I was thinking about car shares ... we now have two providers operating in Philly

It is argued by many that one of the greatest perpetrators of American wastefulness is our desire for our development to sprawl, like a painting with no respect for the edges. Our practice of developing in such a way that almost any new development could occur in any part of our nation has some really bad elements (that sometimes feel good). One of the worst of these is the dependence on the automobile.

And of course there are many times when it just feels so good to have your car nearby. But of course, we all know it isn't ... particularly when it results in the misuse of resources that is an SOV (single occupancy vehicle). Most Americans drive to work (for some part of their commute) and most of these drivers never carpool (not to say they haven't considered it ... they have and it just isn't "practical" given our infatuation with individual liberties.

These "liberties" that keep us from carpooling are ones like ... wanting to be able to go where we please and when we please ... you know, to things like soccer practice, forgotten items at the grocery store, and even road trips across our giant country.

Simple fact ... we don't have to live this way. Germany stands as a perfect example of why we don't have to live this way ... of course we have different values and a different history. Still, if we love the pastoral as much as we profess ... then we can modify our values ... and sacrifice some "liberty" for the greater good.

Imagine a Philadelphia and an America that was able to break our habit of hyper-convenience. You would likely see the creation of better and safer bike lanes, more timely and efficient rail and bus systems ... and maybe even some cars here and there being shared, which brings me to the current focus of this comment ... car sharing.

Car sharing ... Philadelphia is now home to TWO car share services. One for profit and one non-profit focused on the betterment of our great city.

As a University student who came to the city from the suburbs I had a "special" relationship with the automobile. But when I got here, I realized I didn't really need my car ... sure there were times it would be nice to have it, but these were far outweighed by the idiosyncrasies of operating a car in a city ... you know, parking tickets, vandalism, etc.

So, back when the first car share came to Philly, aptly named Philly Car share ... I looked into the whole car share bit ... and I was fairly impressed with the economies of Philly Car share and of car sharing in general.

Now, Philadelphia is being targeted by the for-profit Zipcar ... and I'm really not too convinced about Zipcar. See, I thought they would give you access in all the cities they operate ... but they don't, they ask you to focus on one city (or at least their website did) and I find that odd for the following reason:

If I live in a city, and I want to have access to a car in another city that I travel to for work or leisure ... then having a car share that operates in all those cities would be great. Hell, it'd almost be like I was a citizen of all those cities.

And, since the NE corridor has a fairly decent rail system (albeit relatively overpriced for its service ... thank you stupid US government ... please fix AMTRAK mister President) I would be able to move along the eastern seaboard with minimal impact on the environment. Gosh ... that'd just be nice.

So, my final take ... car share programs are good. Now that they are becoming a greater segment of the market it is time that our city began to invest in better pathways for operating a bicycle and in better managed bus and lite-rail systems.

Too often, our planners have sacrificed the needs of those living in our cities for the needs of those tourists and automobile commuters that come to our city every day. I know we aren't New York ... but it'd be nice to see a more reasoned policy regarding the role of the automobile in Philadelphia.