Projects like Zervas should be informed in part by innovations in the transportation sharing economy, where mobile apps put excess capacity of seats, cars, and parking spaces to practical and efficient use Here are some examples:
Zipcar (fleet car share)
relayride (peer car share)
Spot (private parking space share)
uber/lyft (peer ride share)
scoot networks (electric scooter share)
hubway (fleet bike share)
nuride (peer ride share)
Nathan: What if you are transporting your children(and further suppose that you have 2 kids in car seats and 1 in a booster)…do these transportation options come with proper size car seats? Ride sharing may work for singles, but probably not so easily for parents!
I don’t think it has to be either/or. There’s no reason the options Nathan lists can’t supplement what’s already being used. And it’s not like there isn’t already ride sharing for parents – isn’t that what carpools are?
I just learned tonight that Newton actually has several Zipcar locations. I think that’s terrific. While it wouldn’t work for all households – as Sallee notes, it would be tough for those lugging kids around all the time – I would think at least some kid-free households would be able to get by with Zipcar.
Sallee, car sharing could help a 2-car family with kids to downsize to one (as it did mine). We’re saving a lot of $ this way.