I would love to be able to say that being car-free truly means living without a car or not being dependent on fossil fuels. But let's face it: sometimes a car is just a necessary evil. Maybe in some metropolitan areas such as New York City or San Francisco, where public transit is a reliable alternative, one could get by without ever stepping foot on a gas pedal. But, in my experience, Seattle just doesn't cut it when it comes to bus service. And the rain and hills do not make it a conducive area for year-round biking, especially with a young child. (Yes, I admit that I am a fair-weather biker!)
But what we do have here in Seattle is a lot of technology, green thinkers, and creative entrepreneurs. It's not just our music that is alternative; you could say that we put the alternator in alternate transportation. Seattle may not have been the first city to come up with or implement the idea of car sharing, but it was definitely a forerunner in giving the idea a jump start, with the creation of Flexcar in the year 2000. It started with a small trial in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and then expanded to the full city. I was intrigued by the concept, but didn't have a need for it at the time. It wasn't until a few years later, when I decided to ditch my car for the second time since moving to Seattle in 1993, that I joined Flexcar.
The dedicated fleet of Flexcar vehicles (which included many hybrids) were parked in assigned parking spaces throughout the city, available for members to rent by the hour or day. The technology was pretty sophisticated for that time: reservations were made through
the company's website, and car doors were unlocked by holding membership
cards over the scanners on the windshields. Not
all of the vehicles were that high-tech, though--the
pickup truck that I often rented didn't have a card reader. Instead, a
four-digit code was used to open a lockbox that held the keys. (Not
surprisingly, that truck was stolen, at least once, from its parking
space.)
I didn't use Flexcar very often because I could mostly get where I needed to be without a car. And then I didn't use it at all for several years due to moving out of the area and other life circumstances. But now that I am living in Seattle without a car once again and have a young child to transport around with me, I have renewed my interest in the car-sharing concept. And I am happy to find that over the last fifteen years, car sharing has come a long way--both in scope and technology.
In 2007 Flexcar merged with and became Zipcar** to create a car-sharing super power in Seattle. But because no one type of service can meet the needs of every lifestyle, two new types of car sharing evolved. In 2012, Seattle's car-sharing market was rounded out with Car2Go, which offers a "floating" fleet of tiny, fuel-efficient Smart Cars that can be rented for one-way trips and parked (almost) anywhere in the city; and RelayRides**, a peer-to-peer car rental service where car owners rent out their personal vehicles for daily, weekly, or monthly rates. And now, in 2015, some form of car sharing can be found in most major cities in the United States and Europe, as well as many other countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Russia, Iceland (Vikingcars, of course!), India, and Turkey, just to name a few. All the latest technological advances with cell phone apps and GPS mapping have made car sharing even more accessible and convenient than ever. And I'm sure that the desire to find greener, more economical, and more socially conscious ways of getting around will continue to shape and expand car sharing throughout the globe.
In Seattle alone, we continue to see the forces of supply-and-demand economics, healthy competition, and eco-consciousness bring about creative and evolving transportation alternatives. Two other peer-to-peer options are also now gaining ground in the Seattle area: Getaround**, which is currently just preparing to launch in the Seattle market, seems to combine the features of both RelayRides** and Zipcar**, offering hourly or daily rentals of privately owned cars for even lower rates; and FlightCar,
which offers privately owned cars for rent from airports while owners
are out of town (making use of cars that would otherwise be sitting idle
for days or weeks).
It is not surprising that traditional rental car services are now also getting in on the short-term car-rental action. Enterprise and Uhaul have each entered the scene, but still with limited or no presence in the Seattle area. And, in fact, Zipcar** was purchased by Avis Budget Group in 2014.
With so many options to choose from, you might be wondering which one is best. There really is no "one size fits all" when it comes to car sharing; each type has its pros and cons. I've found that having a membership with ALL of them makes the most sense, since each trip that I take has different requirements. Some trips require planning ahead, and sometimes I need to figure out transportation on the fly. The mobile apps that all of these services have, combined with the ones available for public transportation (One Bus Away and Trip Planner) and peer-to-peer taxi services (Uber**, Lyft**, and Sidecar) make it possible to do on-the-go trip planning and even compare rates versus time and convenience among the various options.
So, while Seattleites patiently wait for the powers that be to tear down viaducts, bore enormous holes under the city, continuously reduce and reroute bus service*, and ever so slowly build tracks for the long-promised Link light rail service expansion, we are fortunate to have so many other options. And with so many new condos and high-rise
apartment buildings going up in just about every neighborhood, the
market is ripe for even more creative transportation alternatives. I'm holding my breath for an all-electric car-share option, which would greatly reduce the fossil fuel dependency.
Until then, I will continue riding the bus, biking, and walking whenever possible and fill in the gaps with whichever car-share option best suits my needs. And I hope that my efforts will encourage more and more Seattleites to give up their personal vehicles too. If I can manage it with a five-year-old in tow,
anyone can!
On my Links & Resources page I have a brief summary of all the different car-sharing services in Seattle, and future posts will give a more detailed description and analysis of each.
*Beginning June 6, 2015, major transit changes to King County Metro will be under way due to the approved funding budget from Proposition 1. We shall see if these changes make any significant improvements to traffic congestion or entice any new bus riders.
**Signing up through these links will get you free driving credit!
