Conscious Choice: I-Going: Car Sharing Accelerates in Chicago

September 2002

I-Going: Car Sharing Accelerates in Chicago

by Jonn Salovaara

The idea of "sharing" a car may conjure up the same thoughts as what it takes to rent a car. But such is not the case. Actually, it’s a totally different animal. I thought I knew what car sharing was all about: members of a car sharing organization reserve a car when they need to, use it, and return it to its parking lot. But when Kathy Summers, marketing director at Chicago’s up and running I-GO car sharing organization, took me through the steps of accessing a car at one parking site, I was struck by what I hadn’t thought about before.

When you rent a car from a company like Hertz or National, you go through that whole business of standing in line, signing forms and deciding whether or not you want the insurance. But joining I-GO and sharing a car is a simpler process. It’s all carefully worked out, using procedures that build on the experience of car sharing organizations in other cities.

You initially fill out an application, paying a twenty-five dollar application fee. You must be twenty-five or older and have a good driving record. Prospective members are screened and undergo an orientation. If you qualify, you pay a hundred-dollar membership fee. At the current time, at least, you need to have a credit card, and billing is done directly to your account.

Once you join, to get a car and start driving, you first dial a toll-free number. You enter your pin code — it’s like banking by phone — and select the location where you want to pick up the car.

As of this writing there are five different car locations: two in Edgewater, one in Wicker Park, and two in Hyde Park. The South Loop is likely to be next, probably followed by Logan Square. I-GO is diligently adding parking lots and, by the time you read this, I-GO cars very possibly may be located within walking distance of you. There’s no reason for Chicago to lag behind, now that the organization is on its way. After all, Switzerland, where car sharing originated, now has more than thirty thousand car sharers.

So, still on the phone, you select the parking lot where you’ll pick up the car — perhaps spaces at a CTA El stop or at a city-run lot. Parking spaces near a CTA stop make obvious sense if the car sharer is coming from a distance to get the car; they also make sense as part of the CTA’s efforts to encourage transit use. You could find yourself nearest to I-GO cars stationed in a parking lot run by a cooperating institution seeking to provide a valuable amenity for members of its community. The University of Chicago in Hyde Park is now providing that service. At one point I-GO thought it might identify potential members first and then find parking space locations. But according to Summers, the current approach is to recruit members in the neighborhood while arranging for parking spaces for the I-GO cars.

Let Your Fingers Do the Walking

Still using the push buttons on your phone, you enter the day and time of your reservation. A computerized voice reads your reservation back and you signal if it’s correct. There’s a code you’ll need to operate the car that you learn initially at orientation. That code will be changed periodically and, when it is, the new code will be given to you during the reservation process.

Cell phones can come in handy in making reservations. Peter Haas, an I-GO member, reports standing outside an I-GO car in the lot and making the reservation minutes ahead of using the car. But you can also reserve the car weeks in advance.

If you do wait until the last minute, you may find that all cars from a particular lot are already reserved, in which case you may try a different lot. I-GO members have access to any unreserved car in all the lots.

When the appointed time comes, you make your way to the parking lot you chose and enter the car by using the key you were issued when you joined. You get a small formbook from the glove compartment, and enter your starting mileage. With the aid of the code, you’re able to turn on the ignition. Then you’re on your way in a 2002 four-door Honda Civic. The use of the car will cost $4.50 per hour plus 50 cents a mile.

At the end of your reserved time, if you find you need the car longer, you can call the reservation number and see if you can extend in order to avoid a $20 late fee. If the gas gauge shows less than a quarter tank, you stop and get gas using an I-GO fleet credit card. I-GO pays not only the gas bill but also insurance, repairs, and cleaning. You return the car to the same spot where you picked it up, fill out the ending mileage and the rest of your identification information, take a copy of the form, and leave a copy in the book in the glove compartment. You’ll get a monthly statement of your account from I-GO and, at least for now, charges will be made to your credit card account.

I-GO is a service of the not-for-profit Community Energy Cooperative. In some other U.S. cities, like Portland, Oregon and Boston, car sharing is a moneymaking business operated by companies like Flexcar or ZipCar. Here in Chicago, we have a grassroots-supported, community-oriented version that has been growing at a healthy rate since its inception in March 2002.

Members Talk: Where Car Sharing Rubber Meets the Road

If you don’t need to use a car too often, the monthly bill from I-GO, even factoring in the one-time $125 you need to join, can be much cheaper than the monthly expense of owning a car. The costs of maintaining your own car can go hidden, especially in the case of an older car with large but episodic repair bills, so you don’t perceive the total monthly expense. I-GO estimates that the cost of car ownership, including insurance, repairs, and gas, plus monthly payments is about $500 a month for a private car owner. I-GO members spend around $150 monthly including a twenty-dollar accounting fee.

Nonetheless, I-GO member Peter Haas admits that he suffered a bit of "sticker shock" when he got his first I-GO bill. Haas recounts how, after that initial month, he was more careful about planning his trips, combining errands so he would use the car less often. This was, as he points out, good news for the environment as well as for his bills. Haas uses I-GO to get from Chicago — where he lives — to a piano lesson in Oak Park once a week. He also used it recently when he was purchasing an air conditioner — not something you want to bring home on the bus.

Obviously, I-GO will be expensive if you use it to make a whole lot of trips. It is certainly not for you if you need a car to commute anywhere on a daily basis. For long road trips, I-GO members are able to rent at Enterprise at a reduced rate.

I-GO members may find themselves using public transportation more or biking or walking when they don’t absolutely need to use a car. "It kicked me out of my habit a little bit," says Haas. He also says that using public transportation has changed his perception of the community. "I’ve been riding the bus more. I see the city in a different way."

He points out that using an I-GO car necessitates more planning in that even when the parking lot is near, it’s not always just out the front door. So, for instance, going to a movie at the last minute may require more lead-time in lining up an I-GO car than you’re used to with a private car. Haas says that even though he’s happy with his I-GO membership overall, he wishes the twenty-dollar monthly accounting fee was lower.

I-GO member Jan Metzger, a twenty-five year resident of Wicker Park who describes her transportation as "multi-modal," including buses, trains, biking, and walking, demonstrates another approach to I-GO use. When she needs a car from I-GO, she frequently gets it from the Wicker Park location which is across the street from her residence. But sometimes, she reserves a car from the lot near her parents’ home in Edgewater, takes the bus to that lot, and uses the car to run errands with her parents. She formerly did errands for them on her bicycle. Thanks to I-GO, her parents can go along with her. By using public transit for part of her trip, she cuts down on her rental time for the I-GO outing. She’s fortunate that her parents live close to one of the I-GO locations. As the program continues to expand this kind of creative car use will be an option for more and more members.

Metzger comments that for anyone who’s owned his own car, "You need to re-orient your thinking. [You need] a kind of self-discipline about using the car that, if we’d all grown up with it, there wouldn’t be any big deal about it." She also points out that when there’s a big snowstorm in Chicago, many cars are left buried in the snow, sometimes for weeks at a time. "Anybody who does that," she says, "should think about joining I-GO."

Marshia Jackson, a real estate broker and I-GO member, travels mostly by bicycle. But she’s used the I-GO car to get to a distant business meeting and to retrieve a company executive from O’Hare. Since she uses the car very infrequently, she wishes along with Haas that the accounting fee were less. But she points out that it is possible to go on inactive status for three months a year. So if you’re going to be away or know you won’t need the car at all, I-GO will exempt you from the month’s accounting charge.

Jackson has some first-hand experience with returning the car late. On one occasion she was stuck in horrendous traffic and was going to be late getting the car back to the lot. I-GO gave her the number of the person who had reserved its next use. She called that person and he was able to use a cab instead. In general, she says, "They’ve done a great job setting up [I-GO]."

For all of us, car sharing reduces the number of cars crowding limited street parking, clogging crowded roadways, and crudding up the air. People who use car sharing limit the number of trips they make because they’re paying on a per trip basis. When car sharing catches on, that can mean less traffic and less pollution. Members also frequently give up older vehicles when they join. Those cars, candidates for recycling, are less fuel-efficient, and more polluting, than the 2002 Honda Civics that make up the I-GO fleet.

From my perspective, as a garage-less car-owner in an over-parked city neighborhood, the most attractive aspect of I-GO might be the fact that you have a parking space waiting for you when you’re done. So, you’ll no longer be suffering that strange exasperation, and polluting even further, as you comb the streets for one of those instantly evaporating parking spots.

For more information contact I-GO, 2125 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647; 773-278-4800 ext. 227; www.igocars.org

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