Last year's high fuel costs had many people scurrying to buy smaller cars or hybrids and ready to give up their gas-guzzling SUVs. The trend toward more compact, less expensive cars continues even as gas prices level off. Britain-based TheGreenCarWebsite reported that according to SaveMoneyOnCars.co.uk, last October the Ford Focus has been the most searched vehicle on the website for the preceding 12 months, most recently usurped by the even smaller Ford Fiesta.
But green thinking and pending new limits on car exhaust emissions has other drivers tossing in their car keys for good. In the U.S., Japan, and the U.K, car sharing is growing increasingly popular. Zipcar, a car sharing company based in Cambridge, Mass., has just announced that it is expanding its customer base of urban dwellers to companies.
Zipcar's chief executive, Scott Griffith, expects the company's corporate clientele, currently about 15 percent of its overall business, to double in the next five years. Zipcar users make reservations online, and a membership key card unlocks a car when it is ready to be driven. The hourly rate for using a Zipcar is about $6-$10, including gas, insurance, and maintenance.
Several large car rental agencies including Hertz and Enterprise Rent-a-Car have also begun offering cars on demand to corporate and university clients. Employees at companies including Google can select from a fleet of two-dozen Priuses and Ford Escape hybrids offered by Enterprise Rent-a-Car's WeCar car sharing operation at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. And Google employees who sign up for the car-share program can use the vehicles for both business and personal use. Enterprise also offers car-sharing programs for businesses in the Chicago area, at Washington University in St. Louis, and at REI campuses in California and Washington.
In the U.K., National CarShare, the free online sharing website, recently released figures that show a significant increase in interest in car sharing on the part of the traveling public. And in the city of Bristol, the City Car Club has been an outstanding success, with one communal or shared car replacing between one and ten private cars on average since the program began in 2000.
In an interview in the Evening Post, Richard Drew, City Car Club manager, said membership numbers have skyrocketed from 500 in January 2008 to more than 1,300 in April. "People are realizing that if they only use their cars occasionally they're much better off spending £50 on the annual membership for the club and then just treating the vehicles on a ‘pay-as-you-go' basis-like a mobile phone." City Car Club operates similar services In London, Bath, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Brighton, and Norwich.
Last July, the Japanese have developed a specific Action Plan for Achieving a Low-Carbon Society to reach a long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions be 60-to-80 percent. According to a survey by the Foundation for Promoting Personal Mobility and Ecological Transportation (Eco-Mo Foundation) there were 19 car-sharing organizations in Japan in August 2008, with a total of 522 cars being shared by close to 4,000 registered members at 323 car-share stations.
As part of the Action Plan, Japanese citizens will be encouraged to be aware of carbon reduction and a variety of energy-saving initiatives that include car sharing. Japanese condominium dwellers will be able to advantage of a new car-sharing system to be introduced this July. Forty buildings will have 80 cars available nationwide, allowing residents to share cars, park closer to home and alleviate the shortage of parking spaces. In Tokyo, 14 cars for car sharing have been placed near ten subway stations along the Asakusa Line, hoping to reduce transportation costs for those to use the subway. Travelers along the line can take the subway to the nearest station and use car sharing to reach their final destination.
Other cool stuff on Celsias:
The Rising Success of Car Sharing
Pick Up Pal: A Ride Sharing Program and More
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