[Scpg] Car Sharing In Portland A Library With Cars Instead of Books

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Car Sharing In Portland
A Library With Cars Instead of Books
by STEVE GUTMANN [posted.10.12.00]

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CarSharing Portland

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Flexcar

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CarShare of San Francisco

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ZipCar

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Orion Afield where this article originally appeared.

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ShoreBank Pacific

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PORTLAND -- Amanda and I have always felt a little bit marginalized by our 
decision not to own a car. Car-free living may be perfectly normal in 
cities like London, New York, or San Francisco, where good transit systems 
are in place. But choosing to live without wheels in Portland, Oregon, is 
not particularly common.

Most Portlanders assume that they need a car, and our conscious choice not 
to have one is hard for them to understand. A colleague at work jokingly 
calls me a "wacky Communist biker guy," and many who see me riding to work 
in a coat and tie probably have similar thoughts. A stranger once asked me 
if I had lost my license for "too many DWIs." Amanda's mother offered to 
buy us a car, assuming that money was the issue. Cars are a powerful symbol 
of freedom in our society, and not owning one isn't just odd, it's 
perceived as a real hardship.

We see it differently.

To us, unmotorized living is liberty. People who fight rush hour traffic in 
fancy cars seem to spend more time driving in ugly places than doing things 
they really want to do. Some commuters spend over ten hours a week hurtling 
through landscapes devoid of subtlety, texture, and beauty. No thanks! It 
seems obvious that driving is the real burden; true freedom begins when you 
get rid of the car.

Where did we get this nutty perspective?

Several years ago, Amanda and I taught in Rome. We discovered the joys of 
urban living by making our way through one of the world's great cities by 
bike, bus, subway, and train. We met the local shopkeepers, took long walks 
on cobblestone streets, listened to street musicians, learned some local 
history, sampled a huge range of delightful pastas and pastries, and drank 
coffee in the sun. We got used to life in a vibrant city.

When we returned home, we found Portlanders working hard to recreate much 
of what is wonderful about the great cities of Europe. We decided to move 
to a dense, vibrant, walkable neighborhood with nearby services, and to 
only consider jobs within a reasonable (i.e. bikeable) commute. Trading 
square footage for convenience, we bought a condominium in a 
hundred-year-old converted apartment building. Located in one of the older 
sections of town, our home is just a short walk from three grocery stores, 
a movie theater, a couple of parks, and several restaurants, cafés, and 
bars. All that, and the diversions of downtown are a ten-minute bike ride 
away. We didn't buy a car.

But Portland isn't Rome. There are plenty of roses, but there's minimal 
sunshine. It also isn't particularly easy to navigate by bus. We quickly 
found that there were times--about once every couple of weeks--when we 
really wished we had a car. We usually needed one for short trips: to pick 
up a piece of furniture, to visit my parents in the suburbs, to buy plants 
for the balcony, or to go to a party.

Yet we really didn't want to borrow a car. Imagine, after months of 
insisting that we really didn't want (or need) a car, having to call or 
show up on a friend's doorstep and, like a teenager, ask to borrow the 
keys. No way. We couldn't swallow our pride.

So we put on our rain slickers, pretended we were having fun, and rode our 
bikes or a bus through the Portland drizzle--often arriving at our 
destination soaking wet. One time we transferred buses three times and 
finally arrived at a party--stressed out and squabbling--to find that most 
of our friends had already left. Our decision to live car-free began to 
feel less like a principled lifestyle choice and more like a pointless 
sacrifice. It was ecologically responsible but psychologically 
unsustainable. We went back and forth for a while, but eventually started 
looking for a car.

But before we succumbed to car ownership, CarSharing Portland saved the 
day. Modeled after similar programs in Europe, CarSharing Portland (CSP) is 
basically a membership-based hourly car rental service: "For the occasional 
driver tired of the occasional car payment, insurance premium and repair 
bill." Amanda and I joined immediately. Here's how it works: After 
collecting a $25 application fee, CSP checks the driving records and credit 
histories of all new applicants. Once new members are given a brief 
orientation, they pay a $10 per month (or $100 per year) membership fee and 
receive a key that fits every car in the fleet.

CSP has currently has 18 vehicles--mostly Dodge Neons, a couple of Saturns, 
one Honda Insight (a hybrid-electric sportscar that gets over 70 mpg), and 
one Toyota pickup--most of which are on three-year leases and are therefore 
practically new. Each car is parked in a designated spot, which is easily 
identified by a stenciled "reserved for CarSharing" logo and a sign. Cars 
are located downtown and throughout Portland's close-in, 
pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Two hundred eighty-two members share 
these 18 vehicles, and the company adds new cars to the fleet as new 
members join, so there are typically between 15 to 18 members per car.

When a member wants to use a car, she calls a local number and, using a 
touch-tone registration system, reserves the closest available vehicle for 
how ever long she needs it. If the car she wants is not available, she 
reserves the next closest one. With a little bit of advance planning, 
availability is hardly ever a problem, but getting a car on short notice 
sometimes requires a short bike ride if the closest cars are already in 
use. All CSP parking spots are equipped with bike racks where members can 
lock up their bikes while using a car.

CSP keeps the vehicles clean and well maintained, and there's a CSP gas 
card in each glove compartment to fill'er up when the gas drops below a 
quarter tank. Members record the mileage when they begin a trip and again 
when they return the car to its spot. CSP's computer multiplies the hours 
used by $1.50 and the mileage by $0.40, adds them up, and automatically 
bills the user's credit card. Gas, maintenance, repairs, and insurance are 
all included.

If a member returns a car late and leaves someone stranded, the stranded 
member is entitled to either a CSP credit or a cab--at the late person's 
expense. This rarely happens.

The daily maximum charge is $45. However, CSP is really designed for 
short-term use, and in order to avoid having one member tie up a car for 
long periods of time, CSP has arranged for members to receive reduced rates 
for full-day or weekend rentals with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

We've been members now for two years. Amanda and I car-share (yes, it's a 
verb in our household) whenever riding bikes, walking, or riding mass 
transit is impractical or daunting. We used to ride our bikes to visit my 
parents in the suburbs, but the trip took an hour each way, so we rarely 
visited. It's 20 minutes and about $15 if we car-share--and Mom usually 
cooks us dinner.

When it's raining (it does that in Portland once in a while) we no longer 
have to choose between arriving soggy and staying at home.

Instead, we drive. Usually we walk three blocks to pick up the car 
together, but if it's really pouring or I'm feeling gentlemanly, I go pick 
up a car (either by foot or bike) and bring it around to our building. 
Valet service.

Car-sharing offers a wonderful combination: living with less and having 
more. On one hand, Amanda and I share 18 vehicles with 282 people--that's 
6.4 percent of one car for each of us. In a typical month the two of us 
drive a total of about 100 miles and our combined transportation bill is 
about $60. (By way of comparison, the American Automobile Association says 
owning and operating a modest, relatively new sedan is $5,762 ($480 a 
month, or $15 a day).

On the other hand, on any given day we have, within ten blocks of home, our 
choice of four different cars! It's like a public library with cars instead 
of books.

Amanda and I may yet buy a car someday, but it no longer feels inevitable. 
Portland's transit system continues to improve, and the city is filling in 
with more, denser development as "empty nesters" trade in their suburban 
homes for urban townhouses and condominiums. More Portlanders are commuting 
by bike, thereby increasing demand for bike lanes, racks, and showers at 
workplaces. Even traveling to Seattle or Eugene without a car is getting 
easier, thanks to improved Amtrak service.

But not all CarSharing Portland members are carless. A friend of ours who 
just joined is visiting Portland for the summer. She didn't want to drive 
her car across the country, and since she doesn't need a car every day, 
car-sharing makes sense. Some one-car families use CSP as a second car. And 
still others drive their own vehicle most days, and join CSP to have 
occasional use of the pickup truck. We hear about some of these people--and 
about CSP news like new vehicles, new vehicle locations, member discounts, 
rule changes, etc.--through a monthly newsletter that arrives with our 
itemized bill.

Although most CSP members are currently individuals and families, CSP 
founder Dave Brook has recently begun to approach businesses, too. 
Apparently, many people drive to work not because they dislike mass 
transit, but because they need a car during the day for a doctor's 
appointment, a business meeting, or a lunch date. CSP is already placing 
cars downtown, and Brook thinks that if more employees have access to a car 
at work they might find other ways to commute.

Some companies (including my employer, ShoreBank Pacific) may even begin 
using CSP as an informal "fleet." Meanwhile, the CSP fleet is expanding. 
The Honda Insight has been a big hit, and Brook will be adding a Toyota 
Prius, another hybrid-electric car, to the mix later this year. There's 
even a rumor circulating about a plan to add a Mazda Miata.

While already quite popular in Europe, car-sharing is now on the rise in 
North America. Canada already has groups in Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, 
Montréal, and Québec City. Further south, Flexcar just launched in Seattle, 
ZipCar opens for business in Boston this summer, and City CarShare of San 
Francisco should be rolling about the time this issue hits the streets. 
Several other projects are in the planning stages in cities ranging from 
Cleveland to Boulder to Washington, D.C.

If the concept truly catches on and other entrepreneurs jump on the 
bandwagon, it doesn't take much imagination to see where the trend could 
lead: boat-sharing, tractor-sharing, scooter-sharing, outdoor gear-sharing, 
and tool-sharing. "Stuff-sharing" businesses may soon be offering Americans 
a new formula for the good life: more value, flexibility, and choice; less 
cost, consumption, pollution, and clutter. Maybe I'm crazy, but it feels as 
though this could become a trend. Who knows? Someday borrowing rather than 
owning may even become stylish!

Thanks to CarSharing Portland, Amanda and I survived our near brush with 
terminal motorization. By most standards our lives are still pretty 
slow-paced: our daily round rarely takes us more than a mile or two from 
home, we hardly ever venture over Portland's West Hills (too steep) or 
beyond East 82nd Avenue (too far, and not enough bike lanes). Sometimes we 
literally go weeks without traveling on a highway or seeing a strip mall.

Instead, on weekends we walk downtown or hike in nearby Forest Park. 
Sometimes we cycle to visit friends, wander downtown to Powell's Books, or 
check out an exhibit at the art museum. On Sunday mornings you'll typically 
find us reading the paper at the local café or--if the sun's out--either 
hiking with friends ("If you drive we'll bring a picnic.") or exploring an 
unfamiliar neighborhood on our bikes. In one sense it's true that we don't 
"get around" much: we don't go to lots of places that we don't really want 
to visit anyway.

Provincial? Maybe, but we know our city, our neighborhood, and our 
neighbors well. Oh, and in the process, we keep tons of pollution out of 
the atmosphere--not to mention the fact that we save the $5,762 apiece that 
we'd otherwise spend on cars. What do we do with the extra dough? Some of 
it gets put away, and the rest we spend traveling--to places we really want 
to go.
-30-

Steve Gutmann works for ShoreBank Pacific, the nation's first environmental 
bank, and volunteers on the board of Portland's Bicycle Transportation 
Alliance.

This article originally appeared in Orion Afield, 195 Main Street, Great 
Barrington, MA 01230, 888/909-6568, www.orionsociety.org

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