Sun-Times
By Rakasha Varma, Staff Reporter
Downtown residents and workers without cars now have a new, environmentally friendly way to get their weekly grocery shopping and other errands done.
The nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology’s I-GO car-sharing program has opened its first downtown location, offering gas-electric hybrid cars for people who want a car for short spurts but don’t want to keep it.
City transportation officials who helped give the program a start in 2002 by lining up grant money joined I-GO officials in Millennium Park on Saturday to hail the expansion. The new park’s underground garage is the latest pickup spot for the shared cars.
“Members can use our cars without the daily hassles of gas and insurance,” said Sharon Feigon, I-GO chief executive officer.
With downtown, I-GO is now in 10 neighborhoods: Edgewater, Hyde Park, Lake View, Logan Square, Near North/Gold Coast, Printers Row, South Loop, Streeterville/River East and Wicker Park.
Members pay a one-time fee of $75 and sign up for time slots to use the cars. They are then billed $6 an hour and 50 cents a mile. The program, which has more than 600 members, pays for insurance, gas and maintenance.
Users on average spend less than a third of the $6,000 a year that the average Chicago car owner spends, according to the American Automobile Association.
“I’m saving a ton of money,” agreed Ronald Durr, 49, an I-GO user from the Near North Side. “It’s very clean and much more accessible than I thought.”
After users register on the Internet or phone with a driver’s license and credit card, they are given a security code and “smart-card” that are used to start the car and track mileage.
The program is designed to have users take the cars for a few hours, Feigon said, adding that renting is a better option for those looking to use a car for multiple days.
After using I-GO for at least six months, 45 percent of users have sold their cars, Feigon said. The program offers users a total of 14 cars, including two new Honda Civic hybrids at the downtown site.
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