CTA Gives Cars a Place in Public Transit
By Tara Deering
Tribune staff reporter
August 12, 2004
The Chicago Transit Authority is making it easier for people without a car to get their hands on wheels through a partnership with a car-sharing program that is gaining in popularity.
CTA board members voted Wednesday to enter into a yearlong pilot program with I-GO car sharing, a not-for-profit program with the Center for Neighborhood Technology that allows people to rent cars on a pay-as-you-go system. People pay a one-time membership fee of $75 and a usage fee of $6 an hour and 50 cents per mile.
This new agreement will allow putting cars in designated spaces adjacent to or near CTA bus and train stops. Now, the car-sharing program's 14 cars are located farther away--about a quarter of a mile from bus and train stops.
Program members make reservations by phone or online and unlock and start the vehicle using an issued smart card. The member then returns the car to the designated space after use and is billed later.
"We have always tried to locate our cars within close proximity of a CTA `L' stop," said Richard Kosmacher, I-GO sales and marketing manager. "We just thought the next natural step would be to locate the cars at the `L' stops and that was the impetus behind the agreement with CTA."
The five new I-GO locations will be at the Damen station on the O'Hare branch of the Blue Line, Western station on the Brown Line, Addison and Thorndale stations on the Red Line, and under the Brown and Red Line tracks on Lincoln at Wrightwood Avenues. At least three of the five locations are planned to have cars in place by the end of the year, Kosmacher said.
CTA officials said they were interested in partnering with the group because studies show car-sharing programs increase use of public transportation. Since I-GO came on the scene in Chicago more than two years ago, 30 percent of the car-sharing program's members increased their use of buses and trains and 44 percent either gave up or postponed plans to buy a car, said CTA board chairwoman Carole Brown.
Similar car-sharing programs have grown in popularity in other urban cities across the country, including in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Portland and Washington. The concept was imported from Europe, where it originated nearly 20 years ago, Kosmacher said.
I-Go's 14 cars are located in 10 neighborhoods throughout Chicago, including two in Hyde Park, five in or near the Loop, five on the North Side, one in Wicker Park and one in Logan Square. In two weeks, another car will be added to the North Side in Lincoln Square, and more cars are planned for the Loop area in the near future, Kosmacher said.
Which neighborhoods get the cars is determined by existing membership and surveys gauging potential new members.
In other news, the CTA board approved Wednesday the issuance of revenue bonds to fund $250 million in capital improvement projects. The issuance of tax-exempt capital grant receipts revenue bonds will bring the amount of secured funding for the CTA's five-year, $5 billion capital improvement program to $3 billion. CTA still must find funding for $2 billion worth of projects.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
