Car sharing a growing trend
BY
Rebecca Adamus Medill News Service
© 2004 Daily Herald
November 7, 2004
When Amber Neely, a 24-year-old Lakeview resident, moved from Michigan to Chicago , she sold her car because it would have cost too much to "switch it over." But Neely also wanted to use a car once in a while, so two months ago she joined I-GO, a non-profit car sharing organization.
"I was sick of not being able to get out of the city," Neely said. Neely uses an I-GO car about once a month. She takes a 15-minute walk from her home to the Ann Sather restaurant on Belmont Avenue where the car is parked and checks it out with a "smart" card by punching her member pin number into a keypad. Then she's on her way to a shopping trip in Schaumburg .
Robert Morehead, 46, has been a member since February. Morehead works for the city and checks out the car from Hyde Park where he lives. He uses an I-GO car at least twice per week.
"The advantages are not having to pay insurance, gas prices and maintenance," Morehead said.
I-GO applications have more than doubled in the last six months to 85 in September. The service has 717 members.
The increase allowed I-GO to add six cars this year for a total of 15. I-GO cars are late-model Honda Civic sedans including two Civic hybrids.
They are parked in different Chicago neighborhoods. Members pay a one-time fee of $75. Usage fees are $6 per hour and 50 cents per mile. Using the car between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. is free.
Expenses are greater than revenues, said Sharon Feigon , chief executive officer. "We'll be self-sufficient when we have about 80 cars."
The concept was born in Europe and has spread as U.S. cities cope with transportation and emissions issues.
Flexcar and Zipcar Inc. are two for-profit car sharing companies. Zipcar has locations in Washington , D.C. , Boston and New York . Flexcar is the largest car sharing company, with multiple locations in cities on both coasts.
I-GO is an affiliate of the non-profit Center for Neighborhood Technology, which supplements revenue with a mix of public and private funds. I-GO also relies on partnerships to keep costs down.
For example, a pilot program with the Chicago Transit Authority will allow members to check out cars at five CTA bus and el stops. The CTA formed the partnership to ease congestion and increase the use of mass transit, said CTA Chairwoman Carole Brown in a Aug. 11 news release. Studies have shown that car sharing increases mass transit use.
Another study found that when an I-GO car is on the road, six to eight cars are taken off because a person who joins I-GO delays purchasing a car or has recently sold a car, said Richard Kosmacher , sales and marketing manager.
When they use I-GO cars, "People will combine trips, so they will cut down on vehicle usage," he said. "We actually can have an impact on habit. You're thinking about it more when there's a direct cost to that specific drive."
Feigon wants to expand the fleet to 150 cars in the next two years.
More than half of I-GO's users don't own cars and rely on a combination of walking, biking and mass transit to get around Chicago , said Kosmacher. It appeals to people who are fed up with the high costs of car ownership. Kosmacher predicts that as gas prices continue to rise, "car sharing will become more popular."
