Posts Tagged by car-sharing
The Future of Transportation — February’s Free Webinar
| January 28, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
It’s certain that 6600-pound Hummers will not occupy an important position in the way we transport our bodies and our “stuff” in the coming years. But where exactly are we going? And who’s going to make a buck in the process?
I hope you’ll be able to join us for our next webinar, 10 AM PST on Friday, Feb. 10th: “The Future of Transportation,” in which I’ll be interviewing Dan Sturges. Dan’s life is dedicated to developing and promoting a complex and dynamic set of solutions built around overhauling the way we move ourselves and our cargo around the surface of the planet. He shares my belief that our current conception of transportation — redundant, heavy, bulky, and fossil-fuel-reliant – is simply unaffordable in every sense of the word. It’s not economically sound to the individual consumer, and it’s exorbitantly expensive to society as a whole, both financially and ecologically.
In this lively discussion, Dan will explain how mass transit, car-sharing, ride-sharing, and micro-rentals can begin to reduce car ownership. He’ll talk about introducing small, light, and inexpensive urban transportation, while encouraging walking and bicycling, and the use of information and communication technology to make these blended solutions convenient and appealing, thus ensuring the consumer-citizen adopts these concepts enthusiastically.
I certainly hope you can make it. Here’s the sign-up form: http://2greenenergy.com/free-webinar/
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WheelChange: The Future of Transportation
| January 18, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I just got off the phone with Dan Sturges of WheelChange. If there’s a person on this planet who’s done more work to bring along the future of transportation, I sure want to meet him.
For more than two decades, Dan and his team have been developing and promoting a complex and dynamic set of solutions built around a single concept:
Our current conception of transportation: redundant, heavy, bulky, and fossil-fuel-reliant – is simply unaffordable in every sense of the word. It’s not economically sound to the individual consumer, and it’s exorbitantly expensive to society as a whole, both financially and ecologically.
But, pragmatically, Read More
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Car-sharing and Electric Vehicles
| May 18, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I want to call readers’ attention to the whole car-sharing phenomenon – particularly as it applies to the deployment of electric vehicles, and this excellent article that tackles some of the issues.
There is no doubt that car-sharing in dense urban environments like Boston and San Francisco is going to do quite well. I only wish that it existed when I lived in Washington DC in the 1970s, and spent half my life trying to find a parking space into which to shoehorn my car.
While there is a natural fit for EVs in the car-sharing space (as some of the motivation for not owning a car is eco-friendliness), there are significant problems associated with charging. Unlike filling up one’s car with gas, charging takes time, thus disabling the car from the network for hours at a time. While the EV owner can simply charge at home every night, this is tricky in the car-sharing environment.
I’m afraid this may be one of these ideas that sounds good on paper, but may prove tricky in the real world, given the charging infrastructure that exists here and now. Good article though; I hope you’ll check it out.
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Car Sharing — a Reason for Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow? — Final Part in a Series of Eight
| July 16, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I point out to my guest (Pat Mahan from FunRide) that I see a great deal of reason for alarm with the expanding war, no clean energy policy in the US, etc. — and I ask, “Does the story have a happy ending?” Pat sees the phenomenon of car sharing as a reason for hope for a brighter tomorrow, and discusses his rationale with me here.
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Car Sharing and Its Role in Sustainability – Part Six in a Series
| July 9, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Pat Mahan explicates his organization’s long-term plans on the 2GreenEnergy Report. I really loved having Pat on the show. He was comfortable and relaxed, but really took the obligation to articulate the value of car sharing — especially sharing alternative fuel vehicles — extremely seriously. Check out FunRide to lean more.
I’m completely convinced that this whole idea occupies an important part of the “sustainability wedge.”
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Car Sharing’s New Ideas – Part Five in a Series
| July 6, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here, I interview FunRide’s Pat Mahan on some of the new ideas that are at the forefront of the concept of car sharing. I offer Pat what I thought was a terrific idea: car sharing on college campuses to reduce drunk driving and other uses of cars that really don’t need to happen — not that I had, in my younger days, any personal experience with that. Ahem….
Pat was polite — but more or less immediately changed the subject — as he had yet a better idea.
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FunRide: Car Sharing with a Twist – Alternative Fuel Vehicles – Part Four in a Series
| July 5, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
FunRide‘s Pat Mahan explains that his company represents “car sharing with a twist,” i.e., a fleet of 100% alternative fuel vehicles.
I first came across this company years ago when I first set out to learn something about electric vehicles. I participated in several meetings in which the company’s founder, Mark Shaffer, explained that the thought the presence of AFVs would make a material difference to market demand for the product. Looks like he may be right.
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Car Sharing — Social Benefits — Part Three in a Series
| July 3, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Pat Mahan of FunRide discusses the social benefits of car sharing with me on a recent airing of the 2GreenEnergy Report.
In my mind, the degree to which car sharing is successful is an indicator of the degree to which people have divorced themselves of the “I am what I drive” concept — and, in my opinion, that realization that can’t come too soon. When you think about it, car sharing is the ultimate freedom in the auto space; it’s the statement that “Not only do I not identify my level of success with the value of that piece of steel in the driveway — I don’t even own one at all.”
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What Is FunRide? Car Sharing and Alternative Fuel Vehicles — Part 2 in a Series
| July 1, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s another snippet of my talk with Pat Mahan from FunRide. Here, he talks about his organization, which offers car sharing and alternative fueled vehicles.
I ran across FunRide a couple of years ago in meetings I had with electric vehicle enthusiasts in San Luis Obispo, CA. I was concerned that the density of cars and people was not sufficiently high in that region to support this concept, but, in hindsight, I’m not sure that’s true. One thing is for certain: the demographics of that area can’t get any better for progressive thinking and behavior.
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Car Sharing with Alternative Fuel Vehicles – Part One
| June 30, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Here’s Funride’s Pat Mahan speaking with me about car sharing and alternative fuel vehicles on a recent episode of the 2GreenEnergy Report.
Car sharing is an important phenomenon, insofar as it reduces the net number of cars that are on our roads. But interestingly, it signals (to me, at least) that perhaps I’m right in my theory about the paradign shift in driving habits.
Here are people who are willing to give up ownership of their cars and see auto transportation as purely utilitarian. I wonder how many people like that there are. Let me tell you, if you’ve ever lived in Washington DC (I was there for four years) you have one realization real quick: this is no place to own, park, drive, and insure a car of your own.
