This week marked another level of success of Halifax’s only carsharing company, CarShareHFX. With a new architecture firm located in the downtown area joining on as a member, they have become leaders in the ‘Greener Halifax’ movement.

This service should almost sell itself. With the opportunity to have a car within walking distance or even directly on site and that doesn’t cost the owner a cent for gas, why isn’t even firm downtown jumping on the bandwagon?

This link leads you to a video from July 29th down at our Cable Wharf location. Ashley King, from Haligonia.ca, has taken his time to do a quick interview with Pam Cooley on the success and value of becoming a workplace member of CarShareHFX. 

Haligonia - CarShareHFX

CarShareHFX gives companies the ability to track all their employee’s time and distance, give each of them a specific driver number and cut down on overall expenses of owning a company car. After each month the company receives a statement breaking down exactly who drove how much and for how long. This invoice can work as a tool for forecasting travel spending in coming years and be used in their records.

What do you think of the workplace memberships? Why or why don’t you believe it is the best form of travel for the companies in the downtown area?

 “ Watch out for electricity kids!”, this famous quote from the once famous cartoon Louie the Lightning Bug has never been truer. With costs of almost everything going up… the sales and use of plug-in or electric cars has also jumped. Just this month Zip Car, North America’s largest carsharing company, hit the market hard by introducing their first plug-in “pods” in Canada. They were initially tested in the San Francisco market were Zip Car reported, “75 percent of the miles logged on those vehicles have been battery-powered. With 85 percent of customers telling the company that they would be interested in driving plug-ins”.  

http://www.hybridcars.com/news/car-share-companies-plug-25909.html

What do you think of the electric cars? Although they have lower usage costs, they’re price tag is quite high at an average of $25,000 and have a max speed of ~ 60 mph. Would you buy an electric car? Or possibly use one through a carshare company?

Also check out this interesting article from the Vancouver Sun from last month. The city of Vancouver is putting the squeeze on commuters heading to the downtown sector in Vancouver hoping to initiate some more walking, cycling and use of transit.

With Halifax’s big downtown parking problem is this something you think the city council should think about?

http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Vancouver+puts+squeeze+downtown+parking/1675736/story.html

Metro Transit price increases became effective on Canada Day. This is the first price hike in the transit fares since January 2005. The original cost of $2 for an adult is now up a quart to $2.25 a ride. Seniors and Kids will ride for a dime more, at $1.50 a lift. The metropasses have also been affected by the increase; adults went from $60 to $70, seniors and kids from $42 to $52 and students will see the same ten dollar increases as their passes are now up from $54 to $64. 

Even with all of these price increases you will still have to put up with the continuous and almost unavoidable Halifax construction. The HRM is putting in new water lines across the city and this has slowed down much of the traffic routes, even closing some streets down entirely. Also, the MacDonald bridge will be closed down on weekends for construction. CBC announced this story in the middle of May.

This link has a detailed schedule of when and where the construction is going to be taking place this summer. Perhaps it will help you plan routes better and help with your time management. 

http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/index.cfm?sid=261330&sc=608

How do you feel about the construction in the HRM? How often are you sitting on the bus about to pull your hair out because your late for work? 

Maybe we could help!

The majority of citizens, especially in Halifax, have realized the costs and headaches that accompany car ownership. CarShareHFX is like a loop-hole that allows its users to still say they own a car, but don’t have to put up with all the stress and expenses.

“For most of us, cars aren’t much of a status marker any more. They’re more like an appliance, like a fridge or a stove. You can get a Sub-Zero one or a six-burner one, but their basic function is the same as the cheaper models. I no longer expect my car to make my heart beat fast. I merely expect it to get decent mileage and to start every single time I turn the key. It’s really just a very big, very costly appliance with a cup-holder.”

          (Margaret Wente- Globe and Mail)

With GM and other large automakers showing deficits and needing financial help. Don’t you need a little help too? Not only is the price of gas rising but the city’s streets are also taking its toll on your car. Is owning a car really worth all the hassle?

The HRM wants to have further feedback from us about how we feel about transit options and what we want in this city. They even have a place where you can support carsharing on the first page! Where it says CarShareHFX cars you can put the number “9″ as this is how many cars you have available to you. Also, where it says suggestions, may we suggest you put “partner with carsharehfx for package discount”.

Visit the survey here: www.hrmlistens.com download eli movie

Let them know carsharing is part of the mobility puzzle to decrease the ownership and use of personal use vehicles. If we support carsharing, we grow and have more access to cars and transit gets better, people will feel confident they can give up their cars and use transit and carshare, bikes and their feet to get around!

As a business or a workplace you are probably not in the fleet or car business. But employees have to get around and you are responsible for that. You probably use taxis or rentals or…the dreaded expense sheet for personal use vehicles.

Do you really know the transportation costs of your business/workplace? Do you want accurate records? Do you want your employees to be completely covered by insurance and want to be a “greener” company?

Running a business or an organization has enough challenges…you shouldn’t have to worry about running your own company cars or fleets or depend on your staff for accurate records. Before now, Haligonians didn’t have a choice, now they do. 

Check out “The Company Car” option from CarShareHFX…it just might be the solution to these times when you want to save money and have accurate records.

The vision for the city is businesses and organizations creating more options for their employees.

buspar daybreakers hawke

Pam had a nice, close-up interview with Ashley King, content editor of Haligonia.ca , a local online broadcast website with some great content of things in and around Halifax. Ashley dropped by our launch at City Centre Atlantic and then interviewed Pam on Thursday, December 4th. Watch the video below!

Been thinking about joining?  Now is a great time! Sign up  to both CarShareHFX and The Hub daybreakers divx we’ll give you $100 off your membership fee at each organization.

CarShareHFX and The Hub have forged an Earth Day Alliance to make it easier for more people in Halifax to Share Resources.  Why rent your own office or buy your own car, when you could get what you need for less money and hassle by sharing?  We are Social Enterprises based on using resources more creatively and efficiently.  That’s good news when we have a tough economy and a stressed planet.

Come and see us and some of our members on Earth Day at Victoria Park. We will be there from 10 am until 6 pm. We will also be at NSCC - LEEDs campus and Pam will be speaking to Provincial Government Employees at the Maritime Centre over the noon hour to talk about CarShareHFX.

Come and see us if you are around Victoria Park!

Big car or little car? These pictures were taken recently by CarShareHFX partner Peter Zimmer in the south end of Halifax. We see the big Hummer confronting the Toyota Matrix and one wonders? Where is the future of cars? Do we need the big behemoth? Even if gas prices have fallen since 2008, the cost of operating a car is very high, about $16,000 a year for the average Canadian (gas, repairs, parking, maintenance, insurance etc.)

At some point, I’m sure many more of us will ask “do I need such a large vehicle?” which couples with “what kind of carbon footprint am I leaving for my children?” and perhaps more than that, its just the costs and the way we use transportation.

What do you think? Will we always drive large vehicles? Will smaller cars become the norm? What about hybrid cars? Will they become popular?

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