As someone who has advocated for better – as in safer – cycling conditions in our cities (e.g. see my film You Never Bike Alone) it might seem counter intuitive to do a series on cars. But car sharing is really more about using the car less. At least, in my case. We sold our car and joined a car share 15 years ago.
Many modern cities have only taken baby steps in adopting active transportation while pursuing policies that continue to encourage mass motorised travel and urban sprawl.
I wish it was not the case, but there are many times where going by car makes more sense than bus or train. In Vancouver, it’s usually because, well, there are no trains. And the bus takes two and a half times as long as a car.
Car sharing is a compromise, something that bridges the gaps in our current transport system. Most of the time, in the city and our neighbourhood, we can get by on two wheels.
With this in mind, I’ve started a video series on my YouTube channel looking at car sharing.
The first video is an introduction to car sharing and two car shares, Modo and Evo, based in Vancouver BC, that I know well from many years of use.
I’ve added two more videos which go into more detail on the cost of a trip that we made in January from Vancouver to Whistler and which, I’m sure, is fairly typical for many other car share users.
The second video, Modo’s Trip Calculator vs actual trip fees, considers Modo’s trip fees in detail. These fees can get quite confusing even for experienced car share users.
The third video is Modo Car Share vs Bus to Whistler from Vancouver. This takes the same trip and compares it against the bus, looking at the differences in cost and convenience, and which form of transport is best suited for which kind of trips.
Let me know what you think in the YouTube or Twitter comments and if you’d like to see more videos in this vein follow along on my YouTube channel, or my car sharing playlist.