Car shares
Car Sharing Startup Getaround Gets $1.7 Million Grant
Getaround / Press Release / 13 December 2011
The City of Portland today announced that peer-to-peer car sharing company and 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt NYC winner, Getaround, was selected by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to participate in a joint initiative with the city to use $1,725,000 in federal funding to launch peer-to-peer car sharing in the greater Portland metropolitan area by February of 2012, following an initial launch at Portland State University. In anticipation of the launch, starting today, Portland commuters and car owners can begin signing up for Getaround at http://www.getaround.com.
The FHWA grant in Portland is the first federal grant ever awarded for peer-to-peer car sharing. The selection of Getaround by the FHWA as the car sharing provider for the state’s pilot program was based on Getaround’s novel technology, insurance program and successful track record in enabling car owners to safely and easily share their cars in other metropolitan areas, including the San Francisco Bay Area.
Video: Peer-to-peer car sharing gains investors, users
CarShare Startup Issues
Portland Transportation Research Board / January 2004
This paper discusses some of the decisions to be made when starting a new carsharing service. These include selection of business type; pricing issues; identification of target membership markets; vehicle selection, financing & insurance; reservation/scheduling systems & in-vehicle telematics (on-board computer); parking, staffing, marketing, partnerships. A simplified spreadsheet model to compare various pricing and expense scenarios is presented. Finally, a brief discussion is presented of the possibilities of franchising and outsourcing certain functions; as well as several innovative service models, including exclusive use vehicles, van shuttles, open-ended, and one-way reservations.
Making car-sharing a carbon-sharing service
Grist / Todd Woody / 15 December 2010
The internet has brought us peer-to-peer music sharing and peer-to-peer lending. Now get ready for peer-to-peer car sharing.
RelayRides is the latest startup to target San Francisco for an online service that lets people rent their cars to those in need of wheels for a few hours (the company is also starting up in Boston). Think of RelayRides as a Zipcar without its own cars. (A local Bay Area competitor is Spride Share.)
Cars at Curbside, Available to Share
New York Times / Ariel Kaminer / 16 July 2010
In a city blessed with every variety of public transportation, car traffic is awful and parking is even worse. Yet some people still insist, against all logic, on owning a car.
That may sound familiar, but the city in question is not New York; it’s Hoboken, N.J., just a short swim to the west — the land of “restaurants, bars and double-parked cars.” To ease that congestion, the city has initiated a bold new experiment: It has scattered a few dozen stylish new cars around town, and left them there for residents to share. Anyone who needs a set of wheels can more or less help himself.
Putting more cars on the street might seem like an odd way to reduce congestion, but the hope is that once Hobokenites try car sharing, they will decide against car owning. It’s not as unlikely as it sounds.
The word is out. Carsharing is cool.
Car Sharing Service AutoShare to Offset Carbon Footprint
zerofootprint / Press Release / 04 June 2009
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- 06/04/09 -- AutoShare announced today that it is launching a program with Zerofootprint to offset its car sharing network's carbon footprint, estimated to offset over 1,000,000 km of city driving in 2009. In their mandate to reduce carbon emissions and pollutions, AutoShare has integrated offsetting as part of their environmental strategy that already includes offering hybrid vehicles and buying electricity from a renewable energy provider.
