CarShare

Good article about PhillyCarShare, which I highly recommended.

For all of Philadelphia's cultural amenities, architectural richness and historical importance, the place can just stink if you like owning a car.

Ask any urban dweller-driver and you'll likely get an earful about sky-high insurance, expensive or inconvenient parking, and, of course, break-ins.

Which might explain the success of car-borrowing nonprofit group PhillyCarShare, and the mounting interest in Philadelphia of bigger, corporate car-sharing firms that operate in other cities.


...

For now, PhillyCarShare has customers such as Philadelphia resident Stephen Playo and his wife, Nickolette Phillips, to itself.

Playo said they saved $3,000 or more a year using PhillyCarShare instead of owning a car.

"Anyone who lives here realizes how bad it is cost-wise," said Playo, an engineer who lives in Center City. "All that time the car is parked... people are paying upward of $60 a day."

For heavy car-share users, Playo said, "it might be $60 a week." For one plan, users pay $15 a month, plus $5.90 an hour and 9 cents a mile to cover fuel, insurance, maintenance and parking.