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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
Chapter 6. Factors for Success
Car-sharing is a recent phenomenon in the United States. As with
any new concept, it faces challenges in getting a stronghold as an
alternative transportation mode. This chapter outlines some of those
challenges and gives examples of how they were mitigated by the
actions of partner organizations that were consulted for this research.
It concludes by describing common themes that contribute to the
successful establishment of car-sharing.
The analysis in this chapter is based on the discussion at the Opera-
tors' Workshop, the interviews with partner organizations, and the
literature review. (See Chapter 1 for an overview of these research
methodologies.) Note that it primarily considers "external" barri-
ers and factors for success that partner organizations can help to
address. This chapter does not attempt to cover internal barriers for
car-sharing operators themselves, such as operational and technol-
ogy issues.
6.1Overcoming Barriers
As with any innovation, certain issues arise that have not been con-
fronted before. On top of these are other issues that are common
to the start-up of a new idea, for which car-sharing is no exception.
This section discusses the following barriers and suggests ways of
overcoming them by citing the actions of others who have already
implemented car-sharing in their community or business:
· Finding a partner
· Understanding car-sharing
· Lack of data
· Financial barriers
· Regulatory obstacles
· Parking issues
· Serving low-income participants
· Geographic and cultural barriers
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Chapter 6 · Factors for Success
Finding a Partner
In many of the situations examined here, the car-sharing operator instigated
the conversation about car-sharing in the selected community. The operator
had done enough research to identify the community as a likely prospect for
a successful car-sharing venture. However, collaborating with a partner or-
ganization smoothed the operator's entry into many of the communities.
Finding a Home
Without a department dedicated to alternative modes, car-sharing doesn't
have a natural "home" within a partner organization. A city, employer or
university with a TDM program is more likely to have a champion that can
carry the idea forward within the organizational structure than an agency
that focuses all transportation in a parking or public works department.
Similarly, a transit agency that takes a broader view of its goals, and sees
itself as a mobility manager, is more likely to carry the car-sharing concept
forward.
The planning staff in Arlington, Massachusetts, for example, had conducted
preliminary conversations among themselves about car-sharing but had
never had the time to investigate it further. Car-sharing doesn't fit within
their core responsibilities. The citizens' Transportation Advisory Commit-
tee never raised car-sharing as an issue, which might otherwise have given
policy direction to a staff with many other demands on their time. In con-
trast, car-sharing is a natural complement to the University of Wisconsin's
TDM program at its Madison campus.
The lack of a "home" for car-sharing even within agencies that are already
partnering with operators was evident in this research. Many phone calls
were made to find a person in the agency who knew about the program.
Even then, researchers were sometimes unsuccessful in locating the right
person. Staffs in local jurisdictions vaguely knew that their organization
was involved but had no idea who was in charge. Car-sharing in these
agencies is still an anomaly that doesn't quite fit within the organization's
understanding of its mission.
Using Public Funds
Staff in some agencies have expressed concern about using public money
for car-sharing to support a private company, such as Zipcar or Flexcar.
King County Metro in Seattle, Washington was not in a position to operate
car-sharing itself and chose to partner with Flexcar to provide the service.
Metro staff indicated that the agency's public funds are being used to part-
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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
ner with Flexcar in order to demonstrate the viability of car-sharing and to
test the different markets where car-sharing may prove successful. Flexcar
was able to quickly get the car-sharing project up and running--a project
that was strongly supported by several champions within the organization.
Because of this partnership, Metro's public dollars were not the sole source
for the program. Instead its funds were leveraged with Flexcar's private
dollars, enhancing the overall project.
SEPTA took a different approachviewing car-sharing as an adjunct to public
transportation. As a result, SEPTA selected a non-profit, PhillyCarShare, as
its partner. SEPTA staff believes that a non-profit operator is more open to
promoting car-sharing when needed and not as a substitute for public transit
than a for-profit operator who must be concerned with the bottom line.
Understanding Car-Sharing
Not only potential partners, but the public at large, often do not understand
what car-sharing is--how it differs from ridesharing and rental car agencies
as well as how and where it works. Even where car-sharing is established,
it can continue to take effort to dispel confusion about the concept of car-
sharing.
Relating Car-Sharing to Goals
Partners do not necessarily equate car-sharing as a natural extension of
their goals. For example, since King County Metro in Seattle primarily
provides transit service, the connection between car-sharing and transit
was not obvious to everyone at the agency. Some Metro staff questioned
how getting involved with car-sharing would increase the transit agency's
ridership, which is its core mission. Those who advocated that car-sharing
was in alignment with the transit agency's role to promote overall mobil-
ity see a clear connection. They believe that car-sharing complements the
agency's mission.
One way the car-sharing proponents in Metro have demonstrated its compat-
ibility with transit is to use the car-sharing program to help sell FlexPass, its
monthly pass purchased by employers for their employees. "We're making
the FlexPass more valuable," said one staffer, by linking car-sharing and
transit. Another strategy was to introduce car-sharing instead of increasing
transit service on some routes during nights and weekends, which proved
to be a more cost-effective method of providing mobility.
However, car-sharing operators have generally found it difficult to partner
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Chapter 6 · Factors for Success
with transit agencies on discounted passes. One respondent wrote, "The
transit agencies seem reluctant to offer it [a discount] to the car-sharing
operators because they feel they'll be losing revenue by selling discounted
fares to people who are now or would be willing to pay full price." The
transit agencies do not view car-sharing as a natural complement to their
own goals.
If the goal is to reduce parking demand, one operator has found that it is a
counter-intuitive argument to tell a partner that you need to find parking
spaces for car-sharing vehicles. In this case, city staff may not understand the
benefits car-sharing can produce in reducing the overall need for parking.
Even when there is a receptive champion within the organization, the lack
of supportive policies or conflicting internal policies can be daunting. For
example, car-sharing fits into the goal of Tufts University's Climate Initiative,
which is to reduce climate emissions. Nonetheless, it took years to convince
the facilities staff to allow a free car-sharing parking space at its Boston,
Massachusetts campus. The goal of the facilities staff to maximize revenues
for the campus' premium, scarce, high-value parking spaces conflicted with
the Climate Initiative's goals.
On the other hand, a potential partner may think that car-sharing will, in
fact, help reach goals without a full understanding of the types of settings
necessary for car-sharing to succeed. For example, some partners have
required the operator to set up car-sharing in a low-income neighborhood
where many residents may not have driver's licenses or money for hourly
fees, or in neighborhoods where households typically have three or more
cars--settings that pose difficult challenges for success. WMATA included a
provision in its Request for Proposals (RFP) that the selected operator locate
vehicles in the entire service area, which includes not only Washington, DC
but also Maryland and Virginia. Others have tried to tie separate priorities,
such as energy-efficient electric vehicles, with the car-sharing programs.
Partners may not realize the risk and start-up costs involved in establishing
car-sharing in a community. They need to understand the types of support
partners can provide in order to overcome these barriers and realistically
align the car-sharing program with the partner's own goals.
Difficulties with True Cost Comparisons
At the same time, the public at large is not educated on the true costs of
owning an automobile, and, often erroneously, perceives car-sharing to
be a more expensive option. Highest in people's consciousness are what
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they pay at the gas pump and for parking. Costs that are not encountered
daily--such as insurance, license fees, smog tests, and maintenance--are
not as transparent, when compared to out-of-pocket hourly and mileage
fees for car-sharing. In addition, the pride in ownership of an automobile
is touted daily in advertising. The notion of sharing an automobile runs
counter to the cultural bias toward the car as a symbol of personal freedom.
In themselves, these factors make it hard to "sell" car-sharing. Unfamiliarity
with the concept of car-sharing just adds to this difficulty.
The lack of understanding about car-sharing and its benefits is fueled by a
natural resistance to change. One city's fleet manager was concerned about
having to cut jobs in his department if car-sharing replaced vehicles. Other
employees feared the loss of "perks" without access to a city vehicle. At the
University of Washington, 21 departments have signed up to use Flexcar as
a substitute for motor pool cars, but only one has actually given up a pool
car. Even though a pool car costs a department $600 a month, "It's not usu-
ally a rational cost decision--they want their pool cars," according to the
transportation staff, because of departments' perceptions of convenience
and availability. At the City of Berkeley in California, staff is supportive of
the overall concept of replacing fleet vehicles with car-sharing, but more
resistant when their own vehicle is targeted. A car-sharing proponent on the
staff in another city had to defend its benefits when other staff accused him of
social engineering. They believed that it was not the city's role to subsidize
car-sharing in order to move people out of single-occupant automobiles.
Need for Standardized Definition
One of the desires expressed at the Operators' Workshop conducted dur-
ing this research was the need for a clear, concise definition of car-sharing.
The lack of definition is not only a barrier in finding partners but also in
recruiting members beyond the early adopters. This research attempts to
address the issue in Chapter 2 by presenting a series of definitions used by
others. Perhaps the most succinct and descriptive definition is that used by
the State of Washington:
A membership program intended to offer an alternative to car
ownership under which persons or entities that become members
are permitted to use vehicles from a fleet on an hourly basis
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Using the definitions listed in Chapter 2, operators could collaborate on
adopting one of them for universal use. When one definition becomes re-
peated and standardized, it may mitigate some of the regulatory barriers
discussed later in this chapter. And familiarity with the concept will lead
to a better understanding for everyone of car-sharing and its benefits.
Lack of Data
Another benefit of this research, according to the operators, is the credibility
that can be gained from an impartial examination of car-sharing. When
operators present their case to potential partners, many are skeptical about
its claims. Because car-sharing is relatively new, a body of data is not read-
ily available to prove its worth to agencies that are being asked to invest
in it, either financially or through resources, such as parking spaces. Some
agencies worry about accepting operators' data at face value, recognizing
that operators are businesses that must make a profit.
Need for Performance Data
One reason that only a slim amount of objective data on the benefits of
car-sharing exists is because current partners rarely establish performance
measures. As one partner said, the main criterion is whether the company
is still around. "If it's profitable, it means that it's being marketed and that
people are using it." Another summed up the attitude of many partners
when she said, "It's one of those `good to have' things that does make a
difference, but is difficult to quantify. It just helps chip away at the barri-
ers to transit use or carpooling." Her statement reflects the view of many
partners--that car-sharing is just one of many tools to address congestion
and pollution which, by itself, will not cause significant change. Therefore,
some partners believe it is not important to get heavily involved in evalu-
ation and monitoring.
Need for Cost Data
A number of public agencies that are turning to car-sharing to replace their
vehicle fleets have found that they themselves do not have good data by
which they can compare fleet costs to car-sharing costs. For example, the
City of Berkeley started its fleet program by identifying underused depart-
ment vehicles. Because data was manually collected by departments and
assumptions had to be made about costs and utilization, it took a year to
determine the first 15 vehicles that would be replaced by car-sharing. The
University of Pennsylvania is running into the same issue, because all its
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schools have their own vehicles. Since there is no centralized fleet and costs
are distributed across different budgets, the transportation staff does not
have the necessary data. They will need to compile the data themselves in
order to study how fleet-sharing could work in their environment.
As car-sharing grows, agencies, particularly local governments, will need to
justify their investments and other public support by applying performance
measures. To address this need, Chapter 7 discusses performance measures
and useful data to support the measures. Collecting these data will expand
the understanding of car-sharing and its benefits.
Financial Barriers
As Chapter 5 described, many partners help initiate car-sharing by provid-
ing operators with sorely needed seed money. One US operator estimates
that it can cost $1 million to open up a new market. As with any new busi-
ness, there are start-up costs that need to be covered before any revenue is
forthcoming. For example, the operator needs to purchase vehicles, obtain
insurance, set up a reservation system, hire staff, market to prospective
members and find parking near them. It then takes time to build the busi-
ness and break even. All of these steps require risk-taking, which a partner
organization can help mitigate. The benefit will be a new mobility option
for the partners' constituencies--residents, businesses, renters, employees,
and transit riders.
Grant Restrictions
When the partner's funding assistance comes from grants, restrictions often
impose administrative burdens on the public partner. For example, when
the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), a non-profit in Chicago,
Illinois wanted to set up a demonstration car-sharing project, the City of
Chicago agreed to apply for federal funds. (See Exhibit 6-1 for details.)
However, the City believes that the FTA could better promote car-sharing
if it made direct grants to the recipient, instead of requiring the operator to
find an open-minded government agency to act as the pass-through.
Grant funding usually comes with restrictions placed on the recipient
i.e. the grant can only be used for specific purposes. King County Metro
received a federal JARC grant, which can only be used for low-income
participants in the car-sharing program. It also received an Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) grant to provide 23 hybrids in order to promote
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Exhibit 6-1 CMAQ Funds Support Chicago Car-Sharing
The City of Chicago agreed to apply as the sponsoring government agency for federal Congestion
Management and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) funds after the Center for Neighborhood
Technology (CNT) had been turned down by others. Like the others, Chicago had some concerns
about being the pass-through agency. Not only would the City be held responsible for performance
of the non-profit even though the City was only the middleman, but it would also be taking on an
unfunded mandate through the preparation of all the paperwork involved.
With the CMAQ grant, the City was awarded $250,000 to start I-GO by providing CNT with the operating
costs for 11 vehicles. Altogether, the City secured $600,000 over three fiscal years for start-up
operations funding. In 2005, Chicago was awarded a second CMAQ grant of $419,000 to expand
the program with more vehicles, totaling $1 million in federal grant funds for I-GO. The City continues
to be involved in monitoring and reporting on the grant to the Federal Transit Administration.
clean air benefits. The grant was used to pay Flexcar the cost difference
between supplying a combustion engine vehicle and a hybrid. Similarly,
Agence Métropolitaine de Transport in Montréal plans to provide hybrids
to Communauto car-sharing members with a partial grant from Transport
Canada's Urban Transportation Showcase project. The original proposal
was for electric vehicles. However, the project has been delayed because
of the high cost and difficulty of obtaining electric vehicles, causing a shift
to hybrids. These examples illustrate grants which met the agencies' goals.
Nevertheless, a downside of using grant funds is that the restrictions may
not always coincide with the most pressing program priorities or may divert
the agency from its main mission.
Some partners worry that car-sharing cannot succeed without ongoing
financial help in addition to start-up funding. For example, I-GO in Chi-
cago asked for a second CMAQ grant and subsequently received an award
through the City of Chicago for 35 vehicles to expand its fleet. The City's
Department of Transportation is again a pass-through for a federal grant.
The Executive Director of the Lloyd District TMA, a business district east of
downtown Portland, Oregon suggests that expenses for car-sharing be built
into either parking fees or transit pass charges. The TMA has used CMAQ
funds to give unlimited use of car-sharing vehicles in the business district if
an employee has a transit pass and also signs up for car-sharing. The Director
wonders if the 50 car-share members will continue to use the service, now
that the grant is depleted and the free access will be discontinued.
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Attracting competition could be a long-term goal of partner organizations
to ensure against the financial difficulties any one operator may incur. For
example, both Zipcar and Flexcar are now operating in the Washington,
DC area. Concerns about sustainability of the car-sharing program will
also be allayed if the market is established and has proven viable in a given
region.
Insurance Costs
Insurance costs continue to be a major financial burden for car-sharing
operators. Insurance accounts for 20-40% of an operator's total costs, ac-
cording to a study published in Transportation Research Record. In July 2002,
this amounted to $4,800-$6,000 per vehicle per year. One cause is the fact
that car-sharing has not yet been assigned a risk class within the insurance
industry, leading to widely variable interpretations of the risk by insurers
(Shaheen, Meyn & Wipyewski, 2003). The problem of insurance costs and
the development of data to support a new classification category is one that
should be addressed by the car-sharing industry acting jointly (see Chapter
8 for more discussion about joint actions).
One of the biggest potential untapped markets--university students--is
inhibited by insurance costs imposed on the operator. The University of
Washington and the University of Victoria in British Columbia both report
that this is a major obstacle for expansion of their program. Initially, the
University of Washington had a waiver to allow 18-20 year olds into the pro-
gram, but it was dropped later due to exorbitant insurance costs. Stanford
University in California has solved this problem by requiring that the car-
share operator find coverage in order to serve the campus. City CarShare
qualified 18-20 year olds with a clean driving record, who had also passed
a defensive driving course. When City CarShare closed the program due
to lack of demand, Stanford then partnered with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, a
large national company. Enterprise has made hourly rentals possible and
allows student who are 18 years or older with valid proof of insurance and
a major credit or debit card to participate in the car-sharing program.
Suggested Tax Code Changes
To ease financial burdens on car-sharing, Arlington County, Virginia staff
would like changes in the State's tax code. Currently, vanpool vehicles do
not pay state vehicle taxes. Extending this exemption to car-sharing vehicles
would remove a financial barrier. Another partner in Chicago echoes this
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idea and further suggests that there be breaks in the tax code for car-sharing
similar to those for solar power.
Regulatory Obstacles
Even if a partner attempts to help the car-sharing operator, they both can run
into obstacles from other agencies or restrictive legislation that inhibits their
progress. Because car-sharing doesn't fit neatly into an existing category,
regulators sometimes want to impose taxes and higher fees on car-shar-
ing. Zoning restrictions can limit car-share parking in both residential and
commercial settings. Minimum parking standards can block developers'
incentive to introduce car-sharing in order to reduce parking demand. The
following examples illustrate how some partners overcame these regulatory
obstacles.
Taxes and Fees
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) in Wash-
ington, DC wanted to regard each car-sharing space as a place of business,
requiring a "certificate of occupancy" for each parking space. This example
demonstrates the misunderstanding about car-sharing and the regulatory
barriers it can face. Fortunately, in this particular case, a memo from DDOT
explaining the characteristics of car-sharing served to absolve car-sharing
companies of these barriers. In another instance, DCRA classified car-
sharing vehicles as rental cars. This had a negative impact on insurance
costs for the car-sharing firms. DDOT requested that, if the law provided
DCRA with a choice in the matter, a classification that had a lower cost on
car-sharing companies would be appropriate in light of the public benefits
derived from maximizing car-sharing participation. In some jurisdictions,
rental cars are subject to an additional tourist lodging and entertainment
tax, so avoiding this classification for car-sharing is an important economic
consideration for the operator.
Parking Regulations
Zoning regulations can be a barrier to locating parking for car-share ve-
hicles. Staff in the City of Arlington, Massachusetts worry that allowing
car-sharing parking on residential streets may be considered a violation
of zoning regulations, which prohibit businesses in areas not zoned for it.
Because the City of Seattle also had this concern, it amended its Land Use
Code to allow car-sharing as an accessory use for residential buildings. A
less formal method of addressing the problem was used in Washington, DC,
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where staff from DDOT wrote to the Zoning Commissioner in response to
a resident's complaint. DDOT described the characteristics of car-sharing
to justify why it is an appropriate use in a residential area. This resolved
the zoning issue.
In addition, cities that want to give on-street car-sharing parking spaces in
commercial areas may be accused of privatizing the street if a particular
company benefits. The City of Seattle resolved this problem by signing the
spaces for a class of vehicles: "Carshare vehicles only." Arlington County,
Virginia installs orange poles with "No Parking" signs and attaches car-shar-
ing brochures, both paid for by the car-sharing operator. These solutions
are similar to the concept of taxi stands, which are authorized for a class of
private vehicles that serve a public good.
Zoning restrictions that set minimum parking requirements for development
can be an obstacle. There is no way to capture the benefits of car-sharing
in reducing demand if no deviation from a parking standard is permitted.
Developers are more likely to include car-sharing as a traffic and parking
mitigation if they receive, as an incentive, credits allowing them to build
less parking. For example, the City of Berkeley waives parking minimums
on a case-by-case basis. As a result, Panoramic Interests provides two City
CarShare spaces out of 40 total parking spaces in its downtown building,
which houses 91 apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial space.
However, some cities have been skeptical about reducing parking require-
ments. The City of Seattle's Land Use Code will only allow one car-sharing
space to replace one required parking space in new residential development.
In drafting the legislation, Seattle staff did not have sufficient data to deter-
mine that parking reductions for car-sharing would not cause spillover park-
ing on adjoining streets. They also worried about providing an incentive to
reduce parking unrelated to the actual demand for car-sharing. In Toronto,
Canada staff determined that they lacked a mechanism to guarantee that
car-sharing would always be available. Their concern was that a building
with reduced parking could outlast the car-sharing operation.
In some cases, the lending institution, not the city, can be the barrier, fearing
that reduced parking will decrease the project's viability. The requirements
of the market also dictate supply; national retailers, for example, may actu-
ally want more parking than the city requires or will allow (Parzen & Sigal,
2004).
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Trip Reduction Ordinances
Despite the barriers mentioned above, regulations can sometimes act to
promote car-sharing. The State of Washington's Commute Trip Reduc-
tion ordinance requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees
at a single worksite to develop and implement a commute trip reduction
program. This ordinance has spurred more success in the business market
than in other parts of the country, according to a Flexcar representative.
The legislation provides an opening for employers to learn about car-shar-
ing, particularly when commute trip reduction staff promotes car-sharing
alongside other TDM strategies.
Parking Provision
Car-sharing cannot succeed without conveniently located vehicles near the
members. Yet, finding affordable, well-located parking for the vehicles is
one of the barriers most frequently mentioned by operators. Communauto
in Canada reports that it has a problem absorbing the high demand for
memberships and needs help from local governments to secure parking
for its cars. However, even a supportive municipality or business can have
difficulty providing help, because parking is a volatile issue in areas with
constrained supply. Objections about reserving parking for a particular
class of users--in this case car-sharers--can come from residents, from
employees, and even from other city departments with different priorities.
These objections can spill over into enforcement problems, as other parkers
risk tickets for a place to put their cars.
Charging for Car-Sharing Parking
Paying for parking can be a significant cost for the car-sharing operator. It
is another expense that must be factored into the business plan when an
operator is deciding to serve a community. For example, Zipcar pays $75 a
month per vehicle for parking at some Metro North stations in New York.
Metro North, a commuter rail system, considers it to be a gift of public funds
if it were to give Zipcar free parking. On the other hand, the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides four free parking spaces on campus
for the Zipcar program, forgoing revenue of up to $4,600 a year for this car-
sharing incentive.
The operator can offer lower rates to members when free car-share parking
is available. One operator notes that it's particularly important to keep costs
low when a new car-sharing service is initially introduced in order to attract
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membership sign-ups. Recognizing this incentive, Cambridge, Massachu-
setts discounted 20 spaces in lots or garages in order to get car-sharing started
in the community, gradually moving to the current full market rates.
Nonetheless, the need for revenue is a barrier cities face in providing the most
visible on-street spaces for car-sharing. Despite its support for car-sharing,
the City of San Diego does not yet designate metered spaces for car-sharing,
partly because it does not want to lose the meter revenue.
On the other hand, Arlington County, Virginia cites on-street parking as the
most important support that they provide. Representatives recognize that
there is some revenue loss but say, "Fifty spaces is a drop in the ocean." They
state, "We like to think that the car-share use of on-street parking spaces
near transit facilities is a necessary and practical piece of the transportation
infrastructure that serves world-class transit-oriented development just
like sidewalks, crosswalks, taxi stands, and curbside bus stops." Similarly
WMATA considers that the small amount of revenue loss from meters in
their kiss-and-ride spaces is outweighed by the gain in ridership.
Resolving Parking Objections
Car-sharing operators need parking that is not simply available--it must
also be located where it is actually needed to serve members. However,
anything that takes away a parking space in an area with a tight parking
supply can provoke strong opposition. When DDOT in Washington, DC
asked the car-sharing operators to identify potentially desirable curbside
parking spaces for their vehicles, some residents "were up in arms." Since
Residential Permit Parking spaces are so scarce, residents called it "outra-
geous" and "corporate welfare" to "give away" curbside parking to for-profit
corporations. DDOT met with several advisory neighborhood commissions.
In most cases, DDOT achieved some progress by showing that it proposed
a reasonable quid pro quo for access to reserved curbside spaces. Nonethe-
less, most commissions passed resolutions supporting car-sharing parking,
but only for newly created spaces.
In a different twist on parking angst, car-sharing came to the rescue of The
Defender Association, a non-profit corporation that provides public defender
services in the Seattle region. The association experienced high employee
resistance when it proposed to cut its costs by reducing the number of park-
ing spaces it rented for investigators. After lots of meetings, the organization
agreed to keep half the spaces and institute car-sharing, allowing investiga-
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tors to use car-sharing vehicles to conduct field visits on days when they do
not drive to work. Although the investigators are still somewhat miffed, the
deputy director says that the organization now leases only 10 spaces instead
of 20 and the program with the car-sharing operator has been extended.
Enforcement
Parking enforcement can also be an issue. In Cambridge, Massachusetts,
drivers park in restricted car-sharing spaces while they go inside city offices
to pay parking tickets for illegal parking! One Canadian operator installs
signs that sport a tow truck and warn, "Don't Even Think of Parking in Our
Spot." San Francisco, California is considering proposed legislation that will
give hybrids and car-sharing vehicles free parking in city spaces. However,
this can pose possible enforcement problems, such as whether officers can
easily identify hybrids and how to determine if the vehicle has violated the
time limits at metered spaces. Other cities' regulations requiring that all cars
be removed for street cleaning or snow removal can complicate car-sharing
operations that rely on street parking for the vehicles.
An operational issue that car-sharing operators can face is the need for mem-
ber access in secured parking facilities. Venezia Apartments in downtown
Santa Monica, California has one free car-share parking space. All car-sharing
members, not just tenants, receive the code to the building when booking the
car online. The code is changed on a regular basis to minimize the number of
people with access to the building. In an apartment building in Washington,
DC, car-sharing members use their Flexcar smartcard to enter the garage
housing the car-share vehicle. For security, residents go into the garage by
the building's elevator, which can't be accessed with the smartcard.
Serving Low-Income Participants
When public support is involved, agencies have expressed the need for
equitable access to car-sharing for all its citizens. This requirement can
create problems for the operator, because low-income areas are sometimes
difficult to serve--both in terms of profitability and also in terms of qualify-
ing participants.
Recognizing the operator's need for a return on investment, the City of Seattle
sweetened its requirement to encourage car-sharing in diverse neighbor-
hoods by contributing $30,000--half the costs--to place cars in four low-
income areas for one year. The funding is not outright, but pays for usage
on the car-sharing vehicles. Seattle, King County Metro, and Washington
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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
State Department of Transportation have also recently received JARC federal
funds for welfare-to-work activities. (See Exhibit 6-2 for details.)
Similarly, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the San
Francisco Bay Area uses JARC funds to underwrite the costs of deposits and
fees for welfare-to-work participants in the City CarShare program. Half of
the usage charges are also discounted by MTC.
Even when the public agency contributes funds to ensure car-sharing is
available to low-income residents, the program may face barriers caused
by potential participants' own circumstances. For example, the City of
Vancouver, Washington partnered with the Vancouver Housing Author-
ity and Flexcar in a pilot program for residents in affordable housing. Ten
pilot households in two different developments were to receive free Flexcar
accounts, paid by the Housing Authority, and five free car-share hours a
month, paid by the three partners. So far only five households have been
found eligible. Other potential participants did not have a driver's license,
had a poor credit history, or did not have a checking account. This problem
is echoed by the developer of a downtown Berkeley, California apartment
building, who said that his low-income tenants are not car-sharing members
because of poor credit ratings.
A further obstacle is that many low-income residents do not have English
as their native language. Car-sharing information on usage is generally
exclusively in English, creating a barrier to the potential low-income par-
Exhibit 6-2 Low-Income Car-Sharing in Seattle
"Transportation is often the biggest obstacle facing job-seekers, especially those in lower income
households," said Patrice Davis, partnership coordinator at WorkSource Washington, a program of the
Washington State Employment Security Department in Seattle. "Our programs help prepare people
for the job search and interview process. But sometimes they can't get to an interview or access
additional training with public transit, which hinders our efforts. By giving these people access to a
car, more people can get better jobs faster."
The funding for this program comes under the federally funded Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC)
program and enables clients of employment programs (such as WorkSource Washington) and other
qualified individuals to use Flexcar for free on all trips that are related to job search or job training.
The program also enables participants to access Flexcar at a significant discount for trips, such as
child care, doctor's appointments or others that are related to mobility from the workplace.
Excerpt from "Flexcar Extends Car-Sharing Program; Innovative Program to Help Qualified People
Access Employment, Training and Other Services," http://home.businesswire.com, March 28, 2005.
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Chapter 6 · Factors for Success
ticipant.
WMATA is one agency that is cognizant of these barriers, and its RFP includ-
ed specific criteria to ensure that car-sharing would be available to as many
sectors of the community as possible. For example, it wanted an operator that
did not impose a credit check or security deposit as a condition for joining.
"We didn't want them to only be available to the higher income segments
of the population," said a WMATA representative. It also has been working
to promote access for people with disabilities, by requiring that operators
install hand controls on request. If a vehicle is under-utilized, WMATA will
allow it to be moved to another station in the same jurisdiction, but tries to
avoid a shift from a low-income to high-income neighborhood.
Geographic and Cultural Barriers
The preceding discussion illustrates barriers faced by car-sharing operators
that have been creatively addressed in various ways by partner organiza-
tions. However, there are additional barriers over which partners have no
control or which will take changes lasting years or decades to overcome.
These include land use issues and cultural attitudes.
Appropriate Markets
Chapter 3 outlines the market settings where car-sharing is likely to succeed,
to date. Urban neighborhoods that are dense, with mixed-use development,
scarce parking, and good transit offer the best potential for car-sharing.
Without these elements, car-sharing is much more difficult to establish.
Auto-oriented land uses featuring low-density development, big box stores,
and free, large parking lots are not particularly conducive to car-sharing.
These same areas are not likely to have convenient transit service to serve
as a complementary mode of transportation.
At the Stapleton development in Denver, Colorado, for example, car-shar-
ing was tried and discontinued. According to the Director of Sustainability
for Forest City Enterprises, the failure resulted primarily because it was too
early in the project, before density had maximized. Neither did car-sharing
programs in suburban Bellevue, Bremerton, and Kitsap, Washington prove
to be wholly successful, according to Flexcar. However, as Chapter 3 notes,
car-sharing has been successful in some non-urban circumstances, such as
at suburban university campuses, apartment buildings, and rural areas with
characteristics such as a high degree of personal involvement, good transit,
and the availability of local services.
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Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds
Chapter 2 discusses new market development not reliant on the neighbor-
hood residential model, which is the current key market. The models below
are not as dependent on favorable geographic attributes, which partners may
not have the power to easily change. Instead, partners can help the viability
of car-sharing even in non-urban areas by assisting operators with:
· Business sharing, which combines residential evening and week-
end use with use by business during the day in order to create a
sustainable revenue stream
· Fleet sharing, which provides an organization with exclusive use
of car-sharing vehicles at particular times, guaranteeing a revenue
source
· Lease sharing, whereby an individual leases a vehicle, but makes
it available to other car-sharing members when not needed, or
where only a small group has access to a single vehicle
Car Culture
Cultural obstacles are also primarily beyond partners' immediate control and
will take longer-term strategies to address. America is a car culture, as evi-
denced (i) by the preponderance of automobile ads appealing to individual
freedom linked to car ownership and (ii) the corresponding low percentage
of people who travel by an alternative mode. Further, as discussed earlier,
people do not have a true understanding of the cost of auto ownership and
tend to consider only the variable costs, such as fuel, when comparing the
cost with another travel mode.
However, the cost of the auto ownership may become more apparent as
fuel prices increase and congestion makes the personal cost of travel time
unbearable. Partner organizations can help by making the cost more appar-
ent in relation to parking. Many suburban locations have an abundance of
parking that is free to the user. Of course, the parking isn't really free--it
is bundled into the cost of the construction and the rent or lease. Donald
Shoup, an urban economist at the University of California at Los Angeles,
argues that land is wasted and goods cost more because businesses have to
compensate for losses from building and maintaining vast, empty spaces for
parking (Shoup, 2005). If parkers had to pay the true costs of parking--which
can cost $20,000 or more per space to build in a structure--they would be
able to make more rational comparisons between owning a car and joining
car-sharing. (See Chapter 4 for more on parking costs.)
Therefore, there are some short-term strategies that partners can employ to
overcome cultural biases toward the single-occupant automobile:
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Chapter 6 · Factors for Success
· Make parking costs transparent by charging for parking instead of
making it free.
· Lower the parking requirement for commercial and residential
land uses near transit.
· Allow multiple-use parking that serves customers by day and
residents by night.
The District of Columbia Office of Planning, for example, notes that many of
the wider policy changes that it is pursuing to encourage alternative modes
will help to create a more attractive environment for car-sharing.
Changing Current Conditions
Longer-range strategies include increased densities around transit hubs.
"Residents living near transit stations are around five times more likely to
commute by transit as the average resident worker in the same city," ac-
cording to a report issued by the California DOT (Lund, Cervero & Willson,
2004). And when residents can rely on transit for their commute, they are
also more able to rely on car-sharing for the rest of their trips. The com-
munity benefits are reduced congestion and parking demand.
A corollary requirement is better funding for transit. By increasing the fre-
quency and coverage, transit can fulfill its role as an essential and comple-
mentary mode to car-sharing.
In addition, partners can improve walkability in neighborhoods. Lack of
sidewalks, cul-de-sacs with no pathways to the main street, and obstacles
such as open drainage ditches discourage people from walking and push
them into their personal automobile. If these barriers are present, car-shar-
ing members will be unable to easily access car-sharing vehicles and may
give up on the idea.
Many affluent communities are also environmentally sensitive and may
consider car-sharing as a beneficial response to pollution and overdevelop-
ment of land for freeways and parking. For example, Brookline, Massachu-
setts is a "green," affluent city very well-served by transit, which has also
embraced car-sharing. Zipcar is a perfect complement to the community's
environmental bent, according to city staff, making Brookline a more desir-
able place to live. Like Brookline, partners in other communities can offer
car-sharing as one tool to address the larger societal issues of land uses and
fuel consumption.
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