim lessons if I happen to go shopping the same day. But you might say that’s a special treat.”

Although the parking problem might not be as acute in the U.S., car sharing is still catching on. Speaking from Lucerne, Switzerland, Conrad Wagner, head of Switzerland’s Mobility CarShare and an original founder of Flexcar, predicts that U.S. car sharing may eventually advance to mirror that in Europe, where cars are stationed at every major bus stop and train station.

Switzerland conjures up images of jagged Alpine peaks, but most of the country is actually quite flat. It’s so small that, even outside of the major cities, there aren’t wide, open spaces in the way that America thinks of them, but rather sprawling networks of smaller villages, which Wagner likens to the little suburban cities that hover around Los Angeles. That makes the landscape ideally suited to car sharing, and cars are stationed at 350 train stations throughout the country.

When Mobility CarShare first started, things didn’t go according to plan. Wagner says that the cars, standing unguarded at train stations, proved a tempting target for thieves and lots of cars were stolen.

“ It was an expensive way to grow,” says Wagner. “That was solved once they installed on-board computers, so that they could control access.”

Today, on-board computers give Mobility CarShare—and other similar companies—the ability to track and shut down stolen cars. If an alarm indicates that a car has been stolen, Mobility can lock the car down remotely. Since car sharing only became popular in the U.S. after remote locking technology became available, American programs didn’t have to deal with the same hiccups.

“ We’ve only had one stolen car, and that wasn’t by a member,” says Dan Shifrin of Zipcar. “Considering the number of cars that we have, the amount of problems that crop up is tiny. Members have a key understanding that car sharing is, after all, sharing. They’re very respectful of the fact that other people need to use the same cars.”
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More demand for car sharing here has led to greater competition: now three separate car-sharing companies are vying for members in the Bay Area. City Car Share was the area’s first—a locally grown nonprofit with a focus on environmental awareness. The national chain Zipcar offers access to over 1,500 cars. Flexcar, founded in Seattle in 1999, just recently expanded into the Bay Area. Of the three, City Car Share is the only nonprofit, but Flexcar and Zipcar boast the same dedication to green values.

Differences between the three programs are in the details. City Car Share has the lowest hourly rate, charging only four dollars per mile and 44 cents per mile, but the other programs offer special deals and discounts. A Zipcar membership, for example, has a high hourly rate—packages start at $7.65 per hour—but members can drive 125 free miles every day before that rate kicks in.

North Beach resident Nicole Hogarty, 24, lives only three blocks away from her job, and doesn’t drive often, but still needs a car for special errands and trips. Her old Toyota Corolla had become a hassle to keep and a target for vandals. “The old car got keyed. It got run into. Someone threw a rock through the windshield,” says Hogarty. “It was just trashed.”

Car sharing proved the ideal solution. She joined Zipcar last month, after investigating all the city’s car-sharing options. “They have a great selection of cars,” says Hogarty, “but my favorite is the Prius. It’s fun and weird, and if I’m picking someone up from the airport, it’s a good conversation piece.”

Another important factor in her decision was her dog, a shelter mutt named Audrey. “City Car Share doesn’t allow pets in its cars,” explains Hogarty. “They don’t want a lot of hair left in the car for the next person, I suppose. Zipcar lets them in if they’re in a carrier. That was really important to me, so I can take her to the vet occasionally.”

Available in eight cities nationwide, Zipcar is a behemoth amongst U.S. car-sharing programs. But as a latecomer to the highly competitive Bay Area, it has to work hard to match its popular, entrenched predecessors. With 20 makes and models of cars to choose from, the company distinguishes itself by catering to all tastes.

“ We’ve got BMWs on the high end, Toyota Tacomas for when you want to move furniture,” says Dan Shifrin.

“We’ve got everything from the Prius all the way down to Mazda 3.”
Flexcar, meanwhile, prides itself on being the first car-sharing group in the United States and, according to its marketing, the “greenest.”

“ We’ve got more hybrid cars than either competitor,” says Dana Beard, Flexcar’s San Francisco–area general manager. Forty percent of Flexcar’s fleet are fuel-efficient hybrid cars. The company also has an alliance with American Forests, a nonprofit forest conservation group, to use paperless communication to save trees.

Kok Lye, 32, has just moved from San Francisco to Berkeley to attend U.C. Berkeley’s school of public policy. An avid cyclist, he’s never owned a car. And in the Bay Area he doesn’t need to own one. He’s a member of Flexcar.
“ City Car Share charges a monthly membership fee on top of the hourly fee you pay for driving,” says Lye. “I prefer Flexcar because, with my plan, I only pay for the miles I actually drive.”

Lye’s girlfriend Joy Ohara, 23, doesn’t share his enthusiasm; she prefers City Car Share for its close locations and easy reservation system. Flexcar has six East Bay locations spread between Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville. City Car Share has 17 throughout the same area. Zipcar, meanwhile, has four East Bay pods.

Ohara says that with most car-sharing programs you are locked into your reservation in the last eight hours before your pickup time. “But with City Car Share, the changes were instantaneous. I once booked a car for 3 p.m., and then at 2:58 p.m. I had to change the reservation to 3:30 p.m. and I could do it without any trouble.”
For short excursions, City Car Share has better rates, says Ohara, but Flexcar is better for all-day trips because you can get special day rates rather than paying per hour. Using a Flexcar, Lye and Ohara took a 17-day, 3,000-mile vacation trip to Tahoe, Nevada, and Southern Utah—to see the parks—then back through Colorado, Arizona, Las Vegas, and the Navajo area. Without having to pay for gas, the car-share trip cost about $750 for the entire trip. If they’d driven a private car, gas alone probably would have cost at least $900.

“ Friends berated me for not going with Zipcar because membership gives you free hours,” says Ohara, “but Zipcar didn’t have any pods near my house in North Berkeley. City Car Share’s been great, it’s right near my home, even though it doesn’t have as much selection.”
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For all its good, car sharing isn’t a cure-all. Car-sharing spokespeople say it’s not meant to replace public transportation, but rather to augment it—to fill in the last leg of the trip from the bus depot or train station to the house. In general, car sharing only works as a worthwhile alternative in transit-rich areas with a high urban density and a large population.

“ We’re the last mile,” says Shifrin. “If you go shopping, how do you get your groceries home from the bus station? We fill in the holes that public transportation doesn’t.

”In rural areas, where people have to travel long distances on a regular daily basis, private ownership still remains the most reasonable option. “Car sharing makes the most sense in a place where it’s possible to live without a car,” says Kate White. “In Denver or Phoenix, this would be impossible. But San Francisco has the lowest rate of car ownership outside of Manhattan. This is a natural market for this idea.”

Even so, some see a future for car sharing even in less densely populated areas. Here, car sharing can make an impact through a similar idea called “fleet sharing.” In fleet sharing, a company or government entity uses a fleet of cars during business hours, which are then used by local citizens after hours and on weekends. (In Europe, the post office shares some of its mail carrier vehicles on weekends.)

City Car Share has also initiated a semi-dedicated fleet program with the City of Berkeley. “Berkeley could get rid of many of its own city-owned cars because of that,” says Hutchinson. Through-out the Bay Area, some 200 businesses use City Car Share’s fleet, from San Francisco General Hospital to U.C. Berkeley.

In an April 2006 study published by the U.C. Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, U.C. Berkeley researcher Susan Shaheen predicts that the future is in fleet sharing, a strategy that will make car sharing an increasingly efficient way of life. According to the same paper, every car-sharing vehicle eliminated between four and ten privately owned vehicles, since many car-sharing participants decided to either sell their old cars or not buy second ones.

That’s music to Kate White’s ears. “We weren’t looking to sell the company and make a million dollars when we started this,” says White. “We really just wanted to have an impact on the way people live. Ideally, I’d like to see car sharing grow and expand until having your own car is just obsolete. There would be so much less traffic, less pollution; it would be such a good direction for society to go.”

Most car-share members like the idea that they’re doing something that’s good for the earth. But they like other changes better. Judy Lee just likes waking up without finding tickets on her windshield. David Dull likes not finding high insurance bills in his mailbox. And Dan Murtha likes his new relaxed way of life.

“ Since we stopped using the car and switched to car sharing and public transportation, things have really changed,” says Murtha. “Relaxing behind the wheel isn’t something that comes natural to me. When I don’t have to worry about a car, I find I’ve really calmed down.”
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Mike Rosen-Molina is a regular contributor to The Monthly.