Zipcar’s service has had a significant, positive impact on the environment and local communities.
According to a recent member survey, drivers who use Zipcar as an alternative to owning a car ultimately spend less time behind the wheel and, in many cases, have surrendered ownership of their vehicles or have halted their purchasing decision. Each Zipcar takes over 15 personally owned vehicles off the road. Nearly 200,000 Zipcar members share 5,000 vehicles in more than 50 cities throughout the UK and 26 North American states and provinces, including operations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington DC. Recent surveys indicate that more than 40% of members would have kept their vehicle, or would have purchased a primary or secondary vehicle, if Zipcar did not exist. To date, Zipcar estimates it has taken more than 50,000 vehicles off the road. This results in less congestion on the roadways and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Older cars are replaced with new Zipcars that have more stringent pollution controls, preserving green space because fewer parking spaces are required to meet the needs of the same number of people. Since each Zipcar takes approximately 15 cars off the road, less land and financial resources are needed to provide parking infrastructure. Government agencies, University officials and real estate developers have told Zipcar that each new parking spot can cost from $35,000-$50,000 to develop. M.I.T. provides students and faculty access to more than 20 Zipcar vehicles; because of Zipcar and other transportation demand management initiatives the school reports savings of more than $9 million, adding over one million square feet of new office space without a single new parking space. Zipcar members are more likely to shop locally. On average, members state they save $436/month or $5,232/year using Zipcar - money that will likely be spent locally. After joining Zipcar, 90% of members drive less than 5,000 miles per year. Prior to joining, only half did so. Having to walk a block or pay for a vehicle by the hour or day changes driving and personal behavior patterns. It also results in decreased fuel consumption and urban emissions. Each Zipcar member now consumes 219 less gallons of gasoline per year. It is expected that Zipcar members will save more than 15 million gallons of gas, or 32 million gallons of crude oil from being consumed in 2007. Members of Zipcar and car sharing programs report a 47% increase in public transit trips, a 10% increase in bicycling trips and a 26% increase in walking trips. Zipcar is part of the urban transportation mix. With Zipcar, members are more likely to take advantage of all methods of transportation. Zipcar members use cars only when they need to, and often walk or bike more, resulting in healthier residents. At Zipcar’s current membership adoption rates, Zipcar and other agencies anticipate that well over 10% of an urban population will participate in Zipcar’s car sharing service. In Washington DC, for example, with a current population of over 600,000 residents, a conservative 10% adoption would result in 60,000 car sharing members throughout the city. At scale, over 24,000 vehicles would be taken off the road. Zipcar already has a 10% adoption in areas throughout all of its established metro markets.
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