Anybody done the car-sharing thing?

[Oceanic]

I'm considering trying car-sharing, if I can get enough people in our neighbourhood to sign up for one of the Vancouver co-ops.

Has anybody done this? How did it work out?

I can commute by transit or bike, even though it takes longer than driving. I only really need a car for shopping trips and pet errands.

[mira]

When I lived in Spain, I used to get a ride to the school I worked in with a bunch of teachers who car-pooled. They would meet every morning in a parking lot near the highway, and someone different would drive every day. It was about a 45 minute drive and public transport was practically nonexistent to the town, so it was an ideal solution. Seemed to work out pretty well!

[Perplexa]

I was a member of the car-sharing co-op in Philly and it was *great*. I lived in the middle of the city, so I didn't need to drive much anyway, and I found the car-sharing helped keep my driving down to the necessary trips because I felt the cost of each and every trip. (This might be less true now. I was a starving grad student then.) The main thing I found is that you need to live in a dense area where there are lots and lots of cars, because it's no good if you can't find a car nearby when you need one.

I'm moving to Vancouver this summer, so I've looked at the car sharing options there (assuming you mean the big Vancouver, not Vancouver, WA). The local non-profit co-op (modo, now, I think?) looks great, if you're willing to put up the $500 to buy a share and you live downtown or maybe in the Kits. Sadly, we're moving to North Van, and they have just a few cars there, so it'll be useless for us.

[fredx]

My partner and I both live car-free here in Boulder, CO; we're both members of the local eGo Carshare. It's rare we need a motor vehicle (we have a bike trailer), but when we do, the car-share kicks butt. They even have a pickup truck, which enables us to move 1/2 ton or more of stuff easily. The car-share is a pillar of our ability to easily live car-free without any feeling of deprivation. To the contrary, we have no insurance or registration bills to pay, no maintenance, no breakdowns, and our driveway is always open play-space! :D

- Fred

[kally]

I work with a non profit in Vancouver and they do all their work with the coop cars. None of the people in the small company have or want cars and book them when they need to use them for work. It seems to work out really well.

They use modo.

[Oceanic]

Yeah, Perplexa, I was looking at modo, but they don't have a car within walking distance of my home. My plan is to ask them how many more people we need to get one in our neighbourhood, then put up a sign in the community centre to see if there is enough community interest. There *should* be, since my neighbourhood is a lot of townhouses / condos with some social housing.

[Perplexa]

Ooh, that's a great plan, Oceanic. Is it a North Van neighborhood? Please?!

[Zoebird]

one just opened up here in wellington. it looks very well organized.

it might work well for us, honestly. it costs about the same as car rental for a day-trip (if we chose to go that route), and the hourly rate would be good for things like going to the garden center to pick things up (though I think the garden center delivers).

right now, we are thinking of joining -- but we're also not sure *how* we would use it. we really don't have a lot of times where we need to drive (less than once a month from what I can tell) -- so I don't know how those costs will bear out. it's just $15 per hr of rental, though, which isn't bad.