hourcar update
By baci on Mar 16, 2009 in Uncategorized
in response to my email to them about the possibility of a train from Mpls/St.P to Dlth.
Hi Baci,
Thanks for writing to us; we’re excited about the train (maybe?) coming to town as well.
We’ve had some contact in the past with Duluth folks about bringing car sharing there and in the short term it might not be feasible (there are certain costs associated with the business model which are fixed no matter how many cars there area) without some major community or governmental investment, which is probably not feasible in this fiscal climate. However, we, too, believe that with a strong transportation link between the Twin Cities and Duluth (we have a car nearby the train-station-to-be in Minneapolis and will likely have one at the station when it opens later this year) it will better facilitate car sharing in Duluth. We’d probably also look to launch it at local colleges (UMD, Saint Scholastica) which draw a lot of students from the Twin Cities.
We haven’t talked about cooperative maintenance, but this is something we could look in to in Duluth. One of the costs of car sharing is having someone locally available 24 hours a day to be on-call if there is a problem with the car (we can take the calls centrally but if there is an issue with the car itself—a dead battery, &c.—we need someone to be able to get to it). In any case, we hope that a train to Duluth comes to fruition, and soon, and once it is actually happening we’ll keep in contact with you and others about a car at the Depot.
And I don’t know about trail mix and sleeping bags (sleeping bag sharing? Not quite.) but I think that a canoe/bike/ski rack would be imperative.
–Ari
Ari Ofsevit
HOURCAR Program Manager
Neighborhood Energy Connection
624 Selby Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
t: 651.221.4462 ext. 138
f: 651.221.9831
tools for energy-efficient living
I went to a lot of Hour Car meetings last year. It came down to just not enough interest in the Duluth area.
I have also had several conversations with Duluth Sheet Metal Co. about converting cars to electric. It is do-able but expensive.
I am willing for us (ASTCCC) to be the store front for the Hour Car deal but we do not have a mechanic -- one would need to be hired. And as Ari said, that would be costly.
CB
the hourcar concept will take a bit to catch on until the rail is completed…
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