Car sharing program would be a kindness to Kamloops

SUNDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — The concept of setting up a car-sharing program in Kamloops is intriguing. As the Armchair Mayor News reported Saturday, a survey is being taken to help determine whether car sharing would get uptake in the Tournament Capital.

The poll asks questions about which modes of transportation people use, what they use it for and so on. A look at car shares in other cities suggests there are a lot of benefits and that they can be a real convenience for some.

For example, for someone who usually takes the bus, car sharing would be a practical and relatively economical way to haul bigger items from one place to another. In other cases, a bus route might not service a particular area at the right time.

Whether a car share would be economical is a big question. The key to success in car sharing would be to keep the pricing simple.  An economist in Vancouver created a calculator by which people can map their route and quickly figure out whether it will be cheapest to car share, take a taxi, take a bus, walk or cycle on any particular trip. He even points out that walking isn’t free, since it burns about 9.3 cents/ km. in shoe rubber.

Vancouver has three car-sharing organizations with 800 vehicles, providing lots of choice. While some car-share groups use Smart cars, some also have hybrids, sports cars, vans and trucks for the big stuff.

One of the obvious benefits of car sharing is that people who don’t own cars don’t have to pay for financing and maintenance. In some parts of town, not having to find a place to park a car in the neighbourhood would be a blessing, too.

Kamloops was built for cars and we need to start building for alternatives, but having fewer cars through car sharing would be one more way of cutting infrastructure costs, personal costs and being kind to the environment.