CarSharing
 

Community Cooperation Brings CarSharing to Hamilton

HAMILTON, ON – April 30, 2009 – Hamilton's first CarSharing co-operative will officially launch this weekend at the annual May Day Street Festival on Saturday, May 2, on King William Street, (between James Street North and Hughson Street North) from 11a.m. - 11p.m.

Hamilton CarShare, formed this week in co-operation with Grand River CarShare of Waterloo Region, will offer CarSharing services to Hamilton residents by late summer of this year. The non-profit co-operative will initially place three vehicles in the community for shared use. "Combining an enthusiastic group of new members in Hamilton with more than a decade of experience in the Waterloo Region, we are expecting Hamilton CarShare to be very successful early on," says Jason Hammond, President of the co-operative. "With the recession hitting hard and continuing deep concern for our climate, CarSharing is an idea whose time has come for Hamilton."

What has transformed into Hamilton CarShare started two months ago as a project between Green Venture, Clean Air Hamilton, First Unitarian Church, and a dedicated group of Hamilton residents has formed the basis of the Hamilton co-operative. "It’s moving so quickly because people are working together and everyone is contributing their skill set, and that’s what a co-operative is," says Sapphire Singh, CarShare Project Coordinator at Green Venture.

CarSharing co-operatives operate a fleet of vehicles available to members on self-serve pay-per-use basis. Reservations for CarShare vehicles can be made for as little as 30 minutes, or as long as needed. Members are billed monthly for insurance and vehicle use. Gas and vehicle maintenance costs are included in the co-op’s rates. CarSharing is a great alternative to owning your own vehicle, and reduces overall transportation costs for households. Carsharing also helps improve air quality through reduced tailpipe emissions.

Hamilton residents interested in joining Hamilton’s CarSharing co-operative can visit www.hamiltoncarshare.ca, email: info@hamiltoncarshare.ca, or call 905-543-4411.

Awesome. I believe we'll be using this once or twice a month.

Drive for 50 with Hamilton CarShare
June 3, 2009

HAMILTON - Hamilton CarShare is launching its Drive for 50 membership campaign during this year's Commuter Challenge event and Clean Air Day. Drive for 50 is key for Hamilton CarShare-as soon as 50 driving members join the non-profit co-operative, three carshare vehicles will be placed in the community.

While interest in Hamilton CarShare has been steady since its formation a month ago, the co-op has set a goal of reaching 50 members by June 30. With more than 30 people signed up in Hamilton already, the co-op is more than half-way to its 50 member goal.

"Given the energy and attention Hamilton CarShare has received in our community already, I'm feeling very confident we will reach our goal of 50 members by the end of the month," Simon Geoghegan, a director of Hamilton CarShare, said.

Launching the membership campaign this week is timely for Hamilton CarShare, as carsharing helps improve air quality through reduced tailpipe emissions.

The transportation sector is the largest contributor to air pollution in Canada, with personal vehicle use making up close to half of those emissions. International research shows carsharing reduces driving from between 30 to 50 per cent. As well, each carshare vehicle replaces about 15 privately owned vehicles, and serves between 15-20 drivers. By joining Hamilton CarShare, residents will be reducing the amount of time they spend behind the wheel, as well as the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they are contributing to the atmosphere.

Carsharing co-operatives operate a fleet of vehicles available to members on a self-serve, pay-per-use basis. Reservations for carshare vehicles can be made for as little as 30 minutes, or as long as needed. Members are billed monthly for insurance and vehicle use. Gas and vehicle maintenance costs are included in the co-op's rates.

Carsharing is a great alternative to owning your own vehicle, and reduces overall transportation costs for households.

Hamilton residents interested in joining Hamilton CarShare can visit www.hamiltoncarshare.ca, e-mail info@hamiltoncarshare.ca, or call 905-543-4411.

I'm torn on these guys, and here's why. I've done a little research on this outfit are part of a short article I've written for our Neighbourhood Newsletter. While writing the article it strikes me their $$ committment is much higher than some others like Zipcars.

Zipcars Toronto - Occasional Driving Plan
- Includes Gas, Insurance & 200 Free Kms.
- Weekday from $10.75/hr & $73/day
- Weekends from $11.25/hr & $78/day
- $55 annual fee
- $30 one-time application fee

CarShare - Includes Gas, but don't bring car back less than 1/2 full or there's a charge, no Free kms, and insurance is a monthly bill.
- $3.70/hr weekdays + $0.27/km
- $4.20/hr weekends + $0.27/km
no hourly charge between 11pm and 7am
- Insurance $14/month
- $25 Application Fee
- $400 Membership (refundable, which as it's structured like a loan I'm assuming you get your $400 back if you leave).

CarShare seems to expensive to me vis-a-vis Zipcars, or am I wrong? I find the $400 Membership fee and the .27/km to especially expensive.

Eh, I kind of prefer this setup to Zipcars because it takes into account how much/how far you drive.

The monthly insurance is a little grating, but still a bargain compared to owning.

We do plan on becoming a part of this. I would like to know where they plan for the vehicles to be located before we do, however.

I've been told they'll place the cars in areas that are close the highest number of members, so it's a bit of a chicken & egg situation.

I look to the insurance and say, if I only need a car once then it's high. If I need a car 10 times, then it's a deal. Same with the kms. I expect most trips would be sub-100kms so Zipcars is nice because you'd pay zero for kms, but CarShare would cost you up to $27 for that rental.

I spoke with one of the members who is organizing the carshare. Apparantly there will be three cars (part of the Grand River Carshare) to begin with one between Gore Park and the GO Station...

The other may be Dundurn area.

I think its a good deal, it turns out to be cheaper then owning and renting. The EXACT cost scheme is currently used in Guelph - if you want an idea.

I hope the third car is a bit more east, but one near Gore is a great location. I'll have to look into it more.

SEPT 16 - Launch Date
 

September 16 is the launch date for Hamilton's new Carsharing service!

It's time to roll! Hamilton CarShare will be launching its first three vehicles on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The first three cars will be parked at the First Unitarian Church on Dundurn St. S., at the City of Hamilton lot near King and Locke, and at the city lot at King and Bay. Details about the launch event will be announced soon!

http://www.grandrivercarshare.ca/

Carsharing is coming to McMaster.

The new car is due on campus currently.

From their website:

Hamilton CarShare
McMaster University
Stadium (underground) parking
mcmaster.ca
~ Projected activation: Summer 2010. Join Hamilton CarShare for as little as $99 and cast your vote for this location today!

Nice! My husband's a member of Carshare and that's great to know there will be a McMaster option!

I joined this and I think it's great. I only use it very rarely but even still, if you use it 10 times a month you would still pay less than the cost of owning a car. I'd rather see my money go to an organization like this than into the black hole of insurance, registration and maintenance.

They also have an option now of paying $9 per hour but no charge per km. If you use that option, the membership fee is only $90 and you don't pay the monthly insurance. It's a better deal if you don't use it very often.

that's good to know there's another option now too. the only thing is if you're under the monthly insurance you still count as "insured" if you get your own car/policy again, which can be better than a big insurance gap in one's driving history.

A few months later than originally planned....

But the car, a Toyota Yaris, I believe, is now on McMaster's campus.

Hopefully fleet expansion picks up pace now.....

I know they looked at adding Burlington (near MEC or GO or Downtown or some combo there of)

They also have looked a number of additional downtown spots.

There have been improvements to Hamilton CarShare's rates to reduce the barriers to joining - see the overview of the rates / plans here. Basically there is a new plan that gets rid of the large deposit and the Simple Plan has become cheaper. Right now there is also a WagJag offer for joining the CarShare with either of those two plans.

There hasn't been any fleet expansion since the above post, but there's a solid chance this year. What neighbourhoods should CarShare be in? Where is there likely to be enough support for cars?

Since my previous post (near the end of last year) I believe they also finalized a deal with the City of Hamilton for some financial support and the use of up to 3 carshare vehicles by the City as well; and they have approval for a new on-street parking spot in front of some new condo being built in/near downtown Hamilton.

**

My guess (only a guess) on next spots would be westdale, and 2 more spots in/near downtown. After that, they'll like target Mohawk College, its on their radar.

They should also reach downtown Burlington at some point.

Right now their Parent, "Community Car Share' is working on launching in St. Kitts.

Hmmm,

I do note the one area where they still face an obstacle in gaining new members is minimum age.

Autoshare has now gone to age 21 just like Zipcar. They'll have to get that down in the future.

As of a few days ago, Community CarShare is also down to 21!

Hamilton CarShare added a car just recently - a Mazda 5 minivan is now at King/Bay, with the Toyota Yaris moved to a new spot near the Hunter Street GO station. The car at McMaster has also moved to be closer to Westdale.

Looking forward to the new Mazda 5 at King and Bay. I loved using the one at Locke St. but that was a bit far for me. The seats in the Mazda fold right down so it gives you tons of space for moving stuff.