SHARING IS CARRING

Surprisingly enough, the self-proclaimed "largest rental car company in North America," St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car, may be introducing our city to one such solution: carsharing. As San Francisco-based nonprofit City CarShare outlines, the model "converts automobile use from a product to a service" allowing members 24-hour on-call access to a bank of cars, from small to large, without the hassles of car ownership. Formalized carsharing is a popular and growing trend around the country, and elsewhere in the world. According to http://www.carsharing.net: "Car Sharing, launched in 1987 in Switzerland and later in 1988 in Germany, came to North America via Quebec City in 1993. As of July 1, 2008 - based on data provided by Susan Shaheen, University of California, Berkeley - 18 U.S. carsharing programs claimed 279,174 members sharing 5,838 vehicles, and 14 Canadian carsharing programs claimed 39,664 members sharing 1,667 vehicles."

Enterprise's version of carsharing is called WeCar, and it is currently being test-marketed here in St. Louis. However, it's almost impossible to find a link to WeCar, or any mention of the subsidiary, on Enterprise's website (go ahead and try, I dare you). A visit to WeCar's site reinforces this strategic distancing of parent from child company, Enterprise being referred to just twice in the FAQ section as an "affiliate," and once in the "Benefits to Business" section, where the rental car giant's decades of experience are evidently a big selling-point.

Unfortunately, accessing the WeCar service may prove just as difficult as establishing its relationship to its portly parent. As an Enterprise spokesperson revealed, WeCar currently runs just two small operations—one downtown, and another around Washington University—and as visitors to their website quickly find out when attempting to become a member, "WeCar is [only?] available to employees of...affiliate organizations."

Just as well, maybe. According to the District of Columbia's Department of Transportation, studies have shown, "that a single carsharing vehicle can be used by 6 to 10 households, thus helping reduce parking and traffic congestion." And, as City CarShare points out, "In Europe, where car-sharing has been established longer, members who give up their cars after joining reduce their driving by up to 75%." These are just two in a long list of statistics used to tout carsharing's positive impacts. I think anyone who has found themselves on I-270 at 5pm can agree that any new strategy for more efficient transportation is a welcome sight. However, WeCar's model may not be the most beneficial solution for St. Louis drivers. As City CarShare goes on to point out, "the nonprofit model is essential if the full range of benefits from car-sharing is to be realized." [emphasis added] For those of us who are not employees of a WeCar affiliate, or who'd rather not rely on a multi-national corporation for our transportation, there is a more grass-roots way to carshare: share your car!

As evidenced by the sheer volume of those daily inching along St. Louis' outerbelt freeway at rush hour, nearly everyone in this city has one (or more than one) they could share. According to a 2006 US Bureau of Transportation report, registered vehicles now outnumber licensed drivers in America, and the local demographics seem to indicate that St. Louis is a microcosm of this national imbalance. Also evident in the urban parkways' persistent profligate parade is how many empty seats there are. The EPA estimates that half of US car trips are less than five miles long and transport only one passenger. With the exorbitant costs, dismal lack of entertainment, the paltry ratio of people to available seats, and the feeling that we're going nowhere, being in St. Louis rush hour traffic is much like being at a Rams' game. So how do we go about sharing our cars to waste less time, money, and breathable air?

SUCCESSFUL MODELS OF CARSHARING

The Missouri intentional community, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, started its own small-scale, community-based carsharing program over ten years ago and, through their website, offer several resources to make this process more accessible. Although most of these resources are now inaccessible (as the page hasn't been updated since 1997), I was able to get in contact with one of the resources who has gone on to start carsharing.net. This site offers a far more comprehensive and up-to-date resource list. Visitors to carsharing.net can find carsharing statistics and newscarsharers around the world, a directory of "off-the-shelf" carsharing technology suppliers, and a carsharing "library" from which I was able to link to "the other great carsharing resource site." The World Carshare Consortium seems even more dedicated to helping those who'd like to follow their ambition to start carsharing operations in their neighborhoods. Also see The Beginner's Guide to the Carsharing Business.

If you'd rather not wait around for a corporation to sell us cooperation, there are a myriad of strategies you could employ to make your transit more efficient. These strategies can be especially effective for commuters. Collaborate with your neighbors, discuss possibilities with your coworkers, or partner with the familiar strangers whom you struggle to ignore daily as you idle side by side. With the large, captive audience you pass at your daily snail's pace, your car becomes a billboard owner's wet dream. The adjoining photo illustrates how you might entice fellow commuters to act collectively to save everyone's time, money, and oxygen. Make your own sign, or :::::download this one:::::, take it to the local print shop and have a magnet made of it, then slap your new advert on your car and make room in your inbox. (Or, save sixty bucks and use shoe polish, bar soap, or a piece of paper to advertise a similar message.) If enthusiasm elsewhere is any indication of how many St. Louisans are yearning for transportation alternatives, you may soon have a lot of messages to sort through!

And for those who have already disavowed themselves from the storied American pastime of the road-rageous daily commute, but still feel the pressure (from living in a place of such sprawling and dispersed resources) to have access to a car, carsharing may offer even greater benefits. For those who use their car much less, the costs of insurance, monthly payments, maintenance, parking, the threat of vandalism, etc. make even less practical sense, and are concerns which are all mitigated through carsharing. Especially if you own an SUV, cargo van, or pickup truck, you know how many of your trips are made to help out friends who need to haul stuff. They may pay the gas bill, but you're left with the wear and tear and insurance costs all to yourself. If the vehicle was held in trust through a carsharing agreement, these costs would be distributed more equally, and the personal liabilities of car ownership would be helpfully hedged. Carsharing arrangements don't have to be super-formal, either. On her blog, F. Pea describes how a group of neighbors pooled resources to benefit the whole clan with a new community truck that everyone owned, and cared for.

As evidenced by the the data charted from a 2003 AAA audit, owning a car actually tends to foster a "getting my money's worth" mentality to incentivize more driving. This is exactly what St. Louis does NOT need. With all the urban pollution and congestion, carsharing offers a healthier, saner alternative. Whether you petition your employer to become a WeCar affiliate, partner with a few friends on a shared vehicle, or take on the challenge of putting your car into trust and opening a full-service Zipcar franchise, this is a model that can be as flexible and empowering as the service it provides. Let's share more.