By Naomi Johnson
Competition is looming in Centretown as two car-share programs get set to start around the same time early in the new year.
With the upcoming launch of both a car-sharing business and a car-sharing co-operative, interested residents can soon join either option for approximately the same price.
A car-share is much like buying a time-share on a condominium. A client buys a membership and is then responsible for paying only for the periods in which he or she uses it.
Although car-shares are new to Ottawa, they have already proven successful in Montreal, Toronto and Victoria.
“It’s an idea that I think will be very successful here in Ottawa,” says Wilson Wood, business owner of National Capital Carshare. “We have to start in a small area and we’re choosing Centretown . . . because it has issues related to density, income and issues like parking.”
Car-share clients neither pay for gas nor insurance directly. Instead, they pay a $500 refundable membership fee, $2 for every hour they have the car, plus about 20 cents per kilometre driven. The catch is that clients must book a car in advance to ensure it’s available.
However, Wood says the cost advantages outweigh any scheduling problems and it’s cheaper for those who drive less than 10,000 km annually to join a car-share rather than own a car.
Wood plans to begin his business with just one leased car, which will be parked at the Loblaws on Isabella Street. This is so that Centretown and Glebe clients are within 15 minutes walking distance to pick the car up and drop it off.
At the same time, a community based car-share co-operative will also be starting.
The co-op’s name is tentative since it needs approval by the Ministry of Finance, but it will likely be called the Ottawa Car-Sharing Co-op.
The co-op is similar to the car-share business in the fees the members must pay, but the co-op is not intended to make money.
Rather, it will try to deliver the lowest possible membership rates, with no one person in charge.
“It’s more community-based, the members have more say in what goes on,” says Huss Kapasi, co-organizer of the co-op. “It’s more like a social justice model way of doing things.”
Although it’s supposed to start May 1, Kapasi says the co-op will likely begin before then because it has already secured a donated used car and 20 people have said they want to join.
But from a business perspective, Wood is critical of a co-operative approach to car-sharing. In his experience it would be a “business mistake.”
“I could probably find a junker and get started just as quickly, but I don’t think that’s the right approach to take in the Ottawa market and just from the point of view of reliability,” says Wood, who will be leasing a late model, compact car for his business.
Chris Bradshaw sold his car several years ago in favour of walking and cycling.
He says a car-share is something he has wanted for over 20 years and he will definitely join one of the programs.
Bradshaw, who has helped both the business and the co-op to get started, admits there is a real possibility that competition could exist.
“I think both proponents are somewhat concerned that the other would start at the same time,” says Bradshaw. “But it gives the idea more legitimacy, there will be more choice and there will be a little old fashioned competition between the two.”
However, both the co-op and the business downplay the idea of competition.
For Kapasi, the idea of starting a car-share and decreasing people’s reliance on cars is more important than who gets the most clients.
“It is possible that they (Wood’s business) may be more selective and may run better because it is a private business, and if the co-op fails, that’s OK,” says Kapasi.
Although Wood admits both he and the co-op will be going after the same people in the Centretown area, he thinks “the pool’s big enough” for the both of them.
“It’s definitly a viable alternative to owning a car,” says Wood. “I’d certainly do it if it was available to me.”