The Committee of 100 | FYI Archives

Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC have ZipCar. Los Angles, Portland, and Seattle have Flexcar. Chicago has I-Go-cars. Philadelphia has PhillyCarShare. Carsharing is in cities you know and visit, and its coming to Wilmington.

Carsharing began in 1987 in Switzerland, expanded to Germany in 1988, then crossed the Atlantic to Quebec City in 1993. Now, according to Susan Sheheen, University of California, Berkeley, as of January 2007, there are 18 U.S. carsharing programs, with 134,094 members in 43 cities sharing 3,637 vehicles, and at least six in the planning stages.

Zipcar and Flexcar appear to have the largest share of the market, with Flexcar in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax County, VA; Atlanta, GA; Eastside and Seattle, WA; Gainsville, FL; LA, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Monica, CA; Montgomery City and Prince Georges City, MD; Portland, OR; Seattle and Vancouver, WA; and Washington, DC. ZipCar is in Ann Arbor, MI; Boston, MA; Chapel Hill, NC; Greenbelt, MD; Hoboken and Princeton, NJ; Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN; New York City; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC. Clearly there is enough of a market for Zipcar and Flexcar to go head to head in several communities, including San Francisco and DC.

Zipcar, with over 2,500 vehicles and 85,000 members (called zipsters) worldwide, is the largest car sharing organization in the U.S., North America, and Europe. The company reports that over 30% of its customers have either sold a car or have stopped a purchase decision. Flexcar, in 2003, became the first company in the U.S. to become carbon neutral by ensuring that enough trees are planted each year to offset the exhaust from it cars.

The market has spawned local, often non-profit, versions, as well, with Roaring Fork Valley Vehicles in Aspen, CO; Austin CarShare in Austin, TX; Boulder Carshare in Boulder, CO; City Wheels in Cleveland, OH; Motor City Car Share in Detroit, MI; Eugene Bio Car Share in Eugene, OR; Fort Wayne Car Co-op in Fort Wayne, IN; Ithaca CarShare in Ithaca, NY; Scoot in Kitsap County, WA; Community Car in Madison, WI; Dancing Rabbit Vehicle Co-op in Rutledge, MO; and PhillyCarShare in Philadelphia.

It is PhillyCarShare which is bringing carsharing to Wilmington. PhillyCarShare is a nonprofit organization founded by five Philadelphians with a vision of making carsharing exceed “the convenience, affordability, and flexibility of car ownership” and “to maximize the economic, environmental, and social benefits of reduced automobile dependence in the Philadelphia region through community-based car sharing.” PhillyCarShare is a nonprofit because the founders are “committed to making Philadelphia a model for sustainable living” and see “decreasing auto use as a social benefit, not a threat to the bottom line.” Because of PhillyCarShare’s commitment to improving air quality, 60% of the fleet are hybrids.
Carsharing in Wilmington will begin with a commitment from the City. To help launch carsharing, the City is contracting with PhillyCarShare for the use of four vehicles and, as a result, expects to be able to retire 10 City cars. At the same time as the City launch, PhillyCarShare will begin providing its carsharing program to businesses and residents in Wilmington.

Here’s how it works. A business can sign up (online, no fee) and will then receive key fobs which will work in any of the cars, vans, or trucks in the fleet. An employee can then call or go online to reserve a vehicle and locate where it is parked in a reserved spot on a nearby street, take the key fob, unlock, and go. When finished, the employee returns the vehicle to the reserved spot. Corporate plan rates, from $5.90/hour, cover gas, insurance, and parking. The City expects to have reserved spots for the PhillyCarShare vehicles on the streets and will reserve more spots as the program grows.

With 75% of North Americans now living in cities, carsharing is also becoming popular for City residents who don’t drive enough to justify the expense of owning a car, or a second car. In addition, cities are using carsharing to help reduce congestion and pollution. On March 29, the MBTA and Zipcar announced that they are collaborating to encourage more people to use the two services together by adding parking spaces for Zipcars at 12 metro stops in Boston now and 8 more later this year. Wilmington hopes that the carsharing program in the City will not only help to address congestion and pollution, but also, provide an amenity for residents and a cost-saving benefit to businesses locating in the City.

The PhillyCarShare program calculates that it has had a significant environmental and economic impact by removing 2,100 cars from Philadelphia’s streets, reducing miles driven annually by 10 million, increasing use of public transit by 50%, saving 440,000 gallons of gas, and saving each former car owner $4,000 annually. In 2004, the City of Philadelphia, via PhillyCarShare, became the first government to share cars with local residents, eliminating 329 municipal vehicles in the process and saving over $2 million annually.

Wilmington’s goals may be more modest, but nevertheless significant for the City. Kash Srinivasan, Commissioner of Public Works, is beginning the program in his Department in May, with a goal of extending the program to other City Departments. Beyond the City, the plan is to make PhillyCarShare available to City businesses and various neighborhoods, from the downtown living corridor to Trolley Square.

For more information, contact Kathy Izumi (katherine@phillycarshare.org), co-founder Clayton Lane (clayton@phillycarshare.org), or PhillyCarShare at 215-730-0988 or www.phillycarshare.org.

BEAUTIFICATION OPPORTUNITY

ABHA Architects, AstraZeneca, Bancroft Construction Company, Delmarva Power, DuPont, ING Direct, Patterson Schwartz, and Wilmington Trust are among The Committee of 100 members who are making the City of Wilmington more beautiful by sponsoring landscaping in traffic islands and City Gateways.

Via the Corporate Traffic Islands program, the Delaware Center for Horticulture provides the landscape design, selects the plants which can be sustained in and are suitable for this specialized urban environment, then plants and maintains the sites. The cost for these Corporate Traffic Islands ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 per year, depending upon the size and location of the gardens. There are a number of traffic islands in need of corporate sponsors to help beautify the City. To participate, contact Joe Matassino, Director of Development, Delaware Center for Horticulture at 658-6262 x103 or jmatassino@dehort.org.