The accidental environmentalists

CAR-SHARING | Programs like I-GO having an impact on pollution as well as people's wallets

Simon Hess kept his Dodge Neon when he moved here from Denver, but owning a car in Chicago soon proved to be more of a hassle than a help.

"The bulk of the driving I did was moving the car from parking spot to parking spot so I wouldn't get tickets," said Hess, 22, a production manager at Double Door in Wicker Park and other concert venues.

Then, Hess spotted some ads for I-GO, a car-sharing program run by the non-profit Center for Neighborhood Technology. I-GO was started five years ago as a modest experiment, with a handful of cars. Its fleet now exceeds 80 vehicles. And I-GO says the program is adding more than 200 members a month.

"Chicago's been the fastest growing market we've ever launched," said Zipcar's chief executive, Scott Griffith.

Across the nation, nearly 102,000 people are sharing about 2,600 vehicles, according to Susan Shaheen, a research scientist who studies car-sharing at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California, Davis.

"Relative to the total population, it's still a small number," Shaheen said. "But there's been significant investment recently in the car-sharing industry. That will enable programs to put more cars out there and the market will grow."

I-GO works this way: Members have round-the-clock access to cars parked in designated spaces peppered throughout the city, as well as in Evanston and Oak Park. A car can be reserved -- minutes or months in advance -- by phone or online for 30 minutes or more. It costs $75 to join. Members pay a small fee every time they use a car, depending on which plan they have. The most popular option charges $6 an hour, plus 50 cents a mile.

"It sounded like a really good idea," said Hess, whose Uptown apartment is a block away from an I-GO car. Three more I-GO vehicles are within a four-block radius. "You don't pay for gas. No insurance costs. Use the car whenever you want. I thought I might as well give it a try. Next thing you know, I decided to sell my car."

That's the idea behind I-GO: Get more cars off the road to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. About 83 percent of I-GO members responding to a recent survey said they would own a car if I-GO didn't exist.

"Each I-GO car replaces 15 cars that would otherwise be on the road," said Sharon Feigon, I-GO's chief executive officer. "Almost 8.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions didn't happen because of I-GO."

"This is something that's easy to do, and it makes a big difference," Feigon said. "It also saves people a lot of money, since owning and operating a car in Chicago costs, on average, more than $7,000 a year."

Zipcar says members in other parts of the country report saving more than $435 a month by belonging to Zipcar instead of owning a vehicle. The company's Chicago fleet, which includes Prius hybrids, MINI-Coopers and Mustang convertibles, already exceeds 100 cars.

I-GOs' inventory, which also is expected to grow, consists of energy-efficient hybrids and regular low-emission cars, such as Honda Elements and Toyota Scions.

"I'm not a super environmentalist," Hess said. "I just try to use less in everything I do. This helps me do my part."