News

Taking the bus to work Downtown wasn't a huge hassle for Madeline Nowak -- she saved money on gas and parking while reducing traffic congestion and air pollution -- but it created a problem when she wanted to run errands during her lunch hour.

"I'd have to drive my car in, fight traffic, find parking -- just so it could sit in the garage until I was ready to take it out for a hair appointment or something," said Nowak, of Cranberry.

For many commuters, that problem could be eliminated through car sharing, which has experienced tremendous growth in some cities.

Car sharing is a rental service that parks vehicles in convenient locations throughout a city. Members who need to run errands or go to appointments pay by the hour to use the vehicles. Annual membership fees are usually $20 to $50, and the hourly rate is typically less than $10. The companies pay for gas, maintenance and insurance.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is trying start a car share or attract one to Pittsburgh. Zipcar and Flexcar, the two biggest car shares in the United States, are looking at the city as a potential market.

"It's something that we want to pursue pretty heavily and extensively this year," said Kathy Stefani, director of transportation for the partnership. "I think there's an opportunity here in Pittsburgh, primarily because it's successful in cities that (use mass transit), which we do, and in dense urban areas, which we have."

If the partnership can generate interest among businesses that would benefit from car sharing and raise enough money to pay for market studies, Stefani said Pittsburghers could see the vehicles parked around Downtown and Oakland in as little as two years.

"I'd use it," said Nowak, who used to work at Coldwell Banker in Gateway Center but now works out of McCandless. "Bringing my own car Downtown cost $13 for the day to park, and I wouldn't have to worry about the gas, so it would cost less."

Up to 10 percent of Pittsburgh area drivers older than 21 -- or 24,500 people -- could be expected to use a car share, making the city ripe for multiple programs, said Susan Shaheen, a University of California professor who has studied car sharing since the late 1990s.

"They tend to look for a good demand on the business side as well as the residential side. They also can do quite well by putting a set of cars at university campuses, which can support both the staff and students," Shaheen said. "Pittsburgh appears to have many of the market dynamics that support car sharing."

Boston-based Zipcar, which currently operates in nine metropolitan areas, has added Pittsburgh to its Web site's "coming soon" list.

"Pittsburgh is certainly one of the cities that's being reviewed as a possible new market," Zipcar spokesman Josh Gitelson said. "Obviously we're looking at larger cities that face the same transportation and parking challenges that all large cities do and where car sharing can really be a key component of urban life."

The country's other prominent car share -- Seattle-based Flexcar, which is in six metropolitan markets -- also is looking to expand to new cities, and has had a few "fact-finding" discussions with representatives from Pittsburgh, said John Williams, a spokesman for the company.

"Flexcar always looks for strong partnerships with transit agencies, government agencies -- both the public and private sectors," Williams said. "Flexcar has done really well in markets where there's a good transit structure, dense urban areas, hard-to-find parking."

Local government or businesses can attract or create car shares through subsidies and financial support, start-up grants, transit discounts, help securing parking spaces for the cars and tax credits, Shaheen said.

The incentives pay off by reducing congestion and pollution and attracting more people to live in urban centers, she said. Both Flexcar and Zipcar more than doubled their memberships last year -- to 35,000 and 50,000 members, respectively -- and they see the trend continuing.

"People are certainly tuned in to the discussions about the reliance on foreign oil, and gas prices are going up," Williams said. "We're not suggesting that everybody wake up and sell their car tomorrow, but for a certain slice of people, car share is the way to go."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News