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We are taking a serious look into adding a carshare program for our cluster of developments that are in the early planning stages in West Sacramento. These projects will have one parking space per unit, so the addition of a car-share program could be very helpful for some residents.
The idea behind the car sharing program is that you have the freedom of using a car when you need it without the expense or hassle of it when you can walk and bike most everywhere else. The average expense of owning your own vehicle is estimated at $6,000 to $7,000 a year.
Car Share Companies
There are three companies that run programs in the Bay Area and I’m trying to find out if they are willing to expand into West Sac!
I like City Carshare the best since it is a nonprofit, and I have a soft spot for organizations devoted solely to the public good.
In our neighborhood we could designate several of the spaces in each of the projects for carshare vehicles and end up with quite a fleet. It seems like Midtown and Downtown would be natural expansion areas for the program. The Triangle in West Sac is a good fit too.
It would be great if other developers out there would join in to get the initial momentum going.
Steve
8 responses so far ↓
1 CentralCity // Mar 23, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Sounds like a great idea !
The less people making 1 man (or woman) 1 car trips the better .
Please keep us all posted on any positive ( or negative ) feedback you get . Im interested in how this will be percieved .
Tying it into a “sister” program in midtown /downtown seems like a logical step to take . Is that in your start up plans ?
2 Micah // Mar 24, 2007 at 11:41 am
O.K. I have written this comment twice now and the server aparently doesn’t like it.
I met Kate White, Executive Director, ULI San Francisco last fall. She was formerly the director of City Car Share and was instrumental in starting the non-profit. During her time there she presented to the City of Sacramento or West Sacramento, I can’t remember, and didn’t get much interest.
So when I met here and told her that we would love to incorporate a pick-up/drop-off spot in one of our projects she was intrigued. It was a very exciting idea at the time and I am glad you brought this up. It is funny how we don’t have time to talk about everything during working hours and we are connecting on the blog. Lets talk and get this going.
Micah
3 Dan // Mar 27, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I long for car sharing in Sacramento.
I emailed the Sac TMA recently about the status of car share for Sacramento. It sounds like SMUD looked into bringing Flexcar here 3 years ago, but the market wasn’t ready then. Paratransit is looking into doing car share themselves. Some folks at the Sac Metro Air Quality Management District are “working on support”.
I’m excited that a developer is looking into it. That might be just what we need. A partnership between a few of the urban core developers and one of the SF providers seems like a workable way to get those cars here.
For a more grass roots version, check out DartCar - peer-to-peer car share. Right now there are 4 cars in Davis.
4 Bruce // Apr 1, 2007 at 7:52 pm
It would be great, since you are in the planning stages, to incorportate thought towards a car-share using all electric powered vehicles. Add to that an easily accessible, centrally-located park/port area under cover of an array of solar panels to recharge the parked vehicles, and you could be on to a free source of clean energy to use for running the occassional errands that require powered wheels.
Bruce (dad)
5 Bruce // May 27, 2007 at 3:20 pm
OK, I’m not sure if we can trust GenMot (0f “Who Killed the E-Car?” in-fame!), but I am becoming increasingly excited about the new Chevy VOLT. In my view, this is where the future electric car should be. The concept of an all-electric motor-driven vehicle (ala a diesel-generated locomotive) seems so simple and basic it’s unbelievable to think that it took GM to engineer the product. At 40 miles per charge, and using solar-paneled carports, this vehicle (same system destined for the VUE SUV) could scoot all over Sacramento on free energy. Designing solar panels in the car’s roof adds more free power! If the trip stretches beyond 40 miles the on-board multi-fueled generator kicks in to recharge the battery. Next generation batteries extend the range significantly. It would be great to see LJURBAN involved in promoting and offering this concept as part of its future car sharing program. (Contact a local GM dealership and see if there is anyone over there that is as excited about this as I am!)
Bruce
6 jason // May 30, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Funny you mentioned solar roofs on electric cars because a few weeks ago Micah talked with a solar person about installing some on our ZAP. We’ll see…i know the battery technology breakthroughs forthcoming will fix some of the broken issues with electric cars now. I haven’t spent time looking at the VOLT myself (could be a trust issue I have with GM) but the concept sounds pretty solid from what you described. Our ZAP does 40 miles per charge but doesn’t have a backup system which, in my opinion, is its biggest drawback (and thus, our exploration into a solar roof…)
7 Eric // Jul 5, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Sorry to join the conversation so late…
I have been so hoping that car sharing would come to Sacramento. With all the density development and increase of essential resources within walk/bike distance there must be so many people who could do without a car most of the time.
My partner and I use our car about once a week or less, and once car sharing hits midtown, we’ll sell ours.
I’ve had some correspondence with FlexCar. They are trying to get the State to take up the idea of a car sharing model for fleet management. A great idea! FlexCar (and probably the others) offer partial-exclusive car sharing for businesses, whereby the car is only available to the business during the workday, and other (public) members of the car-share service on evenings and weekends.
When I think about the thousands of fleet vehicles that take up all that space and do nothing on evenings and weekends, I see a huge opportunity.
It’s a great idea to incorporate car-sharing into development projects. I’ve recently seen new housing developments in San Francisco which feature a dedicated car-share car.
I’m not sure what it will take to get one of the big three car-share companies to come to town, but I hope it happens someday soon!
8 jason // Jul 6, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Eric, the fleet car-share program seems so common sense, its mind-boggling its not been done yet. And kudos to you for finding ways to live with minimal use of your car. I’m trying to get my car use down to about 3 days a week, some weeks I’m there and other weeks not: it’ll get easier when my toddler is older. We combine trips a lot to minimize our car-time as well. For some months now, i drop my daughter off at her dance studio and take my other daughter to the co-op for groceries: I get some bonding time with my toddler and my wife gets some time with our ballerina. I often find that “less is more” translates into other “quality of life” benefits harder to define that you’d never know existed otherwise. For example: the car-share program seems to have some implicit community-building benefits: you get to know other car-share people who probably share similar values but whom you otherwise might never meet. If the car-share is a part of the development you live in, the community-building perk is even more obvious.
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