Starting this week, Johns Hopkins will be offering its
students, faculty, staff and Greater Homewood neighbors a
new way to hit the road: Flexcar, a planet-friendly
car-sharing program designed with cost savings, convenience
and conservation in mind.
Cost savings because the $6 per hour rate includes
gas, insurance, 150 free miles and 24/7 emergency service,
compared to the $600 per month that AAA says the average
car costs. Convenient because members will have 24-hour
access to four Homewood campus-based cars for errands or
daytrips. Conservationist because it's intended to take
cars off the street — in Hopkins' case, the streets
of Charles Village, where parking is at a premium. In
addition, all four cars will be environmentally conscious,
low-emission hybrids. The cars — two blue Toyota
Priuses and two white Honda Civic Hybrid Sedans —
will have permanent reserved parking spaces in the Wyman
Park Drive Reserved Lot, Homewood Field Lot and Homewood
Museum Lot next to the tennis courts, and behind the Mattin
Center and Power Plant.
"Studies have shown that each shared car has the
effect of taking 15 personally owned vehicles off the
road," said Davis Bookhart, manager of Energy Management
and Environmental Stewardship in the Office of Facilities
Management, and chair of the new Johns Hopkins University
Sustainability Committee, a 16-member group convened by
President Brody to boost the university's environmental
profile. "Fewer cars means cleaner air and reduced demand
for parking. We envision a day when we have dozens of
shared cars on and around campus to provide clean mobility
for people who live and work on and near campus."
Flexcar is making its Baltimore debut at Johns Hopkins
and is the first program of its kind to reach the city. A
kick-off event featuring giveaways and food is scheduled
for noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21, on Levering
Plaza.
The application fee to join is $35, which, as a
special promotion, will be credited as $35 of free driving
on the applicant's Flexcar account. For the first three
months of the program, members will pay $6 per hour (or $60
a day) to use a car — that's a $3 discount off the
normal rate of $9 per hour, thanks to an introductory deal
brokered between the university and Flexcar, Bookhart said.
Members can sign up for the program at a Web page
designated for the Johns Hopkins Flexcar program,
www.flexcar.com/JHU.
All residents in the area served by the Greater
Homewood Community Corp. who sign up within the next year
are also eligible for the introductory promotion and
discounted rate, Bookhart said. Seventy thousand people
live in the area covered by GHCC, whose boundaries are from
North Avenue to the south, I-83 to the west, Greenmount
Avenue/York Road to the east and the city line to the
north.
Here's how Flexcar works: Using the Web site or a
touch-tone phone, members can reserve one of the cars for
any available date and time. Instead of inserting a
traditional car key in the lock, the member's credit
card-like "Flexcard" will unlock the vehicle, whose
ignition key is stored in the glove compartment. The
high-tech card ensures that only the person who has
reserved the vehicle can access it: The reservation
information beamed to the car must correspond to the data
encoded on the card; otherwise, the card won't unlock the
car at that time.
Each car will have its own parking spot, where it will
be picked up and dropped off at the end of the reserved
block of time. All the costs associated with having a car
are covered by the cost of membership. If the gas gauge
dips below a quarter tank during a trip, members are
required to fill the tank, but a fuel card is provided in
each car to cover the cost.
Flexcar is open to students 18 and older and already
has found a home on many college campuses across the
country, including the University of Maryland, College
Park; the universities of Florida and Washington; Portland
State, Emory and Georgia Tech universities; and UCLA.
Bookhart envisions the cars providing a great service
to faculty and staff who would like to walk or bike to work
but have off-site meetings or appointments during the day,
or to students who have only an occasional need for a
car.
In addition to giving Hopkins affiliates a new way to
get around town, Flexcar will be a boon to the residents of
neighborhoods near the Homewood campus, according to Salem
Reiner, the university's director of community affairs.
"JHU's decision to take the lead citywide on the use
of a car-share program delivers true value to the broad
community," he said. "Hopefully our commitment to the
concept — to reduce the number of cars in the streets
and jockeying for parking spaces, as well as congestion and
pollution — will stimulate other entities in
Baltimore to employ car share programs as well.
"It is also worthwhile to point out," he said, "that
the service's value is enhanced by the university's
decision to permit both Johns Hopkins and non-Hopkins
affiliates to participate in the program, and by our
offering incentives to encourage persons to use the
service."
Other Johns Hopkins divisions and campuses interested
in participating in a Flexcar program should contact Davis
Bookhart at 410-516-4456.