Running errands with a friend in The Hague, Netherlands, I experienced what I suspect will become a much more common phenomenon among Americans in the decade to come: carsharing.
We were sitting at an outdoor cafe having a coffee on one of the most beautiful days of the summer. As we left, we walked just a few steps to the street corner where a shiny red Greenwheels Peugeot sat ready at the curb. My friend took a card out of his wallet, held it up to a sensor on the corner of the windshield, and the electric locks popped open. He opened the glove compartment, swiped the card through a digital reader and entered a pin code. He walked around the car with a notepad to record any damages. Finally, he turned the key and we were off. The entire process took less than a minute.
Greenwheels does some small things that make a big difference. Each glove compartment contains a pen, the card reader, and a little package with all of the fuses and bulbs used by that model of car. The reservation process is online and about as quick as picking up the car. During the ride, we saw four other Greenwheels cars, three of them in use. They are easy, and they are everywhere.
Carsharing isn't a new idea, and it isn't restricted to metropolitan areas in European countries. Although the first recorded carshare program was at a housing cooperative in in Zurich in 1948, the concept really got wheels with web-enabled reservations in the 1990s. ZipCar, the best-known carsharing program in North America, brought the concept to Cambridge, Massachusetts in the late 1990s and has expanded to over 50 cities.
The coming years are likely to be a tremendous time for carsharing. The twin pressures of the economy and the environment are certain to depress car sales, and drivers with less disposable income will be forced to wonder why they pay all the time for a car they drive part of the time. For those not driving for long daily commutes or performance-car thrills, carsharing could become an attractive option.
Greenwheels and ZipCar are doing their part to make the process easy. The process for getting, using, and returning the cars is quick and customer-driven. While it's easier to offer the service in areas where drivers can walk or take public transportation to pick up the cars, it's easy to imagine the programs expanding to less densely populated areas. Expect to see more cars driven by the hour in the coming years.
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