From PortlandAfoot

The history of personal carsharing, as with carsharing in general, draws on roots in the Northwest, including major contributions from the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability think tank that focuses its research and advocacy on Portland, Seattle and Vancouver BC. After California passed the country's first personal carsharing bill, Sightline played key roles in setting the legal groundwork for the service, first in Oregon and later in Washington.

[edit] Championed by Sightline

Alan Durning. Photo courtesy Durning.

Sightline founder Alan Durning first wrote about the concept in a 2006 blog post: "Each time I walk to a Flexcar in my neighborhood, I pass scores of parked private cars. I sometimes fantasize about strolling up to one of them, swiping my Flexcard over the dash, and driving away."

In a 2011 interview, Durning said he'd heard about the concept from former Flexcar CEO Neil Peterson, who was discussing an experiment by German carsharing company Choice.

[edit] California law inspires Oregon activists

Sunil Paul. Photo courtesy Paul.

In 2003 the concept of personal carsharing occurred to Sunil Paul, an anti-spam software entrepreneur then sitting on the board of City Carshare. He founded Spride, a personal carsharing startup, in late 2009.

"It's not a new idea," Paul wrote in a 2011 email to Portland Afoot. "What is new is the ability to do it. Many people have thought of the idea, but each time they were stopped by the insurance hurdles."

Paul therefore pushed for the California legislature's passage of AB1871, which made personal carsharing viable by guaranteeing that a car owner isn't liable for damage caused by someone borrowing the car using a commercial carsharing service.

After California's passage of this law in 2010, the Sightline Institute's Durning "started sending notes to allies in Washington and Oregon about the possibility of replicating California's bill," Durning said. One of Sightline's fans was Jessica Roberts of Alta Planning and Design, who mentioned the concept to her neighbor Christy Splitt, the legislative aide to state Rep. Ben Cannon.

Roberts called it a "totally random idea I threw at her," but Splitt (who was, like Roberts, car-free) embraced the concept, selling it to Cannon and ushering it through both the state House and Senate.

"Zipcar's great, but the closest Zipcar to my house is actually in front of the grocery store," Splitt said in a September 2011 interview. "The idea of being able to have a network of neighbors that all participated in a program, and then you could all worry about each other's cars -- it all really appeals to me personally."

[edit] Oregon law passed to support personal carsharing

Christy Splitt. Photo courtesy Splitt.

See full article: House Bill 3149

House Bill 3149, passed during Oregon's 2011 legislative session, made Oregon the second state to formally support personal carsharing. It assigned liability for crashes or other incidents entirely to the driver of the car and forbade an insurance company from denying coverage to a car owner who is offering the vehicle under a personal carsharing program.

The bill's first hearing was March 4 at the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development, where it received positive testimony from Dave Brook, Jessica Roberts and John Charles. It was approved by both houses and signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber in June.

Splitt credited the bill's success in part to early contact with the insurance industry's lobbyist.

"I think in the end we passed a bill that was more friendly to the carsharing companies" than the insurance industry had wanted, Splitt said. "But because we had such an intensive stakeholder process ... they kept neutral."

Also testifying in support of the bill was John Atcheson, the Seattle-based vice president of Getaround. Acheson, who sat on the board of the Sightline Institute, had also been introduced to the concept of personal carsharing by Durning and subsequently inquired about the job at Getaround.

The bill's passage led to news stories about personal carsharing around the country and was cited by Getaround executives in their successful 2011 TechCrunch Disrupt presentation as proof of the concept's momentum.

[edit] Oregon law inspires Washington activists

Carrie Dolwick. Photo courtesy Transportation Choices Coalition.

After the passage of Oregon's bill, the Sightline Institute's Durning again contacted allies in Washington to urge passage of a similar bill in the state.

Carrie Dolwick of the Seattle-based Transportation Choices Coalition said in September 2011 that a bill based on Oregon's had been drafted. She said state Rep. Zack Hudgins, who represents Seattle's inner south suburbs, was shepherding the bill and called Sightline a "catalyst" for the effort.

Dolwick predicted the bill will be introduced in Washington's 2012 legislative session.

[edit] Expansion into Portland

John Atcheson. Photo courtesy Getaround.

Getaround, the first personal carsharing company with widespread membership, launched a major marketing effort in Portland in February 2012, the first city they targeted outside their home in San Francisco. (The launch was funded in part by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration to study whether personal carsharing reduces auto use.) To list your car or rent one, visit Getaround's web signup; to see if there's one near you, visit Getaround's car search page.

Carsharing expert Dave Brook predicted in September 2011 that personal carsharing companies still need to tweak their keyless entry technologies and business models before major expansion.

"As much as they'd like to be sort of the eBay of cars, you do have to have some presence on the ground when you go into a new market," said Brook, a carsharing consultant. "You can't just sort of start a Google ad campaign and let the world take care of itself."