Sharing is caring (and cheap)

I can’t tell you how much I want my car to get stolen.  It may not look like junk to others (besides the junk that’s actually inside the car) but it’s a piece of junk.  The driver door handle falls off every few winters; the air conditioner is shot; and a sound that closely resembles a shipping barge being electrocuted by lightning during a fireworks display competes with my sometimes shoddy speakers.  You see, I’m unhappy with my car, is what it is.  But, I do have a car and the few times a week that I need to use it, it is there, waiting for me and ready to go.  So I suppose it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing.  Just not always well....or without smoke.

I have a feeling that I am going to enjoy using the proposed automobile co-operative that was reported as being shopped around here in today’s Buffalo News.  I’ve heard about these groups in other cities; a collective owns a fleet of cars—regular, ordinary, everyday sedans and maybe a few minivans—that are available for rent, either hourly or daily or whateverly.  Patrons receive a tag or electronic key which grants them access to a specific vehicle (not unlike picking up a car from a rental company), and you can have the car for a designated amount of time.  If you have errands to run, people to pick up, tunes to blast—whatever you need.  Cars are kept in designated parking lots, where users pick up and drop off their vehicles.

This sounds really useful, especially for those city dwellers who rely on walking and getting rides from friends.  Mind you, I have my car but I live so close to work that I walk.  And most of my daily needs are accounted for in my neighborhood.  But I do get out of here every few days or more, and I do sometimes want to just run to a store that’s not within earshot of my bedroom.  You know, see the sights, get out a little.  So I could see this program working for people like me, if my limousine happened to suddenly take refuge in the river or in the middle of a bonfire.  I’m just saying.

It certainly saves on gas money, on insurance payments and the dreaded need to keep it clean so that others don’t think they’re being taken to the garbage pile for a weekly dump.  (Is that just me? Just my car?  But it’s so dainty, my automobile.) I might give it a shot.  Might.

Photo of my car’s future family portrait courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 09/03 at 11:03 AM