By Shaun Bailey , Marketing and Communications Specialist, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

Published on November 14, 2007
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Whether it’s by horse-drawn carriage, Segway machine, or motorized amphibious duck, Philadelphians have some pretty unique options at their disposal when it comes to exploring the City of Brotherly Love. But perhaps the newest innovation in transportation is PhillyCarShare, a nonprofit car-sharing organization “committed to making Philadelphia a model for sustainable living,” one ecological footprint at a time.

A car-sharing service is a nonprofit or for-profit business that provides access to a fleet of vehicles strategically parked throughout a city or region that any one customer can access 24 hours a day. It’s not to be confused with car renting or carpooling because there is no central office or added riders with which to coordinate. Rates are typically charged by the hour or day and, depending on the plan selected, can sometimes include a monthly fee. Included in these rates are frequent add-on expenses such as gasoline, premium insurance, and reserved parking.

PhillyCarShare was established in 2002 using two low-emission compact cars and $23,000 of seed money contributed by its five founding volunteers. Today, the staff of 50 coordinates about 400 vehicles of varying makes and models — over half of which are hybrids — that are strategically positioned around the city. This combination of convenience, flexibility and affordability has distinguished the organization as the world’s largest car-sharing operation, and this yields a substantial impact on the environment.

According to its own research, PhillyCarShare has provided approximately 8,000 drivers with enough freedom to sell their automobiles. This lifestyle change has saved motorists roughly 16 million miles behind the wheel and more than a million gallons of gasoline. This amounts to an annual savings of roughly $4,000 by each former car owner who, in turn, tends to walk, bicycle and use mass transit more often.

It was incentives like these that led the City of Philadelphia to become the first municipal government in the world to convert its fleet — 330 vehicles in all — to publicly shared automobiles in 2004. This win-win transition has saved city taxpayers approximately $6 million so far and, at the same time, established PhillyCarShare as the first nonprofit vehicle-sharing organization in the United States to achieve a balanced budget.

The partnership between the City of Philadelphia and PhillyCarShare has also inspired lawmakers in other large urban centers to eliminate their own costly fleets. For example, city employees in both Minneapolis and Portland switched to publicly shared vehicles soon after municipal workers in Philadelphia did so.

PhillyCarShare now boasts more than 25,000 members — the most in the nation — and its services have expanded to include 15 municipal employees in the City of Wilmington as part of a pilot program called PhillyCarShare-Delaware. If this trial period proves successful, the organization may eventually expand this short-term initiative to include businesses and residents in the First State, similar to its Philadelphia business model.

Prospective customers are asked to help PhillyCarShare gauge demand for its services by logging on to www.PhillyCarShare.org. Once there, visitors can sign up for a free membership and even suggest a parking spot, or “pod,” near their home, office, or travel route.

For more information on car sharing in Greater Philadelphia, please visit PhillyCarShare’s website located at www.PhillyCarShare.org, or log on to www.Flexcar.com, the online home of Flexcar, a Seattle-based service that expanded into Philadelphia just this year.