Car Sharing Program Fueled By Grant
I-Go To Expand Fleet For Membership
NBC5
May 3, 2005
CHICAGO — For those who cannot afford the gasoline, insurance, parking and maintenance for automobile ownership but still need a vehicle for the occasional trip to the grocery or business meeting, a membership-based sharing program will soon expand its fleet, officials said Tuesday.
Launched as a pilot program in 2002 with the support of the City of Chicago and the U.S. Department of Transportation, the I-GO program offers local residents the opportunity to rent a Honda Element or hybrid-engine Honda Civic on an hourly basis, I-GO Chief Executive Officer Sharon Feigon said at a news conference in the West Loop.
For a $75 membership fee, local residents could rent one of 27 vehicles based at 15 locations across the city, including spots downtown, in the South Loop, Printers Row, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Wicker Park, Logan Square and Rogers Park, according to Feigon.
Now, thanks to a $419,024 federal grant, the I-GO fleet will expand to 50 vehicles by the end of the year and to more than 100 vehicles by the end of 2006, according to Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Miguel d'Escoto.
New locations will also be added in Evanston, Oak Park, Pilsen, the South Shore, the Near North Side, the South Loop and the West Loop, according to Feigon.
Under the program, members can make reservations for an available vehicle as long as several months in advance or as soon as a few minutes before they need the car, according to Feigon.
Under the standard plan, users pay $6 an hour and 50 cents per mile for rentals from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; rentals from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. are charged only 50 cents per mile, according to Feigon. I-GO also offers monthly plans which members can use to set aside vehicles for 10, 15, or 25 hours a month.
Rather than having to visit an office to pick up a set of keys, members are issued a magnetic access card that is used to unlock their vehicle, according to I-Go sales and marketing manager Richard Kosmacher. The keys are left in the vehicle's glove box, where there is also a keypad for members to enter a personal identification number, which is used to track mileage and the hours the car is used.
Though the keys are left inside the vehicle, it will not start without a member's access card or PIN, Kosmacher said. The company also provides members with a toll-free customer service line that they can call 24 hours a day in case they lock their access card in the car.
I-GO officials pay for all gasoline, insurance, parking and maintenance, according to Feigon and Kosmacher. Under the membership agreement, if a vehicle's tank dips below one quarter-full, they can use an I-GO gasoline card left in the vehicle to pay for refueling, according to Kosmacher.
One of the new locations for the program is the ABN-AMRO Plaza, 540 W. Madison St., according to Feigon. LaSalle Bank, a subsidiary of ABN-AMRO, provided I-GO with a $200,000 loan last year for operating expenses and a $30,000 grant to help expand the program, according to Mary Laraia, head of LaSalle Bank's Civic and Community Development Group.
The bank also donated a parking space at the ABN-AMRO building, where the bank's technology center is located, according to Laraia.
Currently, I-GO has about 1,000 members, and city officials hope the expansion of the program will also increase membership to about 3,000 people, according to d'Escoto.
"I-GO is very important to the vibrant transportation mix we have in the City of Chicago," d'Escoto said. "Not everybody has to have a car. So when you need a car for a couple hours, I-GO is the place to go."
The commissioner noted that I-GO could help reduce traffic and parking congestion in the city by convincing residents who only need a car occasionally to use the I-GO program, rather than buying a car they rarely need.
Feigon said studies have shown that each shared vehicle in the program can replace up to 10 privately owned vehicles that program members might otherwise buy only for occasional use.
Feigon and d'Escoto said the I-GO program is not intended for weekend trips or long-distance driving, and said program officials recommend people who need cars for those uses rent from a standard car rental service.
"This program is not meant to replace (long-term) car rentals," d'Escoto said. "This is to really offer an alternative to those who choose not to have a car or choose other ways to get around. So it's really not to replace (long-term) renting. This is to make it easier for people to get around who need a car for a couple hours."
The average member uses a car for three to four hours at a time, according to Feigon.
Members of I-GO's fleet department regularly clean and inspect each car and refuel them as needed, according to Kosmacher.
Members may use their own child-safety seats or pet carriers in the vehicles, though the program does not offer those items itself, according to Feigon. Many members use the cars to go to the grocery and need all the available trunk space for their groceries, according to Feigon.
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