Introductory Comments for PhillyCarShare

Introduced by Barry Seymour (Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission)

We all know that there are too many cars on the streets.  We know this when we sit in traffic, when we witness vast surface parking lots taking up prime urban locations, when we hear about ozone action days.  But getting people out of their cars is difficult, and the trends show that car ownership in the region is going up even faster than population growth.

While automobile use is often necessary in our society, we also know that cars are overused because they’re priced inappropriately.  If the costs were rearranged, perhaps cars would be used less.  For example, once a car is owned, 90% of the cost is “sunk”, and unrelated to mileage driven.  The comparative cost of transit seems expensive against the cost of gas, so car owners typically choose to drive almost all the time.  However, what if this was flipped on its head and people saved money by not owning their own car, but still had equal access to using a car?  Then the lopsided economics of car ownership and car usage could be flipped as well.

Over 50 years ago, Margaret Mead once said,  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world:  indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  You’ve all heard this before, but it especially rings true here.  In the fall of 2002, five Philadelphians, all volunteers, set out to prove the concept of flipping the economics of car ownership.  With $25,000 in personal contributions, they set out to reduce automobile dependence citywide.  The founders envisioned competing with auto ownership:  low-emission vehicles on every block, available by the hour, 24 hours a day.

After the first year, they grew to 535 members sharing 13 environmentally-friendly cars, with each shared car replacing 23 occasionally-driven vehicles.  In 2004, the City of Philadelphia opted in, becoming the first government worldwide to share cars with local residents in a major fleet reduction effort.  This pioneering project helped replace 330 municipal vehicles, saving taxpayers $5 million.  Progressive cities such as Berkely, CA, Portland OR and Minneapolis, MN followed Philadelphia’s lead!

By 2006, this program resulted in over 2,000 fewer vehicles in the city, almost 10 million fewer miles driven overall, and 95% reductions in auto emissions from driving hybrids and driving less.  In addition, participants benefited by saving almost $9 million per year, money that got reinvested into our region’s economy instead of flowing into the global auto and petroleum industry.