San Francisco Supervisor Wants City to Phase Out Its Car Fleet
San Francisco City Hall trekandshoot / Shutterstock.com
Another major city looks to carsharing for its long-term needs.
It’s time for San Francisco to reduce its municipal car-fleet footprint. That’s according to Supervisor Mark Farrell, who introduced a proposal on Tuesday that would mandate that the city phase out passenger cars and light-duty trucks from its car fleet and replace them with carsharing services like Zipcar, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
That would put San Francisco in line with Chicago and other major cities that have embraced carsharing for municipal needs and in the process have turned away from the traditional city-owned car-fleet model.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Anytime we have the opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint and save a significant amount of money, it's a win-win situation," Farrell said. "This was something we believe can be effectively implemented in the next 12 months and we can realize all the benefits in a very short time frame."
There are no projections yet on what the financial savings would be for San Francisco. Farrell's proposal would require a 25 percent reduction in the passenger and light-duty truck fleet by July 1, 2018. The city administrator would have to reduce the fleet every three years after until it is eliminated by July 2027.
The carsharing mandate wouldn’t impact public safety and public works vehicles or specialized vehicles owned by the city.
Earlier this summer, GovExec State & Local profiled Chicago’s experience with Zipcar’s Flex Fleet, which manages the city’s employee car-sharing program, which is branded locally as FastFleet:
Chicago has seen its overall fleet decrease in size from 1,000 cars before the program’s implementation to about 650 vehicles now. The program also has reduced the need to pay for parking downtown, which previously cost the city roughly $200 per month per vehicle, [Chicago fleet services manager] Kevin] Campbell said.
The Zipcar/Flex Fleet program is 25 cents per mile cheaper for the city compared to the city-managed fleet, he said.
When Chicago’s leased vehicles—which are managed separately from the Zipcar arrangement—are factored in, the reduction of the motor pool through car sharing has yielded roughly $7 million in savings since the program started in January 2011.
“Our total expenditure on Zipcar has been $500,000,” Campbell said. “It's been an incredible return on investment."
WATCH: How Chicago's municipal carsharing program works
(Photo of San Francisco City Hall by trekandshoot / Shutterstock.com)