We are excited to be highlighting Colorado CarShare as one of our members at Denver Metro Clean Cities! Peter Krahenbuhl, the CEO and Executive Director of Colorado CarShare, and Sofia Corley, Member Services and Admin Assistant spoke with us about car sharing and how Colorado CarShare differs from other car share companies. Keep reading to learn about Colorado CarShare’s mission oriented approach, the sustainability of car sharing and their partnership with the City & County of Denver.
Company: Colorado CarShare
Location: Denver, CO
*Note: The following answers are summarized from an interview with Peter Krahenbuhl and Sofia Corley from Colorado CarShare
1) In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of car sharing? How does Colorado CarShare embody that?
There are three important aspects of car sharing that we focus on: environmental, social equity and economic. Colorado CarShare has a goal to get as many single occupancy vehicles off the road as possible, something that short term rentals can help accomplish. When people use a rental car, they have a greater tendency to complete all their errands on one car trip, rather than driving to do one thing, coming home, and later driving again to do something else. In this way, short term rentals can decrease the number of vehicles on the road, effectively reducing emissions, traffic and safety concerns that go along with a high number of cars. Our social equity and economic facets both deal with accessibility. We want to make sure that people from all walks of like not only have access to this type of transportation but can afford it as well. Car sharing is about providing an accessible and affordable mobility option for the community, and Colorado CarShare strives to accomplish this.
2) What sets Colorado CarShare apart from other car share companies?
Colorado CarShare, unlike other car sharing companies, is a non-profit organization. We have a mission-oriented approach that involves focusing on the environmental, social equity and economic aspects of car sharing. In addition, we think about partnerships differently. We work with housing developers, public transit, bike share operators and others to make affordable mobility accessible to everyone. These partnerships are a means of connecting to the community to develop strategies that are practical and beneficial. Colorado CarShare is a local, community focused organization that works with people to create a network of affordable transportation.
3) What projects is Colorado CarShare currently working on? How can these help achieve sustainability goals? How does car share help with equity goals?
Our focus right now is becoming the nation’s first non-profit electrified car share organization. There are four different facets to this electrification: building a roadmap, identifying speed bumps, looking for opportunities and building partnerships. We want to electrify Colorado CarShare slowly and organically rather than all at once. Every CarShare ride already takes approximately 9-15 cars off the road, but if all those cars were also electric, we would be able to eliminate the carbon footprint of an incredible number of vehicles. We currently have a partnership with the City & County of Denver and have six electric car share vehicles already. By transitioning to electric, we will hope to make a connection between sustainability and equity in transportation.
4) What is your involvement with Clean Cities like? What types of projects or events are you looking forward to partnering on in the future?
We haven’t had much involvement with Clean Cities so far. We are in touch and are aware of the work you do but there haven’t been any specific events or projects that we have worked on together. That being said, Colorado CarShare would welcome any partnership with DMCC to help highlight what we do and get people excited about car sharing and electric vehicles. Whether it is a workshop or a webinar to educate people, we would love to work with DMCC in the future.
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