A Car Of Your Own, Sort Of

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Daren Fonda, Unmesh Kher, Ellin Martens and Sora Song

Car sharing is an energy-saving idea whose time may have come. For a couple of bucks an hour, on top of a monthly or yearly membership fee, you can hop into a clean, gassed-up car and drive it as long as you like--and never pay for insurance or a single oil change. Companies like ZipCar, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., and expanded last week into Washington, maintain fleets of cars parked in convenient locations around town. Customers can pick up a car, drop it off when they're finished, and pay only for the hours they drive. The only downside: no cherry-red Mustang coupes.

SAN FRANCISCO 725 members

Launched in March 2001 with financial support from the Federal Government and pro-environment foundations, City CarShare has 27 VWs--automatic transmission only--rolling over the hills of the Bay Area.

CAMBRIDGE 1,250 members

After a successful start in the Boston area, ZipCar is poised to monopolize the Northeast corridor: it's starting up in D.C. and plans to begin enrolling members even in car-wary New York City by October.

SEATTLE 2,900 members

In 1998 a company called CarSharing Portland first introduced America to the shared-car concept. Last month it was bought by Seattle-based Flexcar, which wants to open in 30 cities over the next five years.

MONTREAL 2,450 members

CommunAuto brought the car-sharing phenomenon from Europe, where there are now 120,000 members, to Quebec City and Montreal in the mid-1990s. Since then, six other Canadian cities have followed suit.