“Every time I’m invited to a [neighborhood civic association] meeting, ahead of us on the agenda is parking issues,” quips Larry Shaeffer, one of a team of volunteers working to bring “car sharing” to Philadelphia.

Shaeffer believes that if his idea takes off, neighborhood parking worries could become a thing of the past.

Shaeffer's non-profit PhillyCarShare would allow members to rent nearby parked cars by the hour. Reservations would be made by phone or Internet at least 15 minutes in advance. Electronic key card technology would then allow the member with the reservation to unlock the door of the car they'd reserved and start the engine. With many people using each car, neighborhood parking spaces would be freed up.

But more parking is just one of the benefits touted by PhillyCarShare organizers. There's also the financial aspect. According to car share organizers, members would pay just $25 to join plus a refundable $300 security deposit. Cars could then be rented for $3 an hour plus 45 cents per mile, including gas and insurance. Considering that the Automobile Association of America estimates that the average household spends $8,000 annually for each car, using a car share instead of buying a first or second automobile makes financial sense.

"Car sharing makes people voluntarily want to give up their car because they save money," says Clayton Lane, a PhillyCarShare volunteer.

Then there are the environmental benefits of people driving less. When people pay per ride, they're more likely to use a car only on trips that really require one, like going furniture shopping. Car sharing encourages members to replace unnecessary car trips with alternatives like walking or biking or low-pollution options like taking mass transit.

While car sharing may sound like a pipe dream to many Philadelphians, it has existed in Europe for more than a decade and is now up and running in many American cities. Zipcar, a Cambridge, Mass., based company operates in Boston, New York City and Washington. The non-profit City CarShare, which serves the San Francisco Bay area, oversees a fleet of 50 cars and has 1,500 members. A healthy rivalry has developed between the for-profits and the non-profits.

The founders of PhillyCarShare are using the non-profit San Francisco group as a model. After looking into the possibility of going into car sharing as a moneymaking venture, Shaeffer, a financial services consultant, decided the profit margins were too small to make it viable, though Zipcar says its Boston operation is profitable.

Since making the decision, Shaeffer has discovered other advantages of being a non-profit.

"We see ourselves as a tool for social change," says Shaeffer. "We don't think [for-profit companies] will get out to the [low-income] neighborhoods."

If PhillyCarShare is successful in reaching poor sections of the city, organizers think it could make a real difference in people's lives. It would allow members to get to job interviews in the suburbs or to a decent supermarket.

City CarShare in San Francisco currently serves some low-income areas though outreach manager Annie Bourdon admits, "We're not in the lowest of the low income neighborhoods." She says the group is currently applying for grants to expand into poorer sections of the Bay Area.

Both here and on the West Coast, non-profit organizers allege that the for-profit car share companies target high-income neighborhoods and inflate their rental prices to turn a profit.

City CarShare charges $3.50 per hour plus 37 cents per mile in San Francisco compared to Zipcar's Boston rates of $5 to $8 depending on location plus 40 cents per mile.

Nancy Rosenzweig, a Zipcar spokesperson, said, "I won't say that we don't serve [wealthy] neighborhoods," but she cites a program in the works with the Boston Community Development Corporation to provide reduced-rate cars to poor sections of the city. She says Zipcar's prices reflect the high cost of parking in Boston.

For-profit companies counter that managing a car share operation is complicated and technology-intensive, making necessary what Rosenzweig calls Zipcar's "superior proprietary knowledge." Bourdon at City CarShare says her group is currently updating its own technology and hopes "to share it with other non-profits. The route we're taking is not to patent the software."

With guidance from San Francisco, PhillyCarShare is filing the paperwork to incorporate as a non-profit organization and is in the process of applying for grants. City CarShare raised $1 million in grants before opening its doors. $600,000 came from the federal Department of Transportation.

So when will car sharing be coming to a neighborhood near you? Shaeffer says, "We're optimistically shooting for spring 2003."

But Zipcar may beat them to Philly. According to Rosenzweig, "I think it's quite likely we'll be there in the short-term. Philadelphia is a great market for this service. It has urban density and lots of people using mass transit to get to work."

Rosenzweig counters, "It hasn't been my experience as a businessperson that non-profits can necessarily do things more efficiently [than for-profit companies]."