Ready for Car Sharing?
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Curious about one of the hottest trends in transportation. We've got an excellent article, "Ready for Car Sharing?" in our Spring issue. Written by our transportation columnist Hannah Twaddell, it will help you understand how car sharing works, and factors in successful programs. You can take a look at excerpts from Hannah's article and, if you're interested, order & download the full four-page article. Take a look also at the video clips at the end of this posting.
Right now, car sharing is more common in larger cities. But it's expanding to smaller places, especially where partnerships can work together to promote it -- and where neighborhoods have high enough densities to support it.
Private businesses such as Zipcar, U-Haul, and Enterprise Rent-a-Car are also expanding their neighborhood-based operations to more communities. For a recent article on this newly competitive environment, see "Warning to Zipcar: Traffic Ahead" (Boston Globe, Mar. 30, 2008).
But in smaller cities, it still usually takes a nonprofit to get a car sharing program underway.
PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz recently spoke with Annie Bourdon, Executive Director of a nonprofit car sharing program under development in Burlington, Vermont. Take note, in particular, of the supportive role being played by the county metropolitan planning organization (MPO), which sees the value car sharing can play in reducing overall vehicle use and benefitting the region's transportation infrastructure.
Car Sharing Comes to Vermont
by PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz
"Car sharing programs can be successful in a lot of communities," asserts Annie Bourdon of Green Mountain CarShare in Burlington, Vermont. "The key is in understanding the needs and habits of the community in which it operates."
Bourdon is heading up this new organization, on a mission "to provide an affordable, convenient, and reliable alternative to private car ownership that enhances the environmental, social and economic well-being of our region and planet." It is gearing up for operation in Burlington, a city of 39,000 residents,
which includes several colleges, a major hospital, and a compact, vibrant, downtown business district.
