New way to go
Car-sharing program offers easy transportation
By Whitney L. Becker, The Daily Northwestern
April 28, 2005
The I-GO car sharing company added an Evanston location Monday, giving residents a transportation option beyond owning a car or using public transit.
Customers of I-GO, a service intended to be used as a public transportation supplement, use the company's cars kept in locations throughout Chicago. Users pay a $75 membership fee the first year and a $25 fee each following year. In the standard plan, members pay $6 per hour and $.50 per mile to use vehicles. The company pays for gas, parking, insurance and car maintenance. When a members want to use a car, they make a reservation online or on the phone.
"Our main goal is to provide cars for people without them, or multi-people households with only one car," said Richard Kosmacher, sales and marketing manager for I-GO. "Typically people will take a taxi or mass transit, but that doesn't always satisfy people's needs, especially when they need to transport large packages or attend meetings."
The nonprofit company was started by the Center for Neighborhood Technology to work with the City of Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority. It owns 27 cars at 13 locations in Chicago. Evanston is the first suburb to receive the I-GO service.
"In the spring of 2002, we started with a Chicago grant and we received another grant this spring," Kosmacher said. "So far we have received over $900,000 in federal grant money filtered through Chicago, without which we wouldn't be able to operate."
The City of Evanston also supports I-GO, providing the company two parking spots in the Maple Avenue garage free of charge.
"The Evanston parking committee was very supportive of our move to bring I-GO to Evanston, " said Sharon Feigon, CEO of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and an Evanston resident. "Parking is a very controversial issue and we are very pleased that the parking committee saw our program as a way to alleviate congestion in Evanston."
Of I-GO's 1,000 members, about 15 are Evanston residents. Evanston resident Jeff Kelly Lowenstein uses I-GO because the service is included in his employment contract. In the past, Kelly Lowenstein has used the Chicago locations and he said he is excited about the convenience of an Evanston location.
"The I-GO service really helps my family out because my wife works in Chicago and has to drive to work occasionally and I need the car for my job," Kelly Lowenstein said. "It has allowed us to remain a one-car family."
Most I-GO customers are middle-class, Kosmacher said, and buying a second car -- or even a first -- is sometimes too expensive. Other goals of the company include reducing pollution, limiting the number of cars on the road and easing parking congestion.
" Evanston was the perfect suburb for us to come to because they have a dense population with a parking problem," Kosmacher said. "There are also a lot of environmentally aware people who see the benefits of sharing a low-emissions vehicle and limiting the number of cars in use."
All of the cars are low emissions vehicles, mostly Honda Civics and Civic Hybrids.
Feigon said she hopes I-GO can expand to serve the Northwestern community. Although customers need to be 21 to participate in the program, Feigon said seniors and graduate students can benefit from car sharing.
"If the program is successful in Evanston, we will try to locate a car on the Northwestern campus," Feigon said. "Seventy-five dollars isn't that much to pay to join considering the cost of operating a car can run into the thousands each year. Students can use the cars when they need to for doctors appointments, job interviews and grocery shopping without worrying about maintaining a car or finding parking."
Reach Whitney L. Becker at
w-becker-1@northwestern.edu.
