Brook is nearly halfway to a goal of 250 members, which he calculates is the break-even point for the fledgling enterprise. That doesn't mean they don't drive. About a quarter of CarSharing's members sold their cars after joining. For the past 12 years he's done energy conservation work as an employee of Oregon State University. What appeals to me about car sharing is that it's voluntary, it's convenient and it's less expensive for members.
Car sharing can only work in communities whose residents can get to work without a car.
In Europe, car sharing is typically operated as a cooperative, with drivers owning the cars they share. The largest, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, has 6,000 members and more than 300 vehicles. In Seattle, which hopes to have 200 vehicles in its car-share program within 18 months of startup, the goal is to slow suburban sprawl by making it more appealing to live in densely populated neighborhoods, says project manager Eileen Kadesh. Municipal officials sponsoring the program also expect car sharing to help alleviate an acute parking shortage in Seattle's urban core. Local governments expect to attract private partners, maybe even a national car-rental company, to run the program as a business.