1. SUMMARY
CARSHARING IN
GREATER FOREST LAWN
Peter Schryvers
A component of the research project
Automobile Dependence and the City: Travel Behaviour and
Housing Choice in Calgary: A Qualitative Inquiry, 2010
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2. Executive Summary
Carsharing is a service that allows members access to a vehicle without owning an
automobile. Members pay a monthly membership fee as well as paying for individual
use of vehicles provided, either on a per-kilometre or per time basis, or a combination
of the both. In general, carsharing allows access to a vehicle at a fraction of the cost
of ownership and is generally cheaper and less of a hassle than renting a car,
depending on the usage. For some of those who make use of the service, carsharing
can provide a critical piece of their economic and social stability.
Carsharing provides an essential alternative between not owning and owning a car. It
provides access to an automobile, while not placing the full cost burdens of
automobile ownership on the household. For those people who do not need to use a
car on a daily basis, but still require a car for occasional, but necessary trips,
carsharing provides a level of accessibility that is currently not available.
There are numerous benefits for those who use carsharing services, including:
• Reduced costs of owning and operating a vehicle, freeing up money for other
costs
• Increased access to amenities than with transit, cycling or walking
• Reduced trip times and thus creating more time for other activities
• Less reliance on transit schedules and thus more flexibility in activity planning
These benefits, however, are not without their challenges. Carsharing programs are
not without their difficulties and potential downsides including:
• Keeping user costs low, while maintaining profitability or reducing subsidies
• Providing access to vehicles while avoiding automobile dependence for users
• Providing adequate levels of service while avoiding overuse and scheduling
conflicts
Carsharing, although not without its difficulties, provides a valuable service to many
of those who, for one reason or another, do not have access to an automobile.

3. Research Context
The research focused on how travel behaviors and associated decisions were
developed in households both which did or did not make use of a carsharing service.
This research of carsharing in the Greater Forest Lawn area was a component of a
larger research study examining travel and housing location choice behaviors of
households in Calgary. Thirteen households in total were recruited for the study,
seven of which came from the Greater Forest Lawn area, two of which were users of
the Greater Forest Lawn Carsharing service.
Households participating in the study were interviewed in an open-interview format,
allowing the participants to direct the conversation and identify the factors that were
relevant to them. This interview format allows participants to identify issues and
characteristics that may not have been evident to the researcher prior to the study. All
households were prompted to discuss their daily travel behavior as well as their
choice of where to live while the households from Forest Lawn were additionally
prompted to discuss their use of carsharing, or if they thought they would use a
carsharing service if provided.
Carsharing Findings
Carsharing and Travel Behavior
This research aimed to investigate how daily travel behavior differed between those
households who used a carsharing service and those who did not. Examining these
differences offers insight into the ways in which a carsharing service provides benefits
to those households who use it. There are several ways in which daily travel behavior
of carsharing households differed from households who do not use this service.
First, in comparison to households who do not own cars, carshare users engaged
much more in what is termed “trip chaining.” Trip chaining describes the behavior
when travel for more than one activity is chained together using the same mode of
transportation. An example would be shopping for groceries on the way home from
work (the work trip and the grocery trip are “chained” together). While it was still
possible for individuals to trip chain using transit or other forms of transportation,
the opportunity is much more diminished than it is for a car.
Trip chaining can change activity and travel patterns in a number of ways. Activities
that normally take place during the weekend may be altered to occur on weeknights
because of reduced travel time freeing up weekends for other activities or vice versa.
Alternatively several activities that take place on separate weekends can be clustered
into a single weekend, thus freeing up time on the other weekends.
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4. Additionally, when trips are chained together, longer distance trips can more easily be
justified as the additional travel time is spread out amongst several activities.
Traveling a longer distance may allow for cost savings for the activity undertaken, for
instance traveling to a less expensive grocery store along with a trip to the doctor’s
office.
Second, carsharing service alters travel behavior and activity patterns by allowing
travel times and activity times to be better coordinated than for using transit. For
example, by using a carshare vehicle, an individual can time their trip to correspond
with a doctor’s appointment or other time-constrained activity, whereas using transit
might entail gaps in timing (such as waiting an extra half hour either before or after
the activity) or longer trip times because of the unreliability of transit. In some cases a
considerable time cushion is needed when taking transit to time-constrained
activities, because of the possibility of being late, whereas using a vehicle to access
these activities has greater reliability in trip times.
This increased ability to accurately align trip times with time-constrained activities
(such as appointments) provides several benefits for car share users. First, the time an
activity takes place is less constrained, for example week night activities may be more
viable because transit may not be as reliable. In some cases activities will not be
undertaken at all if using transit because of the inability to accurately time activities
and travel times. This may include things such as night classes or appointments that
occur during times of low transit frequency. Therefore activities that occur during
non-peak travel periods for transit are more viable for carshare users, increasing the
scope of activities that carshare users can undertake. These activities may include
classes, appointments or recreational activities, such as children’s recreational
activities.
Finally, access to a carsharing vehicle increases the distance households can travel to
access services. Because trip times are generally shorter for carsharing vehicles than
they are for transit, the spatial distribution of activities for carshare users can be
greater than they are for completely transit dependent households. This may mean
that carshare users are relocating existing activities to locations that are located a
farther distance from their home, or they may be engaging in new activities made
available by the greater spatial reach of using a carsharing vehicle.
These changes to the daily travel behavior of households made possible by carsharing
have several benefits for the household.
Benefits
There are many benefits that carsharing programs bring. These benefits can be
divided between carsharing users themselves, social agencies and municipal
governments.

5. Users
For carshare users, carsharing provides an essential alternative between not owning
and owning a car. It provides access to an automobile, while not placing the full cost
burdens of automobile ownership on the household. For those people who do not
need to use a car on a daily basis, but still require a car for occasional, but necessary
trips, carsharing provides a level of accessibility that is current not available. This
service has many benefits for its users, which can be divided into costs, time and
access.
Carsharing users benefit from the carshare service by reducing overall travel costs.
Reductions in cost come in several forms. First, the cost of ownership, maintenance
and operation for carsharing is much lower than it is for fully owning a car (provided
that the number of trips made is sufficiently low). For households that do not make a
large number of trips by private automobile (especially the work commute), using a
carshare service means that they are not paying for a vehicle that sits in the driveway
unused for long periods of time. As well, because carsharing vehicles are used by a
number of people, maintenance and operational costs are reduced because of the
higher usage of the vehicle. Resources between users can be pooled in order to
properly maintain the vehicle, and to purchase reliable vehicles, avoiding the high
maintenance costs often associated with older vehicles.
Second, carshare users save on costs by having greater access to goods and services,
allowing them to purchase low cost goods in areas farther from their home. This
typically refers to grocery shopping, where lower cost grocery stores may be located
further from the household, or may be inaccessible by transit and having access to a
car can result in cost savings due to the lower cost of the store. The same may apply
to several other types of stores; however, grocery shopping is the most common.
Finally, a carshare service allows users to graduate their car ownership. That is to say
that the capital cost of ownership may be too high initially to a household, but over
time can be achieved. However, in some cases access to a car may be a necessity
before the household has reached a level of income that can support car ownership.
In these cases car ownership becomes a financial burden, as it is done during a period
when the household is not financially prepared for the full costs of ownership. This
may then delay other purchases by the household, such as home ownership, which
can act as a financial cost to the household. Carsharing allows the household to have
the necessary access to the car during these periods while not fully having to commit
to ownership.
The next benefit that carshare users get from using a carshare service is time
benefits. There are several benefits related to time that are offered by carsharing.
First, as stated above, carsharing increases the ability to trip chain. This ability has
several benefits for households. By trip chaining the overall travel time for activities is
reduced, as several trips are made together. This reduction in travel time frees up
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6. time for other activities or travel to other activities. Trip chaining can have the result
of shifting activities that are normally done on weeknights to the weekend, freeing up
time for individuals to undertake more household activities or even work longer
hours. This additional time can be used by households to engage in other activities,
such as education, recreation, or even working longer hours in order to increase
income.
Second, carsharing reduces travel time in general because typically private automobile
trips are faster than walking and cycling trips and more direct than transit trips. As
such, the reduction in travel time either frees up time to do other activities or makes
more activities viable because the travel time is reasonable. This decrease in travel
time allows households to make more efficient use of their time and to better allocate
time to priority activities.
Finally, in terms of time, using a carsharing vehicle means less uncertainty in travel
times. As noted in the section on household travel behavior, transit schedules may be
difficult to coordinate with activities with fixed start and end times. By using a
carshare vehicle, users may be better able to coordinate their travel times with the
times that activities take place (such as appointments, recreational activities or
classes) and as such, they reduce the amount of waiting. This better scheduling also
means that time constrained activities are more viable for a household. In some cases,
time constrained activities may not even be undertaken by a household because of
the potential for being late if using transit. Being able to better match travel times
with activities means not only saving waiting time, but making more activities
available to the household.
The last benefit carsharing provides for its users is a greater access to more amenities
in a city. Transit, walking and cycling can only connect a person to a limited number
of amenities viably. With access to a private automobile, carshare users can access a
greater number of amenities throughout the city. This may be a greater variety of
stores, recreational activities or even educational facilities that are unable to be
reached realistically using transit, walking and cycling.
Carshare users gain several benefits from having access to a carshare vehicle.
Financial and time savings along with greater access to amenities provides carshare
users many of the benefits of car ownership without having to take on the full cost
burden of complete ownership.
Social Organizations/Agencies
Social agencies and organizations also benefit from carsharing programs. Carsharing
provides a method of assisting households in accessing services and amenities
without bearing the full costs of ownership. For social agencies assisting households
in need, advocating for and supporting carsharing amongst their clients is a good way

7. to provide an additional tool to assist those households. The benefits social agencies
receive from supporting carsharing services are numerous.
First, carsharing can help clients access the agency’s services, if the agency is located
in an area that is not readily accessible by public transit and the client does not own a
car. Social agencies may work with a higher number of households who do not own a
car, and connecting with these populations may prove to be difficult if the households
have lower accessibility to vehicles. Carsharing can be used as a tool to help social
agencies connect with their clients without having to visit them in their homes (if
unnecessary or too costly).
Second, carsharing reduces financial burdens on households (if carsharing entails the
reduction of car ownership), which may be a goal of the social agency. Reducing the
cost of vehicle ownership can help households rearrange their spending priorities and
better manage household finances. The cost savings associated with carsharing can
be redirected to other expenditures, such as food, education or housing, which may
have been under-funded because of the costs of the vehicle.
Third, carsharing increases the mobility of clients, which may be a goal of the social
agency. Increasing access to educational services, health services and other services
in general can provide a significant benefit to carshare users and therefore can help
achieve many of the goals of the social agency.
Finally, it should be understood that carsharing is not a method to increase access to
employment directly by providing a means of commuting. Carsharing would be too
expensive to use as a regular commuting mode and should not be viewed as such.
However, carsharing may indirectly increase employment outcomes by providing
access to job-supportive amenities, such as educational opportunities. Employment
outcomes may also be increase indirectly by carsharing because costs saved because
of carsharing can be spent on other job-supportive costs.
Municipal Governments
The greatest benefit municipal governments receive from carsharing programs is an
improvement in transit. Transit usage may improve because carsharing will reduce the
need for a car for non-work trips, thus increasing the attractiveness of using transit as
a commute mode. Carsharing can reduce the justification for owning a car for non-
work trips, and therefore the reduced need for a car can translate into an advantage
of transit over automobiles when a household chooses the mode for the commute. If
a car is needed for non-work trips, the car may be used for the commute simply as a
matter of justifying a sunk cost. However, if this is not the case, there may be less of
an incentive to purchase a car solely for the commute if the commute can be
sufficiently served by transit. As such, municipalities should make efforts to support
carsharing services as a matter of improving transit usage.
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8. Challenges
While providing numerous benefits to its users, carsharing is not necessarily
implemented easily. There are several challenges that must be overcome to
successfully implement a carshare service.
Work Trips
The greatest difficulty facing carsharing programs is ensuring that work trips are
served by means other than an automobile. Although some cases may exist where a
vehicle is used for the commute and carsharing is viable, in the vast majority of cases,
the carshare user needs to be able to get to work without a private automobile (the
exception being those who are unemployed or retired). If a car is used for the
commute, there is little reason to use a carshare vehicle for non-work trips.
Carsharing therefore, should focus on areas where commuting by alternative means,
such as transit or walking, is viable. This way, a reduction of car ownership is a viable
choice that will not affect employment outcomes.
Carsharing needs to be focused on populations who can use alternative means of
commuting rather than a private automobile, otherwise the program will not be
viable. As such, carsharing programs should work in conjunction with municipal
transit and transportation planning in order to best identify areas of need.
Dependence
Another challenge that carsharing faces is the potentiality of creating dependence for
automobile use among users, which is a contradiction to the purpose of carsharing.
Although it may be appropriate in some cases, carsharing should not be viewed as a
path towards vehicle ownership. One of the purposes of carsharing is to ultimately
reduce the need to own a car. If a carshare program ultimately creates a situation
where automobile dependence increases, it has failed in its purpose.
This challenge comes mostly from the increased freedom provided by using a
carshare service. Households may come to rely on a vehicle and the conveniences it
offers. Locations for household activities, such as going to the pharmacy or the bank,
may start to be conducted using a carshare vehicle when walking or transit is a viable
option. Although unlikely, carsharing programs do have the potential to induce car
dependence.
Cost
One of the most significant challenges facing carsharing programs is providing
services at a cost effective price. As one of the demographics for the service is low
income households, the price of the service must be low enough to allow households
to use the service. The challenge of removing subsidies while remaining financially

9. viable and providing the much needed service to low income households is not an
easy task.
Maintaining Level of Service
Lastly, carsharing programs face the challenge of providing a viable level of service
while keeping costs low. A critical mass of vehicles is needed to provide convenient
service through close proximity and adequate availability of cars to program users.
However, this has to be balanced with not over extending the service so that costs to
the program itself become untenable. Carshare programs have to provide enough
cars to ensure proximity of vehicles to users and adequate availability while also
keeping costs low.
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10. Recommendations
Carsharing Target Demographics
Carsharing can benefit many different groups. These groups may use a carsharing
service for different reasons and it is important to keep those different reasons in
mind when creating a carshare program.
The first demographic group for carsharing is low-income households without a car.
The main reason these households would use carsharing is that it increases
accessibility of the household to amenities throughout the city. These households
cannot afford a regular car, but will gain significant benefits from having access to
one.
The second group is households with two cars. The main reason this group would use
carsharing is to reduce existing costs of vehicle operation and ownership. These
households need two cars for certain situations, such as running errands, but not for
work. These households may have one income earner working while the other stays at
home with children, or the work shifts of the two income earners can be different.
These households need to make use of a car when one vehicle is being used for work,
but may not need it frequently.
The third group of carshare users is urban residents who live in a district where
walking and transit make up a majority of trips. These households may not need to
use a vehicle very often and can do a majority of their errands by walking or transit,
but may need to make use of a carshare vehicle for longer trips that they do not do
very often.
Target Geographic Areas
Carsharing programs should be focused in areas where they will be used most and
therefore need to locate in areas where a significant population either does not need
to own cars, or cannot afford them. Generally, higher density neighbourhoods are
good candidates for carshare users. This is because the higher the residential density,
the greater number of potential carshare users and generally high density areas
typically are more conducive to walking, as more services are located in a smaller
area. Mixed use areas are therefore desirable because they can reduce the need for a
car. Residents of these areas can do a significant amount of trips without a vehicle
and are good candidates for carshare programs
Alternatively, low density areas can also be good areas for carsharing, provided that
there is a higher demand for the service, due to low levels of automobile ownership.
The lack of density in these areas is made up for by an increased demand.

11. Finally, transit stations can be good candidates for areas to locate carshare vehicles
in. Although the stations themselves may not have a significant residential
population nearby, they may be easily accessed through the transit system and
therefore can increase the catchment area for potential users. Furthermore, locating
nearby transit stations can allow workers who take transit to work to trip-chain, that is
to use the carshare vehicle for errands on their way home from (or occasionally to)
work. This allows people to use carshare services even though they do not live near a
carshare vehicle. For those who use only transit for the commute (not those who park
and ride), using carshare vehicles along the transit route can provide access to
carsharing for these people, while not requiring them to live in an area where
carsharing services exist.
Social Housing Organizations
Social organizations that provide housing or support for housing to their clients can
promote carsharing in a number of ways. First, they can provide parking spaces for
carshare vehicles in housing projects they develop. This provides easy access to the
carshare vehicles for the residents, while also providing parking spaces for the
carshare vehicles, which may be difficult to come by. Parking spaces can also be
provided by dedicating existing parking spaces in properties the organization own to
carsharing programs.
Second, social organizations can either pay for their clients to join a carshare service,
provide subsidies to do so, or help them with the registration process. Carsharing
program fees can even be worked into rental agreements, if the organization operates
in this manner. Providing support for registration and membership can remove
barriers to participation for individuals unfamiliar with the process.
Municipal Government
Municipal governments can support carsharing services in a number of ways.
First, municipal governments can provide dedicated parking spaces for carshare
vehicles. This can be done at transit stations, other municipal parking lots and at
municipally owned buildings. Providing these spaces can be done in a couple of ways.
The spaces can be provided to carshare programs for free, they can simply be
dedicated to carshare vehicles and sold at a fixed price, or can be dedicated and
auctioned to the highest bidder.
Second, municipal governments can relax parking requirements for developments
that provide carshare services as part of the development.
Third, transit agencies can coordinate with carsharing services to not only provide
parking spaces at park and ride lots, but to advertise and promote carsharing on
transit brochures, route maps and wayfinding materials. Carshare logos can be put on
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12. transit maps so customers can easily identify the locations of carshare vehicles
adjacent to transit. Signage can be put up at transit stations identifying where
carshare vehicles are located. As well, instructions or advertisements can be placed
near the carsharing vehicles explaining to transit customers how the service works.
This could create a greater level of service for both carshare users and transit
customers.