Posts Tagged by car-sharing
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Car Sharing with a Twist – Alternative Fuel Vehicles
| June 26, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Funride’s Director of Operations Pat Mahan discusses alternative fuel vehicles and the fantastic social and personal benefits of car sharing with me on a recent episode of the 2GreenEnergy Report. I’ve known about Funride for a couple of years, and I was delighted to have Pat on the show. Car sharing generally is a phenomenon that I expect to see enjoy a meteoric rise over the coming 10 – 20 years, and Funride’s “car sharing with a twist” (AFVs) is in prime position to lead the way.
Funride – Car Sharing with a Unique Twist
| May 26, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
What do you know about car sharing? You know – the idea that your life circumstances may require you to have access to a car as needed, yet they may make it supremely impractical to own one.
Take a moment and add up the annual cost of your car: the payments, the depreciation, the maintenance, the insurance – plus the aggravation of parking – and then compare that cost to the actual number of hours per year you actually need the car. Might you be better off to rent one online on an as-needed basis, pick it up from any of hundreds of convenient local parking spaces, and later drop it off essentially wherever you want — rather than owning a car — and paying for it — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?
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A Talk with Mark Shaffer, CEO, FunRide
| July 28, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
Once the world has fully moved to renewable energy, we’ll all be able to forget about taking measures to reduce our energy consumption. But until that time, we all need to be thinking of ways to cut back.
No one understands this any better than a gentleman I met a few years ago, Mark Shaffer. Mark is the CEO of FunRide, a car-sharing organization in San Luis Obispo, CA, with a unique vision for the future.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the concept of car-sharing is new to some readers. The idea is simple–and novel. A pool of cars is distributed at various locations in a limited, normally densely populated region—say Boston or Washington DC—and made available to members. For an annual membership and a per-day rate, members go online, look at real-time maps showing vehicle locations, book a reservation, walk to the location, open the car with a special key-chain fob, do their driving, and return the car. Zipcar is the largest car-sharing operation in the country—and has certainly proven that the business model can work.
So what is FunRide’s twist? Eco-friendly cars, in a neighborhood whose demographics suggest an extremely high value on environmental stewardship. I spoke with Mark earlier today.
Craig Shields: Mark, thanks for taking time with me; good to speak with you again.
Mark Shaffer: Happy to. I take all opportunities to get the work out there.
CS: Good for you. Let’s start at the beginning. How did this whole thing get started?
MS: A few years ago, I was sitting in a meeting at the Central Coast Clean Cities Coalition and it came to me. The concept serves so many needs simultaneously. FunRide provides on-demand transportation, in a fun and eco-friendly way—and it gives people the opportunity to try alternative-fuelled cars, giving them an experience that they’ll need before they actually buy one.
CS: So the special idea is eco-friendly cars. Tell me about that please.
MS: Until the supply of pure electric vehicles increases, we have a variety of cars based on a range of different technologies. We have a ZENN neighborhood electric vehicle, a bio-diesel Jetta, a natural gas Honda Civic, and an E85 Ford Ranger. We also have a Honda Insight hybrid, but ideally I’d like to have nothing that runs on gasoline at all.
CS: How are you promoting the organization?
MS: We have a range of fairly traditional advertising and markerting tools we’ve implemented: TV, radio, listings in directories, appearances on talk radio.
CS: You may recall that my background was marketing. You know what I recommend? PR. I would think that the newsworthiness of FunRide is so extreme that a clever PR practitioner could get you enormous quantities of free publicity.
MS: Thanks. Good point.
CS: What do you see as the major market segments for FunRide?
MS: It’s interesting because there are so many. Out of town guests, workers who take public transportation or carpools to work and need to run errands, universities offering vehicles to students, or people who simply don’t want a second car. The recession has had a positive effect on us, ironically, in that people are thinking hard: Do I really need the second car? For $30 a year, they can get the car only when they need to.
CS: Where are you in the whole process at this point?
MS: This is coming together right now. By the end of next week, we’ll be rolling: We’ll have all the cars, the pods, the signs, and the network online.
CS: Fantastic. Best of luck to you. I certainly hope that you get some traffic from this blog. Keep up the good work.
PS: Here’s a graphical depiction or “infographic” of the history of renewable energy.
