San Francisco Bay Area Car Sharing Program Spurring Fundamental Changes, Says UC Berkeley Study - Vou't Den?

Study Indicates Decreases in Vehicle Ownership, Pollution

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov. 20 -- The country's first major study of the impacts of car-sharing, financed by the Federal Highway Administration's Value Pricing Program, was released today. The San Francisco Bay Area's City CarShare, a non-profit group, is showing measurable impacts in reducing driving, transportation costs, private car ownership, and environmental hazards, according to the new report.

The findings by Robert Cervero, a professor with UC Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development, represent the latest in his three-year evaluation of the City CarShare's effects on travel, car ownership, the environment, parking and the quality of life in neighborhoods.

When car-sharing programs first began, their social, economic and environmental effects were touted as potential outcomes -- Cervero's study shows that many hoped-for benefits have occurred.

  Among his findings:
  -- 30% of City CarShare households have sold one or more of their
     privately-owned cars; 67% have chosen not to purchase an additional
     car.
  -- Most trips were made outside of peak travel hours.
  -- Overall per-capita automobile travel among City CarShare members has
     dropped 47 percent, while use of public transit, walking and bicycling
     by CarShare members has increased.
  -- City CarShare is saving 13,000 miles of vehicle travel, 720 gallons of
     gasoline, and 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each day.

"This is the data we've been waiting for -- it proves that car-sharing is changing the car culture for the better," said City CarShare Executive Director Larry Magid.

3,000 people are members of City CarShare, which opened in 2001. Members are free to reserve any car in City CarShare's fleet, paying $4 an hour and 44 cents per mile, including gasoline. Prices are cut in half during off-peak hours, 10 p.m. - 10 a.m., at $2 an hour. Member fees cover maintenance, insurance and gas.

Cervero based his research on City CarShare reservation and use records, as well as travel diary surveys of CarShare users, and analysis of household and car ownership information. Surveys also were conducted with a statistical control group.

A copy of the full report is available from Kathleen Maclay at ckm@pa.urel.berkeley.edu City CarShare's website is: www.citycarshare.org.

NOTE: Professor Robert Cervero is at robertc@uclink.berkeley.edu. He will be presenting his study in January 2004 meeting of the Transportation Resource Board in Washington, D.C.