Car Sharing

The Urban Environment and Development Committee recommends that:

(1)the report (April 13, 1999) from the Commissioner of Urban Planning and Development Services be adopted; and

(2)the Commissioner of Urban Planning and Development Services:

(a)undertake discussions with the Toronto Transit Commission with respect to the

Auto Share proposal; and

(b)examine other creative parking alternatives and report back to the Urban Environment and Development Committee accordingly.

The Urban Environment and Development Committee submits the following report (April 13, 1999) from the Commissioner of Urban Planning and Development Services:

Purpose:

To provide an overview of the car sharing concept and its applicability to the Toronto situation.

Financial Implications:

This report has no immediate funding implications.

Recommendation:

That, building on its support for such initiatives as Auto Share and FAAN, the City of Toronto should continue to encourage and promote the implementation of car sharing programs through the consideration of such measures as:

(a)providing start-up loans through the Toronto Atmospheric Fund;

(b)supporting the publicity and promotional efforts of car sharing programs;

(c)facilitating the provision of parking facilities for car sharing, and

(d)incorporating car sharing as an element of the City's wider "Moving The Economy" initiative to develop Personal Mobility Systems as part of the strategy to move towards a sustainable transportation system.

Comments:

This report provides a brief description of the car sharing concept as it has developed in Europe and, more recently, North America. Following the description, there is an assessment of the benefits of car sharing and the role that government might play in fostering or promoting this approach to urban mobility.

(1)Description

Car sharing is a membership-based system of shared access to a group of vehicles located in the neighbourhood where members live. By sharing fixed costs, the expense of running a car is reduced for car share members. Car share subscribers usually pay a one-time membership fee (of around $500.00 in Canada), a yearly administration fee and a charge for each trip based on the length and duration of travel. Car sharers pay principally on the basis of use: the less you drive the less it costs.

Car sharing programs can operate either on a non-profit, cooperative basis or as private, for profit ventures. Car sharing originated in Switzerland in the 1980's where Car Share Switzerland has developed into a national organization with over 18,000 members and a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles. Other countries where car sharing programs are now established include Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. However, it needs to be understood that car share programs are inherently community-based though each may be part of a larger city, regional or national network of such organizations. This results from the basic need to organize car share programs around parking facilities that are centrally located to the membership for the convenient pick-up and drop-off of car share vehicles. Ideally, members should be no more than a five-minute walk from a car share parking facility that is located close to transit services and includes bicycle parking. To be economically viable, experience suggests that a car share program needs 10 to 15 members per car.

Although car sharing can be a viable business enterprise, most are run on a cooperative non-profit basis. Significant start-up costs are involved, including the purchase of vehicles, the establishment of an administrative system and the need to publicize the program. The cost structure of car sharing can be surprisingly complex and, early on, fundamental decisions have to be made regarding such matters as parking, buying or leasing vehicles, and insurance. In terms of the day-to-day running of car share programs, there are a variety of ways to arrange for vehicles to be reserved, accessed and trip costs assigned and there is no need to go into all the details here. It should be noted, that most car share programs offer members a choice of fee schedule so that they can choose the one which best meets their pattern of use. Of course, as car sharing has expanded, there are an increasing number of successful examples for others to follow or imitate. In Canada, car share programs already existed in Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal, before Toronto's first program "Auto Share-Care Sharing Network Inc." came into being in August, 1998.

As might be expected, car share programs typically attract members who drive considerably less than average. For this class of driver the relatively high cost per trip of car sharing is more than off-set by avoiding the high fixed-costs of private car ownership. As long as vehicle use remains low (which pricing by trip further encourages), there is an economic advantage to members of car share programs. Analysis suggests that the break-even point between car sharing (plus public transport) and driving one's own car is relatively low at around 10,000 km. per year. This further suggests that car sharing has the most potential in the urban core of medium to large metropolitan areas where extensive transit services are available and trip distances relatively short. These factors suggest there are limits to the market for car sharing. For example, it has been estimated that, in Germany, car sharing might, at most, reduce the total number of private vehicles by 3 percent (or 1.2 million vehicles), with most of this reduction occurring in the big cities with the worst parking problems.

In Toronto, the "Auto Share" program has shown that car sharing appeals to people living in high density neighbourhoods with easy access to transit. It has been found that primary market groups which constitute the "early adopters" of car sharing are:

-the urban professional who does not wish to own a car...or a second car;

-the ecologically minded who generally avoid driving, but occasionally need a car;

-the lower-income earner who could only afford an older car; and

-small or home-based businesses which cannot afford, or do not wish to own a company car.

"Auto Share" is also planning to target high density, suburban neighbourhoods and is looking to establish a car sharing program in Scarborough in addition to the three downtown programs (in Riverdale, St. Lawrence and the Annex). A car sharing program in Vancouver found that of the 145 members, 37 sold cars to join and 79 chose to join instead of buying a vehicle and this is typical of the reductions in car ownership that car sharing can achieve.

It should be noted that there are beginning to emerge a number of non-traditional car sharing organizations that are not so tied to community-based enterprises. These car sharing schemes are envisaged as operating on a larger spatial scale, ideally city-wide. When organized at the city scale, the link between the ownership and the use of the car becomes further weakened and there is the greater potential for car sharing to substantially reduce the number of cars in the city. The bigger the scale of operation the more reliance there will be on technology to support the car share organization and to monitor, control and bill for the individual use of cars drawn from a large pool of vehicles shared by thousands of car share subscribers. Smart card technology and on-board computers in vehicles will typically be required to operate car sharing at a city-wide scale. At this level of organization, subscribers would not identify with any particular set of community or home-based vehicles but would simply pick up, use and drop off cars all over the city that are drawn from a large fleet of commonly shared vehicles.

City-wide car sharing might be thought of as the next evolutionary step in the development of programs to reduce car ownership and, although this scale of approach requires an even greater change in societal attitudes, it offers the potentially much larger benefits that such a systemic reduction in urban car ownership and use would bring. Currently, there are few working examples of city-wide car sharing schemes though there is one under development in Paris and the "FAAN Company" in Toronto has proposals for such a scheme in our city. FAAN (Flexlink Advanced Auto Network) envisages a large fleet of smart CiTiCars that are parked on the street, or in special parking lots, and available to qualified users with the swipe of a smart card. CiTiCars would be environmentally friendly and diagnostic and smart driving technology would be integrated to ensure that these vehicles are monitored and maintained properly. The City of Toronto recently endorsed the FAAN proposal and it was one of the selected initiatives highlighted by the Design Exchange in its exhibition on concepts to improve the future urban environment. The FAAN initiative can be seen as a complementary extension of the more traditional, community-based car sharing programs as exemplified by Auto Share.

(2)Benefits of Car Sharing

(a)The principal benefit of car sharing is the economic saving to members. For people who do not need to drive much there is a cost savings associated with eliminating a private vehicle and using a shared one. The fewer miles that are driven the greater the comparative savings. However, car sharing becomes costlier than ownership if the driver travels long distances frequently or is a heavy user.

(b)As noted above, car sharing reduces car ownership and, by converting the fixed costs of car ownership to variable costs, provides the economic incentive to reduce the number of vehicle miles travelled and make greater use of cheaper, alternative modes of travel such as transit, cycle and walking. Typically, people in car shares reduce their overall driving by 30 to 50 percent and this results in obvious environmental benefits in terms of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less energy consumption. These environmental benefits are reenforced by the fact that car share vehicles are usually newer models which replace travel by older, less fuel efficient and more polluting vehicles. Also, fewer cars travelling less miles can bring added benefits in the form of reduced congestion levels, less noise pollution and reduced accidents. However, with respect to congestion effects, it should be borne in mind that car pool vehicles, which are essentially used and priced on an hourly basis, are not normally employed for regular, peak-period commuting purposes.

(c)Given that car sharing results in fewer personal motor vehicles, parking needs are also reduced. Reducing parking requirements can be a critical benefit in certain, densely developed parts of the City. Ultimately, more land can be freed up from parking and put to more socially productive urban uses or housing construction costs reduced as a result of lower parking requirements.

(d)By covering costs through charges based principally on use, car sharers are faced with a higher marginal cost for driving that encourages them to choose their mode of travel more thoughtfully and to opt for the car only when it is the most appropriate and efficient mode of transportation. In this way, car sharing becomes a useful element of the City's wider "Moving The Economy"initiative to develop Personal Mobility Systems as part of a sustainable transportation strategy. Personal Mobility Systems link a whole range of sustainable transportation options through the use of one smart card, making the sustainable choice a more attractive and enjoyable decision. Car sharing has become a key part of integrated transportation systems in Europe, where car sharing fleets link with rail, transit and taxi systems. For example, the Swiss Mobility Car Sharing initiative launched a collaborative effort with the Swiss National Railway System in 1998 to provide car sharing lots at 350 train stations throughout the country.

(e)Additionally, car sharing, by separating vehicle use from direct ownership, may help to reshape society's attitude towards viewing the car in more utilitarian terms and less as a personal statement of fashion and prestige. Also, car share programs may increase the opportunities for testing and demonstrating new vehicle technology such as electric and other alternative fuel vehicles. These types of benefits may be difficult to quantify but could play a productive role in helping us to redefine our long-term relationship to the car and the way we use it in the future as our major cities become increasingly developed and congested.

(3)Government's Role

Since car pooling programs operate on at least a break-even basis, there is little need for direct government funding to support on-going operations. However car sharing provides a number of external (or social) benefits, as described above, and there are economic grounds for government providing some support to these activities.

As already noted, the start-up costs of car sharing programs can be high and, in order to attract members, there needs to be some degree of assurance that the program will be around for a while and not quickly fold-up. Government can help overcome these early problems of getting a car sharing program off the ground by providing financial backing and institutional support. For example, the City of Toronto, through the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, provided the "Auto Share" initiative with a $7,000.00 grant for marketing research and a $20,000.00 loan to help get the project started and to indicate a level of public support for car sharing initiatives. Similar loans should continue to be made to others developing car sharing programs if experience shows the benefits to outweigh the potential risks.

Another way that the City can contribute is to facilitate the provision of parking facilities for car sharing. One of the biggest problems for a car sharing organization in the inner city is finding reserved parking spaces for vehicles. The City's Parking Authority has supported the "Auto Share" initiative by allocating parking spaces in target areas near subway and bus stops.

Another important area is publicity and the promotion of the car sharing concept. Publicity, promotion and education are necessary to attract members to car sharing programs and garner broader public support. One way that the City can help in this regard is to integrate the promotion of car sharing with the promotion of other sustainable transportation initiatives. As already mentioned, for example, the City helped sponsor the "Moving The Economy Conference" last July and is now pursuing the Sector Development Strategy that emerged from the conference. This strategy is a high profile activity that will help promote car sharing as part of a wider, integrated Personal Mobility Systems initiative. It is by means such as this, that the City can help publicize and show support for car sharing.

Conclusions:

Traditional car sharing has essentially evolved as a voluntary, community-based approach to reducing the level of car ownership and the rate of car use in cities. As such, car sharing programs offer cost savings to members, which enables these programs to operate on a self-sufficient basis, as well as providing benefits to society as a whole, principally as a result of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower parking demands. Overall, car sharing provides a win-win situation: members have low cost access to a car when they really need one and society has cleaner air, improved community design and less traffic. As mentioned, larger city-wide car sharing schemes, such as

FAAN, are also now being looked at and these hold the potential for even greater benefits from reduced car use in cities.

However, the beneficial impacts of community-based car sharing should not be over-estimated in absolute terms. The appeal of this type of car sharing is quite limited. First, it is only a practical alternative to car ownership in densely developed urban areas where there is a good transit alternative, trip distances are relatively short and parking private cars is difficult. Second, car sharing attracts people who drive considerably less than average and encourages them to drive even fewer miles. So, although those who join a traditional car share program may reduce their individual use of cars by 30 to 50 percent on average, at the national level the reduction in the total number of cars in use is not likely to exceed 3 percent (according to a study in Germany).

Yet, car pooling has a beneficial impact in those urban communities where it is organized and this report recommends that the City of Toronto should continue to support both the established community-based and the more futuristic city-wide car sharing initiatives as one element of an integrated strategy to achieve a more sustainable urban transportation system. Among the ways the City can provide this type of support are providing loans to help during the costly start-up period; facilitating the provision of parking facilities; encouraging the integration of car sharing with transit through smart card technology and other means; supporting the publicity and promotional efforts of car sharing by including car sharing as a part of the City's sustainable transportation strategy.

Contact Name:

Greg Stewart

Metro Hall

Telephone: (416) 392-2691

Fax:(416) 392-3821

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The Urban Environment and Development Committee reports, for the information of Council, also having had before it during consideration of the following matter the following communications/submission:

-(October 2, 1998) from Liz Reynolds, Executive Director, Auto Share - Car Sharing Network Inc., addressed to the Chair, Urban Environment and Development Committee;

-(undated) from Liz Reynolds, AutoShare - Car Sharing Network Inc., stating that the growth of this private sector initiative can be supported through a partnership including all or any of the following City support:

-recognition of car sharing's role in a sustainable transportation system for the City in the new Official Plan;

-promotion of AutoShare throughout City communication channels (internal and external);

-Preferential Parking for AutoShare cars (matching initiatives in Vancouver, for example, that issues "all-neighbourhood" parking permits to car sharing cars; access and reduced monthly rates at Parking Authority lots, etc.);

-facilitating a partnership/co-marketing with the TTC;

-reduced parking requirements in residential developments using AutoShare; and

-co-operation between the City's Green Fleet's program and AutoShare; and

-paper titled "Sustainable Transportation Monitor", No. 2, February 1999.

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The following persons appeared before the Urban Environment and Development Committee in connection with the foregoing matter:

-Richard Gilbert, Consultant in Urban Issues;

-Liz Reynolds, Auto Share; and

-Kevin McLaughlin, Auto Share.