Car Shares: My 2012 Expenditures

We're a family of four and we own one car. We live/work/school all within walking distance of our house, in Boulder, CO; that's by design, not accident. I'm a huge advocate of car share/ride share, and public transportation, programs. Personal/daily use automobiles are one of the worst things humans have ever come up with. Sport/vanity cars are an exception in my mind b/c of relatively low volume/use. The way we use cars is truly pointless given all the other options that exist. Anyway... this isn't a political or environmental activism post. It's a post about how much I spent on car shares in 2012.

Looking back on 2012, here's what I paid for car share programs.

eGo CarShare (Denver/Boulder's version of ZipCar)
Summary: 222 miles driven, $405: $1.82 per mile

I use eGo in my home town instead of buying/owning another car; you can see that it's a screaming deal vs owning a car. We don't pay for insurance or gas or garaging or maintenance for eGo. I will note that my office is a walk from my house. I would probably buy another car if my work commute couldn't easily be done on foot or bike or bus.

ZipCar (San Francisco/Bay Area only)

Summary: 49 miles driven, $84.09 (the $60 was an annual membership fee): $1.72 per mile

I use ZipCar when I'm staying in SF and have meetings either down on the Peninsula or North of the City. Renting a car is a) more expensive b) airport inefficient (you have to deal w/ the rental car center location and process) and c) leaves you stuck dealing with a car for your trip. I generally do a ton of walking to/fro meetings. Dealing with cars in cities is obviously a major pain because parking is so hard. Find a spot... figure out how, when, where to pay for it... blech!

I thought I used ZipCar more than I do. Walking and Uber undoubtedly prevent me from using ZipCar more.

The amount I spend each year on Uber, cabs, and airport car service would certainly dwarf all of the above, but that's another post.