Are you a person of youth? You probably understand Car2Go — not just in a how-it-works sense, though you know how it works.
It’s just that you don’t have to make that initial comparison between car ownership and car sharing, weighing pros and cons. You can see immediately that it’s a distributed network, and that it’s more efficient.
Just as the internet has disaggregated a multitude of services into apps, car ownership is disaggregating even further. Previously you had carpooling, transit, and car rental agencies.
Now there are company-run car-sharing services (Zipcar, who’ll give you $75 in driving credit if you sign up now; Car2Go, offering 30 minutes of drive time) and individual car-sharing services employing electronic thumbs: Sidecar matches drivers with passengers, who can tip if they want, as does Lyft (also coming to Seattle). RelayRides lets car owners rent their actual cars. And of course there’s Uber, ready to pick you up in black-towncar style.
Nor is this disaggregation limited to driving. If you’re of a certain age, you’ve perhaps heard of Airbnb because you own a home and have a guest room you wouldn’t mind earning a few dollars from. If you’re in your twenties, you might be more likely to use Airbnb (or Couchsurfing) than a hotel when traveling.
Frugality isn’t limited by age, of course. It’s just whether or not you feel the experience is something “new” (and accept Google’s suggestion to check out “couchsurfing murder“). Especially when a possession-sharing business model consists primarily of a lightweight logistical app, a good deal of liability shifts to the person who’s doing to the sharing — if you’re old enough to consider it a shift.
Even professional services are disaggregating. After I wrote about Zaarly — which features such specific services as replacing overhead light fixtures and in-home animal communication sessions — I heard from the founder of Thumbtack, where you can get quotes (within 24 hours) from local professionals on things like wedding services, tutoring and lessons, and car detailing.
Car2Go is almost iconic in the way it has used the internet as a platform and as a physical model. It disperses its fleet around a city, serving between 10,000 and 20,000 members with perhaps just 300 to 350 cars. The normal usage patterns tend to leave the cars in the “right” places for the next member to walk a block or two to find them, without Car2Go staff having to move them around. The mind-blowing thing about their ratio of cars to members is the fact that, in the U.S., each household owns a statistical 2.3 cars. In urban areas, it seems, we’ve been oversold.
If you want to see for yourself, stop in at Tom Douglas’s restaurant Etta’s (2020 Western Ave.) this Saturday, January 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Car2Go is inviting the public in for a complimentary brunch and a test drive in one of their Smart Fortwos: “All attendees will receive free member registration with car2go, 30 free minutes of driving time, and the chance to win free prizes while supplies last.”
