Car-sharing service may be coming to Iowa City, University of Iowa

Wartburg College student Qinglun Li drives a Toyota Prius and Scion, although she owns neither.

Instead, Li uses a car-sharing service offered by U-Haul in Waverly. It's like renting a vehicle, but by the hour.

Li, a college senior from China, said she uses the vehicles to run errands and doesn't have to pay for things like car payments, insurance and even gas.

“When I need use a car, I do not need worry about how to borrow someone's car,” she wrote in an email. “I can just simply make a reservation online and get a good condition car.”

Officials from the city of Iowa City and the University of Iowa are interested in bringing a similar service to Iowa City.

They're currently reviewing responses from interested vendors and many of the details are to be determined – like the number of vehicles that will be available and rates – but the goal is to have car sharing here in the fall, said Chris O'Brien, Iowa City's director of transportation services.

“It's a community it's a natural fit for,” he said.

The UI has 30,000 students and 14,000 faculty and staff. Parking is at a premium around campus and the downtown area.

Many people walk, bike or take buses to campus, but the possible need for a car during the day keeps some people from using public transit, O'Brien said. Car sharing gives them an option, and there also will be locations throughout the city for the general public, he said.

Car sharing has been popular in Europe for a couple of decades and has been growing in North America for the past decade. In America, it can be found in many large cities and on college campuses.

The basic concept is similar to renting a car for a short period on a membership-basis, and it's aimed at people who don't have easy access to a vehicle.

Car sharing also is viewed by some advocates as being environmentally friendly.

Wartburg College contracted with U-Haul at the start of this school year as part of the school's plan to get students driving less by making them less in need of having their own cars on campus, said Anne Duncan, Wartburg's environmental sustainability coordinator.

“This provides them a cheaper opportunity, and it's of course better for the environment,” she said.

The college's commitment is only to provide two parking spaces. It does not pay a fee or guarantee U-Haul a certain number of rentals, Duncan said.

In the first semester, the two cars were driven more than 700 hours and about 5,000 miles.

A Colorado nonprofit organization, eGo CarShare, also has a goal of getting people to use motor vehicles less.

“If you have a car sitting in the driveway, you're going to drive it, when maybe it's not the most efficient way to get to the grocery store or to school or whatnot,” said Alyssa Alt, eGo program manager.

A survey last year found that members had a 44 percent decrease in the number of cars per household after joining the program.

The organization has cars in Denver and Boulder, which is home to the flagship university in the University of Colorado system. Alt said eGo has about 1,700 members, and probably two-thirds of them are in Boulder.

Students use the vehicles to run errands or go on trips like to the mountains to ski, she said. A couple of university departments have accounts, including one for the education school that student teachers can use.

Valeria Seibert, a 22-year-old student in Boulder, uses eGo at least once a week and said it's convenient and affordable.

“If I need to go run a five-minute errand, it costs me five bucks,” she said.

Rates vary depending on the car-sharing service. An eGo member who pays a $10 monthly fee can get an economy car for $2.50 an hour and 30 cents a mile.

Many providers have insurance deductibles drivers must pay if they are at fault in an accident, and then the policy covers drivers from there. Some companies, however, have been criticized for having minimal insurance coverage.

O'Brien said he's comfortable with the coverage offered by the vendors being considered in Iowa City.