This article is part of a series of member profiles, revealing how car sharing improves our members' lives. Presenting our super-star member, Tom McNamara:
Car sharing for me is about three things: convenience, savings, and the environment. In that order. I'm not your typical tree-hugger type. My philosophy is that if something saves me money and is easy to do, then "going green" is a bonus. So when I first looked at car sharing with Vancouver's car coop five years ago, it had to fit my lifestyle. I work from home, and getting rid of the hunk of junk that was leaking oil onto my driveway was a hard thing to get my head around. There were lots of questions:
Would I be looked down at if I pulled up to a client's office in a car-share vehicle?
Would there be a car available when I needed it?
How far would I have to walk/bike to get to a car?
But, by far, the most important question was, how would I get to hockey?
As it turns out, all of my questions were addressed once I'd used the service for a few months. My concern about client perception was unfounded. When I would pull up to a site, more often than not, clients ask me questions about how much money I save. They are intrigued by my answers. Most business people like to save money. As for issues of availability and distance, when I joined the Victoria car share, these were alleviated by the easy online booking system and the rapidly growing fleet. When I recently moved from Fernwood to my new house near Hillside mall, for example, I was delighted to learn there was a car within two blocks of my place. Brilliant.
But what about hockey? You can't get a 5 ft, 50 lb stinky gear bag into a Smart car. For that you need something with a little more space. Thankfully, the VCSC had a pickup truck with a box top that fit all my stuff as well as my buddy's gear. So I don't always have to mooch rides off my hockey buddies. One week my buddy drives his truck, the next week I drive. Now even my most hard core hockey buddies who drive SUVs and pickups are asking me questions about the car-share. Why pay for a beater when you only use it once or twice a week? The insurance, gas and maintenance costs are just not worth it. Plus the car share forces you to get out on your bike more often, which means more exercise to keep you in shape for the big games.
I love the car-share. It may not be the answer for everyone, but it works awesome for me.
Tom McNamara
Pictures by Keane Gruending
