Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Transportation sharing in cohousing

[John Eaton (johne]

> 
> I have heard of car trusts, where people jointly share ownership of a =
> car.  There is a pretty large and well organized one in Eugene OR.  This =
> makes a lot of sense for cohousing.
> 
> A cohousing group can also pool group funds to buy a truck, a van, or =
> any other form of transport deemed needed.=20
> 
> I do not know of any cohousing groups actually doing this at this time.  =
> Sharingwood pays a share in Fred, our neighborhood truck.=20
> 
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Sharing resources is one area where cohousing can make a significant
improvement in the standard of living. All of us living on limited
resources have to make decisions on what toys we will buy. There
are a lot of toys I would enjoy having but will not buy simply 
because I would only use them occasionaly and am not willing
to bear their entire cost. But if I could team up with others
in the same situation it would be worthwhile to buy something
as a group that everyone would have equal access to use. 

This can be done outside of cohousing. It's common for several
pilots to go together and buy an airplane and some hobby groups
like model railroaders find that together they can all build
something that is far superior than anything anyone of them
could have done by themself. Cohousing is a natural environment
for this since you already have a common house and a structure
for dealing with sharing. 

Having a group "Motor Pool" would be a great benefit for a 
cohousing group. If your car needed to go into the shop you
would have a spare that could still get you to work. If your
car is a tiny econobox you could still borrow the groups
pickup when you needed to move something big. I suspect that
a group that set up a well run motor pool would find that the
total number of cars onsite would diminish. Why pay to have
an extra truck that you only use on weekends when you can
borrow the groups anytime you need it. 

I am currently driving a 1982 Van with over 300K miles on it. 
I have been looking at trading it in for a new one since that
high milage makes me nervous about taking it on long trips.
The problem is that the amount that I would get for a trade in
is so low that I might as well drive it till the wheels fall
off. 

If I were in a cohousing group I would probably wind up donating
it to the motor pool. I would still have access to it when I needed
it and it would save me more by not having to insure it that I would
get for it as a trade in. It runs great and would probably has several
good years left in it. It would be a nice truck for a group to be able
to borrow when anyone needs it. By giving it to the group at zero cost
the only expenses are insurance,gas and oil. If a big repair comes up
the group could junk it if it's not worth it.



John Eaton