The Biggest Potholes in the Path of Car-Sharing

I think car-sharing is a hard sell and is going to remain that way for a long time in the majority of this country. With the exception of a few areas (Manhattan, and maybe a few other urban centers on the east and west coasts), most US cities are way too dispersed to entice most people into giving up a car, to say nothing of suburban and rural areas. Additionally, there are a lot of people for whom the ability to make a car trip without excessive pre-planning is absolutely essential, and the inconvenience of missed meetings, incorrect parking spaces, and having to walk to pick up the car are going to be show stoppers.

I think that a better approach is more development of public transportation solutions, including the inclusion of more bike-friendly commuting features in cities. If a combination of bike commuting and public transportation became the norm for US city-dwellers, then it would be far more feasible to cut back in the number of cars (and perhaps eventually get to a point where car sharing was more culturally and logistically feasible).

(This is the perspective of someone who doesn't live in downtown NYC/SFO/LA/Seattle; I'm sure going car-less seems a bit more feasible in those very concentrated locations)

I see they mention insurance and new types of policies, but if something does happen .. its just a huge inconvenience or lets say something happens that isn't discovered till weeks later.

Im probably in the minority but I'm not sharing my car or my home to people, even though I know inherently most people are ok.

Until we get driverless cars, I don't see this disruption really occurring. Big cities are the only places with enough density to support car sharing, and they already have low car ownership rates (low enough that if everybody switched to car sharing, it wouldn't be a disruption).

Even assuming everything goes splendidly with Google's self-driving cars, it is going to take a long time to move from that to fully autonomous, driverless cars. This isn't going to get disrupted until the mid-2020's, IMO.

On the other hand, using the Internet to efficiently aggregate low-use, high-cost resources is a great way to build a business. It is at the core of cloud computing, Air BnB, and (successful) Groupon promotions. I'm sure others exist as well.

I wonder to what extent collaborative consumption will unveil the true cost of expensive items. That is, the cost of a car = car + maintenance + gas + parking + ... When people buy or use a car, most do not hold all of those costs in their head at once. Same goes for houses or other "shared" targets, but the cost of sharing is readily apparent at the moment you do it (having to find your car not where you left it, trading keys, etc).

Something is up with Posterous. Just go to the blog and it's the first post. Trying to figure it out now.

http://blog.getscaffold.com/

It's not for everyone, but car sharing has been working for some time now...

http://www.citycarshare.org/

http://www.zipcar.com/ (mentioned in the article)

http://www.igocars.org/

http://www.autoshare.com/

http://www.modo.coop/

http://www.carsharing.net/where.html