Tuesdays at APA — January 2008

The I-Go Car Sharing Program

January 8, 2008

Car sharing programs, growing in popularity across the U.S., are becoming an important tool to reduce car use and congestion in urban areas. I-GO Car Sharing, a Chicago-based nonprofit with more than 6,000 members, provides mobility when needed without car ownership expenses.

More than half of I-GO members either sold or put off buying a car when they joined. Where car sharing is available, demand for parking goes down, and land previously devoted to parking can be put to other uses. Less parking reduces the costs of building and owning housing and commercial developments, and fewer cars reduces CO₂ emissions and other pollutants.

Sharon Feigon of I-GO Car Sharing provided background on how car sharing works, talked about its many benefits, and discussed car sharing innovations that link it more closely with a variety of transportation alternatives.

PowerPoint presentation (ppt)

PDF of PowerPoint presentation (pdf)

About the Speaker

Sharon Feigon is the CEO of I-GO Car Sharing, an affiliate organization of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). Prior to that she was CNT's Manager of Research and Development, where she specialized in innovative market-based solutions to the problems of urban sprawl, and she coordinated CNT's transit oriented development program.

Feigon is the author of The New Transit Town (Island Press, 2003). She has an MBA from DePaul University and a B.A. in economics from Antioch College.