For a modest membership fee, users pick up small cars for business or personal errands around town and turn them in when they are finished. Wagner's great notion, a success from Asia to Canada, has finally reached U.S. shores. Wagner's car-sharing program is part and parcel of the grand scheme to rid urban streets of congestion and pollution. The innovative urban transit program cuts air pollution, increases demand for cleaner transportation, reduces the need for parking lots on corporate property and public streets, and steers consumers away from exclusive use of family-owned cars. For a small membership fee, consumers would be able to check Internet web sites for information about getting around town via a network of easily accessible public and private transit.
Automobiles are second only to homes in the budgets of American families.
But unlike a home that's in continuous use, family cars sit idle most of the time, either in the family garage or at a workplace, and used only one or two hours per day. But Wagner sees light at the end of the tunnel. For a modest membership fee, users can pick up small autos for business or personal errands around town and turn them in when they are finished.