 |
Shared Wheels(redirected from CommunityFutures.SharedWheels) The lowest-hanging fruit on the Transportation tree is sharing "wheels" -- we have more than enough modes of transport in town for everybody to go anywhere anytime; it's just a matter of getting them to the people who need them. Here are the ideas we came up with: (skip down to e-bike rentals, carsharing, carpooling, or hitchhiking) Community bicycle programWikipedia says, Community bicycle programs (also known as Yellow bicycle programs or White bicycle programs) ... appear in all shapes and sizes in cities throughout the world. The central concept of these programs is the offering of free (or nearly free) access to bicycles for inner-city transportation. The goal of these programs is to reduce the use of automobiles for short trips inside the city and cut down on traffic congestion and air-pollution.
...
In many community bicycle programs, each bicycle is painted yellow, white, or another solid color. This is usually done for two primary reasons. First, as a fleet of colored bicycles begin to appear around the city, it helps to get the word out about the program. Secondly, many programs paint over the brand name and other distinguishing features of the bicycle, some even going so far as to paint every component such as the pedals, shifters, and wheels. This is very helpful in deterring theft since the painted bicycle has little resale value.
We would need at least the following resources to get started:
Rental of electric bikes and other green vehiclesWe would need at least the following resources to get started:
CarsharingWikipedia says, Carsharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is jointly-owned by the users in distinction from car rental or cars in private ownership. The users are organized as a democratically-controlled company, public agency, cooperative, ad hoc grouping. The fleet is made available for use by members of the carshare group in a wide variety of ways. The costs and troubles of vehicle purchase, ownership and maintenance are transferred to a central organizer (the Carshare Operator or more familiarly CSO). It has been around in various forms for more than half a century, but it is only in the last decade that it has begun to gather force as a viable alternative to car ownership—for some people and some places. Today there are more than six hundred cities in the world where people can carshare.
...
As is often the case with innovations that spring up more or less spontaneously in different parts of the world, operations are organized in many different ways in different places, according to the objectives of the organizers and users. A small informal start-up may have only one shared car, and only a handful of sharers. In the larger services that are increasingly coming into existence, participants are typically city-dwellers whose transportation needs are largely met by public transit, walking, or cycling.
I (Ben) looked into starting carsharing a year ago (2006), and I found that the main obstacle was insurance. It's one thing if you personally own a car and want to let your friends drive it using your policy; it's another if you want to lend it to strangers who don't have liability insurance of their own. Any accident they have while driving your car will reflect on your liability insurance and make your rates go up. In my opinion, all we need is a good lawyer to find the way around that obstacle, and people all over town could agree to share their privately owned cars with each other, cooperatively. The alternative would be to start a co-op corporation, take out insurance in the company's name, and private folks could sell or donate their cars to the company for collective ownership. Again a lawyer would need to be involved. Carpooling (Ride Sharing)Wikipedia says, Carpooling (also known as ride-sharing, lift-sharing), is shared use of a car, in particular for commuting to work, often by people who each have a car but travel together to save costs and in the interest of other socio-environmental benefits mentioned below. There are sometimes special facilities for carpoolers, including designated pick-up points and high-occupancy vehicle lanes which are also at times opened up to designated cars with multiple riders. Carpool projects have been around in fairly structured form going back to the mid-seventies, and in recent years have begun to make much more extensive use of the internet and software support systems. With the recent advent of mobile phones and SMS, there is a push to integrate these technologies into more flexible systems on the web. Ride sharing is an alternative to get to and connect with people at other large events, such as music festivals and conferences.
Carpools may be formed through word of mouth by friends and colleagues, or through online carpooling services. There is also another system, car sharing, which is often mistaken with carpooling.
We already have an online ride-sharing board at Fairfield Today -- however, nobody's using it. The bulletin boards at Everybody's get more use. The secret here might be to promote it more... and to emphasize what's in it for the sharer. It needs to be clear that the sharee is not just mooching, but is expected to pay for gas, etc. so that sharing one's car can be promoted as a money-saving venture. San Louis Obispo Regional Rideshare has made their ride-matching software available free of charge and open-source, so if and when we feel Fairfield is ready for an online ride-matching service, we can set it up at little up-front cost! They also have some great information about the benefits of carpooling. HitchhikingHere's the word from Wikipedia. Nothing most of us don't already know... the creative bit we discussed at the conference was how to "institutionalize" the process, so that people feel safe offering and accepting rides. As the Wikipedia article indicates, and as several local people have attested, hitchhiking can be very safe and convenient. But many more people wouldn't be comfortable using it currently. One suggestion that came up at the conference was that people who passed a criminal background check could have badges to show that they are "safe" passengers or drivers. The obvious objection to this plan is that badges can be stolen, so then you need photo ID and all the challenges that come with that. Like ride sharing, we need to address the question of what's in it for the driver. Perhaps drivers could have signature cards, and each time they pick up a hitchhiker that person would sign the card, and full cards could be redeemable at local businesses. Comments? Additions? Where do we start?? |