Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Car share club

[Raines Cohen (rc2-coho-L]

On 1/1/03 9:31 PM, Sharon Villines < sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote:

>But do you have any agreement with [City Car Share] as a community?

No, their car is parked on the street outside our gate, through an 
arrangement they have with the City of Oakland that lets them convert 
public parking spaces to carshare-car only spaces. They may have some 
arrangement with the nonprofit developer that owns the rest of the block 
that we're on - most likely they do, at least for the use of a phone line 
if nothing else.

> I'm talking to [FlexCar]
>about putting a car in our parking lot for the exclusive use of our
>community members. They have to park a car somewhere and haven't found a
>spot in our neighborhood. In DC they put cars near Metro stations.

Makes sense... similar philosophy here. But being able to take spaces in 
Metro lots or take over onstreet spaces would help lots.

>I'm still exploring the possibilities and haven't taken a proposal to the
>community yet. They will still handle all the reservations, maintenance of
>the car, etc., but they want a minimum usage guarantee. I'm not sure we can
>manage a commitment of 300 hours a month right away. It would take people a
>few months at least to build habits around the car and to sell their second
>cars.

>From my experience, it'll be years 'til you get significant switchover: 
where's the incentive? Can you perhaps invite them to a dinner/meeting to 
pitch the concept to your neighbors/recruit? Do surveys about expected 
usage? Nothing beats personal contact for building connections/commitment.

If you charged per parking space (especially for second cars), that would 
be the strongest incentive, but that's kinda hard to get approval on 
after the fact.

Raines



Raines Cohen <my initials,2,dash,coho,dash,L at my first name .com>

  Member, Swan's Market Coho [Oakland, CA] <http://www.swansway.com/>
Who visited Temescal Commons coho last night for a NYE part.

  Facilitator, East Bay Cohousing [on hiatus] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Looking to learn from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of TCN.

  Boardmember, The Cohousing Network <http://www.cohousing.org/>
Wishing everybody in Cohousing a Happy New Year!


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