Do Not Underestimate The Potential Risks Of Vehicle Sharing

If you live in in a big city, possessing a vehicle can be both expensive as well as a hassle. Finding a parking spot may compete with finding a Taliban commander in its difficulty. Paying for car parking can leave a significant hole in your wallet. Because of the large number of drivers on the highway, car insurance prices are usually higher in large cities. Gas mileage suffers during city driving due to the fairly slow speeds and repeated halts. Consequently, a lot of city residents are saying no thanks to vehicle ownership and counting on other options. Public transportation continues to be a vital option, however a comparatively new strategy is taking over in many U.S. urban centers: vehicle sharing.

As per CarSharing.net, at the beginning of 2010 there were 27 car sharing programs in the U.S., helping 388,000 members and sharing 7,500 vehicles. They go by names like Zipcar, Car2go, and Community Car. The programs charge a yearly membership fee and may ask for an application fee; Zipcar, for example charges a $50 annual fee and a $25 application fee in the Washington, D.C. area. Another fee is applicable for each usage of a car (for example, $30 for a four-hour reservation), which includes gasoline, insurance, and a given number of miles.

The kinds of people most likely to utilize a vehicle sharing service include:

* Those who normally use public transportation yet who require their own vehicle sometimes

* Those who own one car and from time to time need a second

* People who own compact vehicles but from time to time need a larger vehicle