PhillyCarShare posts planet saving numbers!

My wife an I have been very satisfied PhillyCarShare members for over three years. It’s always been convenient and originally kept us from needing a second car, and recently has enabled us to eliminate car ownership from our lives completely. We’ve noticed some changes in our transportation habits since joining including taking public transportation more often, walking or biking more often and driving much less when we do use on of the shared cars.

We joke that our weekends have become much more efficient because we thoroughly plan out trips to Lowes/Home Depot, IKEA or other destinations that require us to use a car due to hauling requirements (it’s hard to carry lumber on my motorcycle and don’t even get me started on the flat packed ikea furniture). We have turned what used to be 6 hour, life-sucking excursions into very intense but rewarding 45-60 minute trips to the dreaded home stores.

Anyways, the point of this post is to post some rather impressive numbers that I just received in my inbox from PhillyCarShare that they have calculated from recent survey results to back up that many others are experiencing the same changes in lifestyle that we have. These are not actual numbers but based on their surveys. Still, even if they are off by 20% or so, they are still impressive numbers. Keep it up PhillyCarShare!

From my inbox:

Don’t tell Toyota, but…since joining PhillyCarShare….

• You own 12,810 fewer cars. Wow! That’s about 2,000 fewer cars in Rittenhouse Square alone! 1,100 fewer in University City…you get the idea. Seriously, we did a recount – used all our fingers and toes. This is real. According to you, without PhillyCarShare you would have owned 23,610 cars. Now you tell us you own just 10,800 cars. Amazing.

Fewer cars means less pollution from auto manufacturing. But it gets better. You haven’t just traded mile for mile, bopping around in PhillyCarShare’s fun Mini Coopers instead of driving your old car.

• You drive 42% fewer miles. Our math gurus tell us that means 26 million fewer miles since PhillyCarShare’s inception.

• You’ve logged 4 million miles in hybrids that pollute 90% less than conventional vehicles. Wow!

• You’ve saved 1.6 million gallons of gas from driving hybrids and driving less.

• Former car owners are choosing more earth-friendly travel options:40% walk more, 34% ride public transit more, 18% bike more, 13% take taxis more.

• You’re pumping an extra $90 million annually into Philadelphia’s economy – money that stays here rather than flowing into the global auto industry. We estimate that each former car owner saves about $4,000 per year. That really adds up.