If you live in an urban area, possessing a vehicle is usually both costly and a headache. Finding a parking spot might compete with locating Osama Bin Laden in its difficulty. Paying for car parking can leave a major hole in your pocket book. Due to the large quantity of drivers on the road, car insurance rates tend to be larger in big cities. Gas mileage is reduced during city driving because of the relatively slow rates of speed and repeated stops. Consequently, many city residents are saying no to vehicle ownership and relying on alternatives. Public transportation remains an essential choice, but a comparatively new strategy is taking over in a few U.S. metropolitan areas: car sharing.
As outlined by CarSharing.net, at the start of 2010 there were 27 vehicle sharing programs in the U.S., helping 388,000 members and sharing 7,500 automobiles. They go by names like Zipcar, Car2go, and Community Car. The programs charge an annual membership fee and may bill an application fee; Zipcar, for instance charges a $50 annual fee and a $25 application fee in the Washington, D.C. area. A separate charge applies for every usage of an automobile (for example, $30 for a four-hour reservation), which includes fuel, insurance, and a specified number of miles.
The types of people likely to use a car sharing program include:
* People who normally use public transportation yet who require their own car sometimes
* People who own one vehicle and occasionally need a second
* People who own small vehicles though from time to time need a bigger automobile