Bike sharing programs are great, but pedaling up San Francisco‘s steep hills can be a pain. And car sharing is cool, but finding a parking space in the city can be tough. Enter Scoot Networks, an electric scooter-sharing service that will let you power up those hills and park virtually anywhere without using a drop of gas. The service, which is modeled after car-sharing businesses, launched today in San Francisco with a fleet of 60 vehicles. To use the scooters, users simply plug a smartphone into the dashboard, and a Scoot app on the phone activates the bike.

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Post tags: bike sharing, Car Sharing, electric scooters, green transportation, Michael Keating, plug-in scooter, San Francisco, Scoot, Scoot Networks, scooter-sharing service, smartphones

BMW has chosen the city of San Francisco to launch its new DriveNow car sharing program, alongside their ParkNow mobile parking solution. San Francisco is at the forefront of cities working to develop and implement innovative approaches to urban challenges, including traffic congestion and the need for smarter, greener parking systems. The DriveNow car-sharing program gives drivers access to BMW’s ActiveE electric car, while the ParkNow mobile app makes it easier for drivers to find parking spots in the city.

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Post tags: BMW, BMW ActiveE, BMW DriveNow, BMW electric car, BMW ParkNow, Car Sharing, electric car, green car, green transportation, parking lot of the future, San Francisco, San Francisco Parking

Zipcar, the world’s leading car sharing network, has announced that Honda will be Zipcar’s preferred automaker with a focus on hybrid and electric vehicles. The new partnership will give Zipcar members more access to Honda’s low-emission, fuel efficient vehicles like the Honda Insight hybrid, Fit electric vehicle and the upcoming Accord plug-in hybrid.

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Post tags: Car Sharing, carshare, electric vehicles, ev, EVs, green transportation, Honda, Honda Accord, honda civic, Honda CR-V, honda fit, honda zipcar, hybrid car, hybrid vehicles, zip car, Zipcar

Airbnb, the online service that allows homeowners to rent out their house, condo, or even couch to people passing through town, is now considering adding a car sharing service to make it easier for renters to get around their destination. The site recently sent out surveys to its members, asking if they would consider renting their car out in addition to their home or on its own.

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Post tags: Airbnb, Airbnb car sharing, alternative transportation, Car Sharing, car sharing service, Getaround, green transportation

LAST DAY to Win a One Year Zipcar Membership Worth $85!

Carless and curious about this car-sharing thing? If you haven’t tried car-share yet, autumn is a great time to get started with a free year’s subscription to Zipcar. Think of all of those fall weekend trips you can take!

Transportation emissions account for 27 percent of the United States’ total greenhouse gas emissions – and it takes a tremendous amount of energy and materials to construct a car in the first place. However, the unfortunate fact of life is that many of us rely upon cars to transport goods and take us where we need to go on a regular basis. Fortunately, car sharing services like Zipcar offer a way to quickly and easily rent cars where and when you need them without the expense and environmental footprint of purchasing a vehicle – and without having to schlep to an airport or try to track down a car rental company. Zipcar even offers hybrid and electric vehicles in many locations. To help cut down on the number of cars on the road we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve teamed up with Ford and Zipcar to offer Inhabitat readers the opportunity to win a one year Zipcar membership worth $85! It’s easy to enter – all you have to do is sign up for our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and leave a comment below sharing your best green transportation tip to lower the carbon footprint of your commute!

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Post tags: car share contest, Car Sharing, car sharing service, free car share, free zipcar membership, free zipcar subscription, green transportation, sustainable transportation, win a zipcar subscription, Zipcar, zipcar contest

When we told you recently that the Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle would only be available to car sharing programs and fleets next year, we were happily misinformed. Apparently the phrase “very strategic applications” from Toyota’s National Business Planning Manager of Advanced Vehicle Marketing Geri Yoza was only an ambiguous answer to the question of where and when the car would be available, not a veiled hint that the car would be unavailable to the public. We say hooray! It did seem like a mistake to make a car with such popular appeal only available to car sharing programs.

Read the rest of Good News: Toyota’s RAV4 Actually WILL Be Sold To The Public

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Post tags: alternative transportation, Car Sharing, electric vehicle, ev, green automotive design, green transportation, Toyota RAV4 EV

You say you want a Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle when they come out next year? Too bad. Toyota won’t be selling them to the general public, so in order to get one you’ll have to organize a neighborhood car sharing program. According to Pike Research, Toyota’s National Business Planning Manager of Advanced Vehicle Marketing Geri Yoza has announced the company will focus on “very strategic applications”–meaning fleets and car-sharing programs–for the RAV4 EV.

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Post tags: alternative transportation, Car Sharing, electric vehicle, ev, green automotive design, green transportation, Toyota RAV4 EV

Car2Go, a subsidiary of Daimler, has just announced the launch of North America’s first all-electric car sharing program, which will have 300 Smart ForTwo electric vehicles by the end of this year. In addition to being the greenest car sharing program in the U.S., the San Diego program will allow drivers to be spontaneous. Unlike ZipCar, which requires drivers to return a vehicle to the pickup location, the Car2Go program will allow them to quickly grab ForTwos from designated spots around San Diego, in the hopes of making car sharing more practical. “The launch of an all electric vehicle fleet marks a new era in carsharing in North America,” said Nicholas Cole, President and CEO of Car2Go N. A. “San Diego is a forward-thinking city determined to meet the future transportation demands of its residents. Our goal is to complement the existing transportation infrastructure by providing an emission-free carsharing service for short and spontaneous one-way trips.”

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Post tags: alternative transportation, Car Sharing, Car2Go, daimler, electric car, electric car share program, electric vehicle, green automotive design, green transportation, San Diego car sharing, Smart ForTwo

Many cities around the world have started bike-sharing programs, but VW is set to launch a car-sharing system in Hanover, Germany that will see residents drive their latest model, the Golf BlueMotion. The program, named “Quicar – Share a Volkswagen”, will allow the citizens of Hanover to share the Blue Motion, which is powered by a 1.6-liter TDI diesel engine, and boasts an average fuel consumption of 3.8 liters per 100 kilometers – that’s 62 miles per gallon.

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Post tags: Car Sharing, car sharing program, car sharing service, diesel, germany, golf, golf bluemotion, quicar, Transportation Alternatives, volkswagen, vw, vw car sharing

Here comes the next generation of car sharing: neighbor-to-neighbor, or car sharing 2.0! RelayRides is a young startup that connects people who want to loan out their car to people that want to rent local cars on demand. The car owner sets the price and makes money off the deal and the car borrower pays for driving per hour. It’s a much more efficient way to use transportation resources. Check out our interview in this week’s episode of GigaOM TV’s Green Overdrive show:

GREEN OVERDRIVE >

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Post tags: alternative transportation, Car Sharing, Gigaom tv, green design, green overdrive show, green transportation, relayrides test drive, shared car service, sustainable design

French businessman and billionaire Vincent Bolloré just announced that he will invest $131 million in Autolib, the Parisian electric vehicle car share program that will be launched in the fall of 2011. The car share program will be modeled after the successful Parisian bike share program — called Velib — and Bolloré’s investment will go toward purchasing the bubble-shaped Bluecars that Autolib will rent by the half hour at 1,000 stations in and around Paris.

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Post tags: Autolib, autolib car share program, Car Sharing, electric vehicle investments, ev, ev investments, france, green design, green technology investment, green transportation, Paris, phev, sustainable design, velib, Vincent Bollore

Citywide bike sharing systems are easy enough to organize, but how about citywide electric vehicle sharing programs? Paris is hoping to capitalize on the success of its bike-sharing system (Velib) with an EV sharing scheme dubbed Autolib — and it might be ready as soon as September of next year!

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Post tags: Autolib, Car Sharing, ev, france, green design, Paris, phev, velib

While public transportation is a great green urban option, the “last mile” problem is a real shortcoming- referring to the conundrum of the extra distance from your bus or train stop to your doorstep (while this may seem trivial to some, Midwestern commuters can attest to the annoyance of this problem). The folks at MIT think that they may have a solution to that problem: The City Car, a stackable electric two-passenger city vehicle, would combine the best features of mass transit, car-sharing, and personal vehicles in a high-density, high-convenience system.


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Post tags: batteries, battery, Car Sharing, city car, electric, Folding City Car, Green Public Transportation, ion, last mile, lithium, MIT, MIT Stackable City Car, public transport, transportation tuesday