Car Sharing Service Sets Its Sights High

" . . . if we want to be good citizens, we ought to drive less. Change our behavior. Hard to do, easier to talk about. Here is the key number, then — the number that brings the accomplishment of CarShare into stark relief. Ten thousand. Of its 35,000 members, CarShare has convinced more than 10,000 to get rid of their cars. In five short years, starting from nothing — from an idea and a few thousand bucks in spare change — CarShare has taken a meat cleaver to that quintessential emotional bond, the car/America bond, 10,000 times. And it’s still hacking away. There are now car-sharing services in at least 21 U.S. cities, but CarShare’s leaders say they’re expanding faster than any of them, adding more than 4,000 members in October alone — their best month ever.

In a great American city, CarShare has redefined an American birthright as an American burden. And the real question — the question with relevance for any corporate marketer, any idealistic Green, basically anyone trying to convince us consumers to change our behavior for the Good — has got to be the simplest one …"