The Utah Transit Authority, University of Utah and Salt Lake City are collaborating to recruit a company that could set you free.
By offering dedicated parking spaces downtown, at the U. and at UTA transit hubs, officials hope to persuade a car-share company to hang its shingle in the Salt Lake Valley. It's a wise move that would pay dividends for us all, and car-share participants in particular.
The service would benefit families who want to get rid of that second or third car, and people who prefer to walk, ride a bike and/or use mass transit, but require a car for occasional trips and errands. For a small annual fee and reasonable hourly and daily rental rates, you could have a car when you need it, and only when you need it. You simply place your order online and take the bus and/or train to the appropriate lot to pick up your ride.
Similar programs are all the rage in cities large and small across the country. While they're a natural in dense major metropolitan areas, they have also been proven to work in cities the size of Salt Lake City, including Albuquerque, N.M.
The UTA is carrying the ball, seeking proposals from car-rental companies with the goal of putting a program in place in about six months. But each party stands to gain something.
UTA could get a boost in ridership. The university and the city could see parking problems eased if people give up their cars. And there would be less congestion on highways and city streets.
Car-share program participants, judging by testimonials from cities where the program has caught on, would be the biggest beneficiaries. They stand to save hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of dollars each year.
But we all stand to gain if drivers embrace the concept. Here's the winning equation: Car-share program multiplied by thousands of participants equals cleaner air, safer streets, a greenhouse-gas reduction, a healthier mass transit system and another step toward energy independence.
We live in an auto-dependent world built on cheap oil and asphalt, a world where we're stuck in traffic, breathing fumes, shackled to our cars. A car-share program can help us break the chains.
