Carshare

CarShareHFX is now up and running!

CarShareHFX members will enjoy benefits that come with carsharing, the flexibility and the savings, environmental and cash-in-the-pocket, and freedom from car owner's hassles.

Carsharing is not carpooling or ride-sharing. Carsharing is a drive-yourself pay-by-the-hour alternative to car ownership. It's for people who don't need their car every day and who don't drive 18,000 km or more a year. It's for people who want to free themselves of the locked in costs and temptations of a car of their own in their drive.

CarShareHFX membership is open to qualified individual drivers. There are accounts for individuals, households, businesses and organizations. Member-drivers will have 24-hour, 365-day, paperwork-free pay-by-the-hour access to a fleet of vehicles – mostly ecology-friendly compact sedans with a sprinkling of minivans and other vehicles – stationed conveniently around the city.

Carsharing is easy to use. Members book the vehicle they want for the time they need, reserving it on the website or by phone, a year ahead or just five minutes before they want it (if it is available).

They go to the car in its exclusive parking space, the on-board computer recognizes their CarShareHFX smart card, knows their reservation and unlocks the car. When they return the vehicle to its space the computer messages the office with details of the trip.

Members are billed, insurance and fuel included, for the hours they booked and the distance they drove. One bill for everything 'car' (excepting parking tickets of course).

Savings?

Owning a typical Canadian car and driving 10,000 km a year costs $8,300 - $690/month according to the CAA. To drive that distance CarShareHFX members would pay about $5,000, saving $3,000 and avoiding most car ownership hassles.

A personal CarShareHFX account will cost under $200 a year for membership. Unlike owners, members aren't locked into fixed payments due whether they drive five kilometres or 15,000. Owners of CAA's 'average car' pay $7,080 in fixed costs – car payments, depreciation, finance, insurance, registration, parking, maintenance, … 85% of the $8,300 total.

Carsharing membership also saves the environment (professional maintenance and members' more efficient and lower use of cars) and reduces demand on the city's streets and parking spaces.

In Canada and the US carshare membership is exploding. "As of January 2007, 18 US carsharing programs claimed 134,094 members sharing 3,637 vehicles, and ... 21,817 members shared 994 vehicles among 13 carsharing organizations in Canada." There are 59 North American cities with carsharing as of October 2007, seven served by two or more competing carsharing organizations. Recent growth trends indicate memberships will likely grow to over a quarter of a million people using 10,000 carshare vehicles in 70 cities before the end of 2008.

Go to carsharing.ca and carsharing.net for general carsharing background information.

For CarShareHFX information, email Peter Zimmer at pzimmer@carsharehfx.ca

Transportation Issues Committee

Phone:
ASRTS: (902) 442-5055
TRAX: (902) 429-0924
For Bike Again inquiries, please call our main line at 429-2202.

Fax: (902) 405-3716

The Transportation Issues Committee meets on the first Monday of every month at 5:30pm. We welcome new members. Get involved today!

*please note: there will be no TIC meeting in August, and the September meeting will be postponed until the second Monday of the month (September 13)