[LOABkw] The Carshare Factor

Life On A Bike in KW is a series of posts about Chris' attempt to get as much done as possible on two wheels, while Erin takes the car out of town to observe birds. How cycle-friendly is KW? 

So far I've seen that life on a bike isn't so difficult. Commuting, errands and groceries are all possible, large swathes of Kitchener and Waterloo have reasonable bicycle access, and I've seen the value of transit in support of cycling, especially as a backup plan. But sometimes, a motorized vehicle is called for.

Perhaps it is a trip out of town to a place not served by our (awful) intercity transit services. Car rentals are fairly cost effective for these needs, especially if it is on a weekend, when a fifty gets you a sedan for two days. (Just make sure you have insurance.)

But for trips around town to haul heavy items, there's no better an option than Carshare.

Grand River CarShare is a non-profit organization that has a fleet of about 20 cars, mostly distributed around the uptown, downtown and university areas. If you become a member, these cars are available to book and use for short trips or long.

I joined as a Simple Plan member (no, not that Simple Plan), which gives me access to Carshare vehicles for $10 an hour (plus HST), gas and insurance included. This definitely adds an overhead cost on trips that require a car, so I put a bit more effort into planning, to make as productive use of the time as possible:

4 five gallon water jugs...

...80kg of water softener salt, some homebrew supplies... and some brews.

Not even a long-tail is going to haul around a couple hundred kilograms of cargo, let's be honest. (Or, maybe it could! But it wouldn't be much fun.)

Like transit, carshare is most useful if it is nearby. Unlike transit, the destination can be anywhere. This key difference, along with the haulage, helps define the niche that carshare serves well. You may need to live in a central location to take advantage of it, but it helps to live in a central location to reduce your dependence on car ownership to begin with. And interestingly, Carshare is a service whose viability and stability and utility all improve as its fleet (and member base) grow.

From a cycling perspective, carshare fills in the gaps that bikes, transit or simple walking aren't suited for. Acting like a safety net in our as-yet car-dominant community, the service gives its members confidence that they won't be hamstrung by that one awkward trip that can't be made without a private vehicle. The Classic and Regular plans suit the car-free who still have a week-to-week need for a car, while the Simple is a great "insurance policy" for 1-car couples, or for the cycling-enthusiastic temporary ornithological bachelor.

Grand River CarShare strike me as a professionally run organization, keenly focused on their mission (and budget). The value they provide for the price is incredible (to the point that I've even asked them how they manage to stay viable.) Given the niche that they fill, they are a strategic asset to KW's transportation mix and we're lucky to have them.

For $40 a year, you could never book a car and still get your money's worth just from peace of mind.

Perhaps they will consider installing bike racks at their car stations, for people to bike to and from their vehicles. (I was disappointed to find that the new Matrix doesn't easily fit my bike and is missing some of the great cargo features that makes our older model Matrix so useful.)

The Park&Union 2012 Matrix. Nice car to drive, but just not as handy as its predecessor.

Word.

[LOABkw] Countdown and looking ahead

Life On A Bike in KW is a series of posts about Chris' attempt to get as much done as possible on two wheels, while Erin takes the car out of town to observe birds. How cycle-friendly is KW?

Erin heads out of town this weekend. You can follow her bird-nerding adventures on a blog aptly titled Adventures of a Bird Nerd. And since she's taking the car, my countdown is on.

Erin wishes her bird nerding would be this awesome.

The funny part is that to a large extent, things won't change next week. (When it comes to getting around, that is-- Erin's absence will certainly affect my life for the next few months!) After all, I'm already cycling to work 3 or 4 days a week. How much different will this be?

The challenge is going to be in errand and "one-off" trips, I think:

• Groceries: I can do it, but I have to think about volume and weight.
• Hardware store (hard to predict what you need to haul to keep a house in working order. A box of screws is easy-- a new toilet, less so.)
• Pet store. (7 birds to feed, and the best deal for food is over in St Clements.)
• Visits out of town.
• Heavy occasional supplies that I use for brewing beer, such as RO water and propane refills

When I started thinking about this, I realize that despite the fact that I have reduced my personal car dependence quite far, it's the last mile (so to speak) which is the least flexible. Alternatives exist for specific things, like I know where to get more parakeet food in town, conveniently on my way home-- but at almost twice the cost. Hardware stores tend to offer delivery.

A big, less obvious benefit of car ownership is that you don't have to think about this sort of thing very hard. You make a decision and go. Your cargo capacity is enough to handle almost any need. You can go further to get the best deal. You can go whatever the conditions are, and you have secure storage on hand for multi-stop trips.

I can haul a lot on my bike, considering it's a fairly conventional design. Two Basil Memories baskets are already demonstrating their value:

Handles with all the grace of a pregnant sow.

... and this past weekend, I proved that they had the strength to carry 24 cans of pop on one side, and 5kg of ice on the other. That's good, but there's no way I'm fitting a 20lb propane tank or a 5-gallon water jug in there. There will be the point at which I turn to Car Share. And there's always transit, too.

Though this guy has figured it out.

Flat Rate vs. Pay-as-you-go

It's clear that car ownership is simpler, and while driving an owned car is certainly not free, a single trip feels virtually free-- purchase, insurance, maintenance and even to a certain extent gasoline all feel like fixed overheads. (Yes, I believe it's easy to think of fuel as a fixed overhead: ask yourself if you mentally debited $1 from your budget the last time you drove 10km.) Car ownership feels like a flat rate that once you pay, you get a lot of convenience for free. People like that sort of thing.

Car Share and transit are pay-as-you-go, and they come with the (sometimes uncomfortably obvious) awareness of what each trip costs. Do I want to take a Car Share vehicle for an hour ($10 on my plan) to get a $15 propane tank fill? Or spend $70 to visit my parents? That incremental cost seems outrageously expensive, but it has to be compared against the cost of buying and running a new car ($8-$13K a year) or even keeping a cheaper used car on the road.

It seems clear to me that there will be opportunities to trade time for money, and money for time. Overall, there will be a drive (no pun intended) to seek efficiencies: combine trips, buy in bulk, choose destinations based on accessibility rather than bargain-hunting across town.

And of course, do as much as I can on two wheels, for free.

(courtesy Threadless)

Next time... the tools of the trade!