Car Sharing Fuels Cost Savings For Motorists
CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you're fed up with gas prices heading out of sight, you might want to consider "car sharing." A growing number of Chicagoans are finding it's a way to reduce fuel costs.
In fact, the city of Chicago has discovered the same thing, CBS2's Mike Parker reports.
Two years ago, Kathryn Eggers sold her car and became one of the 14,000 members of I-Go, a not-for-profit Chicago operation that lets members share the 220 environmentally friendly cars in its system, which now reaches 22 city neighborhoods.
For Eggers, the appeal is simple.
"I don't have to pay car insurance, I don't have to buy for gas, I simply pay for a car when I use it," she says.
Members pay a one-time $75 fee and get an I-Go smart cart. After reserving a car by phone, they swipe the card over a dash-mounted reader that unlocks the door. Inside they get the keys, and they're on their way. The cars rent for $7 to $10 an hour.
"When you're an I-Go member, you're part of this local non-profit that's trying to make the world a better place. So you get to be green, and you also get to save a lot of green," I-Go CEO Sharon Feigon says.
The city of Chicago is on to the idea. The city has just struck a deal with I-Go competitor Zipcar. The city plans to remove more than 100 vehicles from the city fleet by the end of this year. Some employees will reserve and use Zipcars instead.
The goal is to save taxpayers more than $400,000 in fuel and maintenance costs each year.
"This Zipcar program will produce both immediate and long-term savings in vehicle purchase costs, fuel and maintenance," Department of Fleet Management Commissioner Pat Harney said in a news release Thursday.
