Carshare

Red Zipcar parked at a meter in Cambridge, MA

What Is Carsharing?

Carsharing is a system that gives you access to a car that you can drive for short periods of time without the toll and responsibility of owning one.

There are 2 traditional carsharing companies currently operating in Cambridge: Zipcar and Enterprise Carshare. A third company, Relay Rides, is a peer-to-peer carsharing organization that allows people to put their ain cars into a puddle of cars to be used by neighbors.

How Does Carsharing Work?

  • You utilise for membership; once you are approved, the carsharing organization sends y'all a card that unlocks the vehicle doors and ignition. In that location is no need to go to a central motorcar rental role to choice up the keys.
  • Y'all tin reserve a automobile online or on a smartphone.
  • Y'all can cull from a large multifariousness of automobile types, including electrical vehicles, hybrids, compact cars, pickup trucks, and luxury cars.
  • Reservations can exist made past the 60 minutes or past the twenty-four hours.
  • Insurance and gas is usually included in the rental cost.

What Are the Benefits of Carsharing?

  • More mobility options for Cambridge residents, employees and visitors, complementing the city's robust transit, bicycling and walking networks. For many people, carsharing is a more affordable alternative to owning a car.
  • Less competition for parking because more people can be served with fewer cars. National research shows that carsharing members oftentimes become rid of their cars or delay ownership one.
  • Reduced machine-dependence, traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. National research shows that carsharing members tend to bulldoze less overall, and accept more transit, biking and walking trips.

What Is the History of Carsharing?

Carsharing began in the 1970s and '80s in Europe. The first widely-used carsharing organization in the U.S. was Zipcar, founded in 2000 in Cambridge.

How Many Private Cars Does a Carsharing Vehicle Take Off the Road?

National research[1] shows that each carsharing vehicle takes nine to 13 privately owned cars off the road (see beneath). That means that even if you lot aren't a carsharing member, you will benefit because your neighbor volition exist able to live without a car, which helps reduce traffic and competition for parking in residential neighborhoods.

What Is the Departure Between Circular-Trip and One-Way Carsharing?

In round-trip carsharing, you pick upwards and return the car to the same location.

In one-fashion carsharing, you selection up the car in one location and tin can drop it off in some other location. Zipcar is conducting a 1-mode pilot program in the Boston area using private, off-street parking spaces.

Other one-mode carsharing companies, such as Car2Go and DriveNow, use a combination of off-street, and on-street parking spaces. These companies do not currently operate in Cambridge.

What is the Current Zoning Proposal?

The proposed zoning changes would allow parking spaces to exist used for carsharing vehicles in existing and new parking lots, with limits on the number that can be used for carsharing in a residential parking area. Run intoZoning Amendments page for more than details on the zoning proposal.

Where Can I Read More about Carsharing?

  1. Carsharing's impact on household vehicle holdings: results from a North American shared-use vehicle survey, 2010, UC Berkeley
  2. Car-Sharing: Where and How It Succeeds, 2005, Transit Cooperative Research Program Report 108
  3. Carsharing parking policy: a review of Due north American practices and San Francisco Bay expanse case study, 2010, UC Berkeley
  4. UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Enquiry Center, Extensive carsharing enquiry

Carshare Services That Operate in Cambridge

Traditional Carshare

  • Enterprise
  • Zipcar

Peer-to-Peer Carshare

  • Turo

For More Information

For more than information, contact Stephanie Groll at sgroll@cambridgema.gov, or 617/349-4673.