EV Carsharing on the move

Forth and Mobility Development partner to launch national EV carsharing program; affordable model for underserved communities

03 February 2022

Forth and Mobility Development Group are creating a national partnership to launch the Affordable Mobility Platform (AMP), which will establish electric vehicle (EV) carsharing based at affordable housing sites in at least five states over the next two years. 

In November 2021, Forth was awarded two grants from the US Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Low Greenhouse Gas (GHG) funding opportunity for the creation of solutions that reduce vehicle emissions and accelerate the expansion of EV infrastructure and charging (DE-FOA-0002475, earlier post). The national programs funded include Forth’s Affordable Mobility Platform (AMP) and the Leadership of Employers for Electrification Program (LEEP).

AMP was awarded $5M over three years and seeks to reduce the barriers to electric vehicle adoption facing underserved communities, particularly residents of affordable housing. 

This carsharing model as it will roll out builds upon the success of the Miocar program in California’s San Joaquin Valley (supported by Mobility Development), as well as Forth’s experience of piloting similar programs in rural Oregon—both efforts received proof of concept funding from DOE in 2019. 

These programs make it possible for people to drive EVs without having to own one, and are based in rural and urban locations where having access to a car can be critical to economic independence. 

The AMP program will concentrate on communities that have early interest in collaboration from local affordable housing developers, utilities and clean energy advocates, based in part on Forth’s work advancing this concept nationally through the Bloomberg American Climate Communities Challenge. 

The first states included in the program are: Oregon, Washington State, North Carolina, Missouri and Michigan. Mobility Development and Forth will seek to grow the program beyond these initial states as the federal government ramps up climate investments through the Justice40 initiative, and as other stakeholders work to accelerate the transition to electric mobility. 

Increasing equitable access to electric cars and charging is central to Forth’s mission. By combining our experience in developing successful national programs on EV outreach, education and access with Mobility Development’s experience with community EV carsharing, our partnership creates an opportunity to build an impactful, affordable and lasting program model. Together, we are working to ensure that those who are often hit first and worst by emissions-based pollution are also included in and involved with new technological advances addressing these issues, while also providing greater access to personal transportation options.

—Jeff Allen, Executive Director of Forth

This partnership allows us to create meaningful impact on a national scale. Our EV carsharing operational experience and background working in marginalized communities, combined with Forth’s deep national network and impressive understanding of federal and state clean energy policy, will allow us to work more dynamically with communities throughout the US.

—Creighton Randall, CEO of Mobility Development

The Affordable Mobility Platform also reflects a larger alignment underway between Forth and Mobility Development. In 2021 the two nonprofits began actively discussing how to combine their expertise to accomplish common goals around equitable transportation more effectively. To solidify their commitment, Mobility Development and Forth recently signed a formal memorandum of understanding, which maps out how the two groups will collaborate to “advance and accelerate the adoption of EV carsharing in low-income, underserved communities.” 

These programs launching through the AMP initiative in 2022 and 2023 will demonstrate how Forth and Mobility Development plan to complement one another in their joint work. Knowledge-sharing between the nonprofits is a core principle laid out in their new partnership, ranging from respective best practices to use-cases that will help guide continuous improvement in their services. The partners seek to drive down the cost of providing nonprofit carsharing services through:

• A unified software and telematics platform provided by Mobility Development;

• Purchases of vehicles and insurance coverage that gain from economies of scale;

• A national bilingual call center for user with limited or intermittent smartphone access; and

• Support to other communities that are working to develop non-profit shared mobility models.

 

Carshare is Dead; Long Live Carsharing

 As you can see I've been away from my blog for quite a while.  Retirement is great.  Please indulge me while I share a bit of history about the early days of carsharing — the birth of my start up company, CarSharing Portland Inc., in 1998; and the launch of Flexcar and Zipcar two years later.  It's here in the first installment of a history of carsharing by Tyler Phillipi.

https://greatscot.substack.com/p/car-share-is-dead-long-live-car-share

Carsharing Papers at the 2019 Transportation Research Board Meeting

Carsharing has come a long way since the 1990s.  This year there don't appear to be any presentations about carsharing, although a number of papers about one-way, round trip were accepted for publication. (see the end for how to read the full papers.)  

Several of the papers deal with providing incentives for carsharing users to achieve various goals, for example relocation, increase utilization.  Here are several that look interesting and a section of the abstract that caught my eye.  

Free-Floating Carsharing Users Willingness to Pay/Accept for Logistics Management Mechanisms 

Chenyang Wu, Imperial College London

Scott Le Vine, SUNY New Paltz

Sandra Philips, movmi Shared Transportation Services

William Tang, EcoService

John Polak, Imperial College London

...The objective of this study is to establish FFCS customers’ preferences for each of four incentivisation mechanisms: 1) vehicle delivery, 2) paid relocation, and 3-4) incentivisation for alternate vehicle pick-up and drop-off locations. Survey data from FFCS users in Vancouver and Washington D.C. are employed to quantify willingness-to-pay/accept (WTP/WTA) for these mechanisms. We find that a majority of respondents report positive attitudes toward each of the four incentivisation mechanisms. Regression analysis shows that user experiences using FFCS are generally stronger predictors of WTP/WTA than socio-demographic features, with (intuitively) the frequency of FFCS unavailability the strongest predictor.

An Incentive-Based Approach to Control Demands for the Operation of a One-Way Carsharing System 

Lei Wang, Tongji University

Yong Jin, Global Car Sharing & Rental Co., Ltd.

Wanjing Ma, Tongji University

Ting Li, Global Car Sharing & Rental Co.

Ling Wang, Tongji University

...The reward policy and the ranking method were tested in real operating environment of an electric vehicle sharing system in two districts of Shanghai. The result suggests that the reward policy with ranking method could shorten the vehicle idle time and increase the number of transactions per vehicle and per station, and also resulted in increments on profits.

Car Sharing: Impact on Mobility and Travel Choices and the Role of Life Events and Attitudes 

Taru Jain, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Geoff Rose, Monash University

Marilyn Johnson, Monash University

...Car sharers were classified into five categories: car dependents, car avoiders, second car avoiders, car aspirers and car sellers. Key findings suggest that car sharing motives and impacts vary greatly for all categories. Car aspirers and car sellers report the greatest changes in mobility choices (car ownership) and travel choices (use of a car, public transport and active modes).

Here's the poster session:

Operational Considerations for Shared Mobility

Monday 8:00 AM- 9:45 AM 

Carol Schweiger, Schweiger Consulting LLC, presiding

...Shared mobility, particularly sharing rides, cars, bikes and scooters, is having a transformative effect on cities. Understanding what operational considerations affect the implementation of shared mobility services is critical to their success. This poster session explores several factors for consideration in the implementation of shared mobility in the transportation ecosystem.

All the sessions involving carsharing and shared mobility are listed ere:

https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/interactiveprogram/Details/11617

To read the papers, you can go to an academic library and get a copy, or become a member of TRB, or pay TRB to access each paper separately.  TRB.org

Comparison of the Cost of Car Ownership with Car2Go and Zipcar

Arlington,Virginia, one of the most progressive cities in terms of promoting carsharing options as part of their TDM (Transportation Demand Management) program, last year released a very useful analysis comparing the cost of car ownership with one way (Car2Go) and round trip (Zipcar) carsharing at the rates current in 2017,

The comparison (PDF) not only used cost of a new car, which most comparison use, but additional scenarios of 5 year and 13 year old used vehicles.  The study compared driving

• 1,000 miles annually (19 miles per week)
• 3,000 miles annually (38.5 miles per week) 
• 6,000 miles annually (115 miles per week)

Comparisons were made for both one-way and round trip services.  Possible costs of parking a private car were not included in the cost of ownership.

The results won't surprise those familiar with carsharing economics:

• 1,000 miles per year - All car-share options are less expensive than even owning a new car
• 3,000 miles per year - Car-sharing is equal or less expensive than most car-ownership scenarios
• 6,000 miles over year - Car-share is less expensive than owning a new car but not 5 and 13 year old used cars

Of course, the consumer decision to own a vehicle is more complicated than simply annual VMT - convenience perhaps being the biggest factor in many peoples' minds.   The city's summary of the report says it this way:

• Under 2,000 VMT annually, car-share appears the most economically efficient on a household level.
• Over 6,000 VMT annually, car ownership is, in almost all cases, economically more efficient than car-share.
• Car-share services are best used as regular first-last-mile connectors and for infrequent trip taking.
• Arlington residents owning more than one vehicle or considering buying their first vehicle are most likely to realize considerable savings by using car-share.

The county's main carsharing web page describes the partnerships with carsharing companies and has links to additional details of the study, including the cost assumptions that were used in the comparisons.

The county's TDM website, CommuterPage describes carsharing options like this,

Carsharing Portland Timeline

This is a short chronology of CarSharing Portland and the start of carsharing in the US, based on announcements in CSP member newsletters and other documents.

Pre 1996

1985 - Russell Martin works for the Short Term Auto Rental (STAR) project, an UMTA funded

demonstration program at Park Merced housing complex in San Francisco

1994 - Benoit Robert starts nonprofit carshare in Quebec City which became CommunAuto in

1995, a for profit company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Rain Magazine (Eugene) publishes extended interview with Carsten Petersen and

Markus Petersen, founders of StattAuto Berlin; another article describes the

formation of the Eugene Carshare Cooperative (which apparently only had 1 old
VW Beetle);  these articles had significant influence on Dave Brook.

Various articles appear in US newspapers about carsharing in Europe during the decade.

1996

Richard Katzev arranges for trip to US by Conrad Wagner of Switzerland

December – Proposal to DEQ by BTA, Research Into Action and Scott Engineering:

        Feasibility and Business Planning for Car Sharing/Mobility Services in Portland, Oregon

       

1997

Conrad Wagner, Switzerland speaks at public meetings in Portland

Cooperative Auto Network (coop) launched in Vancouver, BC, Canada

April – Research Into Action, Scott Engineering and Rex Burkholder submit

        Focus Group Summary Report Car Sharing in Portland, Oregon

July – Research Into Action, Scott Engineering and Rex Burkholder submit 2 reports to COP/DEQ:

        Market Feasibility Study: Car Sharing in Portland, Oregon

        Business Planning Study: Car Sharing in Portland, Oregon

August - CSP submits proposal to DEQ for Implementation and Evaluation of a Pilot Car

Sharing/Mobility Service in Portland, Oregon

September – CSP Business Plan to Oregon DEQ regarding Car Share Pilot Project

        First brainstorming of slogans from Hucksters

December - DEQ issues RFP for Carsharing/Mobility Service; 2 week response deadline

Hiring Russell Martin

Other activities during the year: Securing insurance via VPSI, from Dreyfuss Ney

1998

January - Membership recruitment events; TV coverage

February 28, 1998 official launch of CarSharing Portland Inc.

16 members, 2 Dodge Neons,

Rates: $1.50 per hour + 30¢ per mile; $500 security deposit;

No hourly fee from midnight to 6 am (only mileage charges)

June – Buckman Heights partnership

Conrad Wagner speaks in Portland again

Vehicle reservations shifted to telephone answering service

July – Toyota Tacoma pickup truck added to Buckman Heights location

(forced relocation of lockboxes outside of the cars)

August – Rate adjustment: $1.50 ;per hour + 40¢ per mile (first 40 miles, then 15¢ per mile)

First downtown location – PSU, SW 3rd & Harrison

October – 79 members; 6 vehicles at 5 locations

November - 88 members

Overnight (no hourly fee) extended 11 pm to 7 am

December – Security deposit lowered to $250

Daily rate introduced: $45/day (including gas)

1999

January – shorter Trip Ticket format introduced; customer feedback questions removed

$10 per month membership fee introduced

100 members

February – Dr. Richard Katzev delivers interim report on CSP activity

Status Report of Carsharing Portland (CSP): The First Nine Months

Carsharing exempted from Multnomah County Rental Car Tax

March – CARS phone reservation system introduced; originally developed by Ron Wilder,

Wilder Engineering, Campbell, Calif. for flying clubs to schedule plane rental

April – Fleet gas cards introduced

First yellow Hucksters marketing brochures

July – Richard Katzev presents first year evaluation study showing significant reductions in member car ownership, car usage

September – 200 members

First Dodge Neons replaced

October – Hired car cleaner

Five trips in the same car in one day - a new record

2000

January – Honda Insight added to fleet; first hybrid in carsharing fleet (Pearl District location)

February – first 2 cars in Pearl District; partnership with Hoyt Street Properties

March – PSU student evaluation: Carsharing: The Missing Link

First Saturn cars added to the fleet

17 locations, 18 vehicles

New brochures released

April – Flexcar, Seattle, and Zipcar, Boston, launched

July – Single phone number for office and CARS reservations instituted 872-9882

300 members

October – Dodge Caravan, first minivan added to the fleet

2001

January – rate increase from $1.50 to $2.00 per hour; distance same at 40¢/mile

Daily Rate Camp ended; members encouraged to use Enterprise 15% discount

Vehicle “stolen” and recovered 2 weeks later; was actually “misplaced” by a member

March – 500 members

Original Toyota Tacoma pickup replaced with Mazda B2500

July – first announcement to members about future Flexcar merger

August – Amtrak Cascades 10% discount

September - Maren announces her departure

October – CSP rebranded as Flexcar; first Honda Civics introduced

Scenes from the 20th Anniversary of Carsharing in the US Party

Many of the founders and supporters of the first commercial carsharing company in the US - CarSharing Portland Inc. - celebrated the 20th anniversary of its launch at the Lucky Lab Brewpub on
April 2nd.  Carsharing has come a long way since then.

I'll be posting a timeline of CarSharing Portland (CSP) soon and am planning a series of posts describing the founding and activities of CSP.  To get notified when they appear, subscribe to this blog (link in the righthand column).

Nina DeConcini, Oregon DEQ tells a story about getting carsharing through the state bureaucracy. Others in the picture include (from left: Russell Martin, first General Manager, Jerry Zelada taking pictures, Maren Souders, Outreach and Customer Service, Dave Brook, Founder of CSP; Rex Burkholder, then with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and co-author of the feasibility study about carsharing; Nina DeConcini, then (and now) with Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality; Steven Scott, MetaResource Group, a co author of a bausiness planning study; Chris Hagerbaumer, Oregon Environmental Council; Francie Royce, then with the Portland Dept. of Transporation.

Rex Burkholder and Dave Brook

Dave, Maren Souders and Russell Martin - the CarSharing Portland crew.

Maren, Dave & Russell.

Nina DeConcini tells another story.  Steven Scott, Francie Royce & Ed Mcnamera are also visible

Long time carshare advocate, Steve Gutmann, shows one of the signs from the original carsharing office.

Todd Boulanger, then with the City of Vancouver, Washington's transportation department, shows two no parking signs from the first on-street parking space reserved for carsharing vehicles.

Not able to attend the party but mentioned by many was Dr. Richard Katzev, Reed College psychology professor at the time, who inspired us and conducted the first independing evaluation documenting the benefits of carsharing to US cities.

Russell, Maren, Dave 

Dave getting nostalgic after a beer at the Lucky Lab brewpub.

And a final photo of one key person from the early days of carsharing (who wasn't located before the meeting) - Clive Bullian, whose started out cleaning cars and quickly became an invaluable all around fleet person.  His easy going attitude boosted everyone's spirits and got the job done.  

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of CarSharing Portland

March 28, 1998 was the launch date of Carsharing Portland, the first commercial carsharing company in the United States.  Although the 2 original Dodge Neons did not get donated to the Smithsonian

Come celebrate the launch of CarSharing Portland on April 2, from 5 to 7 pm at one of our original member appreciation and recruitment venues - the Lucky Lab Brewpub, 915 SE Hawthorne.  I'm digging out some historic documents and artifacts from the early days of carsharing to display at the event.

If you have some photos, artifacts or memories of the early days of CSP or Flexcar send them to me and I'll post them here.  And if you're in Portland on April 2, come to a little party at one of our original member appreciation and recruitment venues - the Lucky Lab Brewpub, 915 SE Hawthorne, between 5 - 7 pm.