City CarShare is a Bay Area, California nonprofit on a mission to provide convenient, affordable access to cars so that we can reduce individual car ownership—and improve the environment and quality of life in our cities. The idea is to make the service so convenient, so reliable, and so affordable that people will prefer using City CarShare cars to owning their own. In doing so, members will be helping to reduce traffic, parking problems, and dependence on oil—while promoting cleaner air, quieter streets, and more open space.
In 2001 a group of Bay Area transportation activists launched City CarShare with the help of several local nonprofits and the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. They've enjoyed strong community support from the beginning and have partnered successfully with local transportation agencies and other community groups. In 2006, the for-profit companies Zipcar and Flexcar entered the market, validating City CarShare's success.
City CarShare is a nonprofit because they feel that is the best way to provide great service to our members for the long-term, while staying focused on their mission. City CarShare remains dedicated to socially responsible car sharing and, true to their purpose and mission, continues to work with community, government and private companies to support the growth and expansion of car sharing.
The City of Berkeley is the home of a lot of "firsts" for accessibility. Perhaps the most notable first is the Center for Independent Living which started the Independent Living movement and which also led to the World Institute on Disability (in neighboring Oakland). U.C. Berkeley (not coincidentally) was the first college to have a Disabled Students' Program.
On April 22 the first wheelchair-accessible City CarShare van debuted. The new Access Program provides a wheelchair accessible minivan for City CarShare members to use. Members pay $7/hour + 40¢/mile during the day, or $3/hour + 40¢/mile from midnight to 8am equal to or greater than the same rate as for any of their minivans. You can be a non-driver member, in which case one of up to 5 registered designated drivers can be the one driving the accessible van, but we're not really interested in that.
