Skip to Main Content View Text-Only

The City of Portland, Oregon

Portland Bureau of Transportation

Phone: 503-823-5185

Fax: 503-823-7576

1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 800, Portland, OR 97204

More Contact Info

Subscribe to RSS feed

Most Popular

View Less

Most Recent

View Less

The benefits of car sharing

Oct 25, 2011 at 12:51 PM 12 Comments

Part III: Car Sharing 2.0 Series

Portland is arguably the birthplace of North American car sharing, so it's no surprise that we have one of the stronger car sharing markets in the country.

Just because you're a Portlander, however, doesn't mean you know about car sharing.

Here's a brief summary of how it's different from conventional car rentals:

  • Cars are available for rent by the hour*
  • You need to become a member (and usually pay a membership fee) to rent a car
  • You don't need to go to an office to rent a car - you can reserve a car online
  • Cars are parked throughout the area in on- and off-street locations
  • Gas and insurance are included in the rental.

An extensive study of carsharing by Nelson Nygaard Association found that car sharing reduces car ownership, reducing vehicle miles travelled and increases walking, biking and transit. By offering an affordable alternative to car ownership, people can sell their car (or forego purchasing one) while still having automobile access. They conclude that for every car sharing vehicle on the road, at least five private vehicles are removed.

The authors reason that car sharing also reduces driving and increases sustainable modes by changing the economics of driving. For most folks driving has a big fixed cost (buying the car) but a relatively small cost for each individual trip: You sink a lot of money into buying a car, but as long as you have gas in the tank, you don't have to pay anything for each individual trip.  

Car sharing flips that equation on its head. Car sharing membership is inexpensive, but you pay for each individual trip. Car sharing members have to consider the cost every time they drive and are therefore more likely to forego the trip in favor of walking, biking, transit. 

The study also notes that car sharing reduces vehicles emissions (both through less driving and by car sharing fleets being cleaner and more fuel efficient than the privately owned cars) and reduction in household travel costs.

*Some car rental companies now offer hourly rental

 

Read more in the Car Sharing 2.0 series 

Part I: Paris launches world's first electric car sharing program

Part II: A brief history of car sharing

Part IV: Car2go provides one way car sharing in Austin, San Diego

Part V: Nationwide (and over the pond), Zipcar continues to innovate

Part VI: Peer to peer car sharing comes to Portland

 

12 Comments

Add a Comment

1

serani suci

August 28, 2017 at 6:00 AM

Di dunia pariwisata dan transportasi Lombok kami senantiasa memberikan pelayanan yang optimal. Bukan sekedar sewa mobil lombok tapi kami adalah rental mobil lombok yang selalu amanah pada setiap customer. Ini untuk mengedepankan misi kami agar sewa mobil murah lombok selalu mendapat tempat dihati para pelanggan kami. Jasa transportasi memang masif belakangan ini, namun itu semua akan semakin menambah semangat kami untuk mngedepankan kenyamanan Anda. Karenanya jika anda bepergian bersama rombongan, kami sangat sarankan agar menggunakan jasa sewa elf di lombok karena muat untuk banyak orang. Tentunya perjalanan wisata anda akan nyaman sampai tujuan. Selamat berlibur ke pulau lombok ya gaes

3

sandra

March 11, 2018 at 10:31 PM

Articles that are very good and interesting thanks
<a title="poker online" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>poker online</strong></a>
<a title="dominoqq" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>dominoqq</strong></a>
<a title="domino99" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>domino99</strong></a>
<a title="agen poker" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>agen poker</strong></a>
<a title="bandarq" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>bandarq</strong></a>
<a title="situs poker" href="http://www.toyotaqiuqiu.com" rel"dofollow"><strong>situs poker</strong></a>

6

natalia tan987

March 20, 2018 at 2:51 AM

Thank you for allow me to comment in here

<a title="situs baccarat online terpercaya" href="http://www.royalkasino.com" rel"dofollow">situs baccarat online terpercaya</a>
<a title="situs slot online terpercaya" href="http://www.royalkasino.com" rel"dofollow">situs slot online terpercaya</a>
<a title="situs judi sic bo terpercaya" href="http://www.royalkasino.com" rel"dofollow">situs judi sic bo terpercaya</a>
<a title="situs slot online terpercaya" href="http://www.royalkasino.com" rel"dofollow">situs slot online terpercaya</a>
<a title="situs roulette online terpercaya" href="http://www.royalkasino.com" rel"dofollow">situs roulette online terpercaya</a>

Please review our Code of Conduct rules before posting a comment to this site.
Report Abuse (Please include the specific topic and comment for the fastest response/resolution.)

Post a Comment
Name
E-mail (visible to admins only)
 Remember Info Yes   No
Comments
Spam Prevention In the Pacific Northwest, what state is Portland in?