Americans Sharing Cars? City CarShare: A Model for National Replication

摘要

Owning a car is often considered synonymous with the "American Dream." American car dependency is startling: The average American drives 70% more every day than he did in 1982, devoting more than 1600 hours a year in his car. (Please see www.transact.org for more facts.) At the same time, there are some encouraging efforts. One inspiring response to our transportation woes is car-sharing. In just the past several years, car-sharing has sprung up in four regions of the United States: Seattle, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Each of these regions has a their own business model: a public-private partnership in Seattle, a private for-profit in Boston, a co-op in Chicago, and a non-profit in San Francisco. Collectively, they are serving approximately 9,000 members as of November 2002.