San Francisco (October 11, 2005) - City CarShare, the Bay Area's leading car-sharing service, announced that as of today, its members have saved over 1,000,000 gallons of gasoline—and 20,000,000 pounds of CO2—since the organization was founded in 2001 as a community-based nonprofit.

A 2003 UC Berkeley showed that each City CarShare member saves ¼ gallon of gas each day after joining the service. Using that figure, City CarShare calculates that its members collectively save over 1000 gallons of gas each day, for a total of 1,008,732 gallons since the organization was founded.

By participating in the Bay Area's largest car-sharing organization, over 4,000 City CarShare members are helping to conserve gasoline and reduce oil-dependence. According to a City CarShare member survey conducted last month, over 74% of the respondents cited "being environmentally responsible" as an important factor in deciding to join the organization.

While motorists join City CarShare for many reasons, including convenience and wanting to choose a more environmentally friendly way to drive, members are increasingly citing gas prices as a reason for using City CarShare. For example, San Francisco realtor Karen Watkins sold her car and switched to using City CarShare vehicles full-time in April due to rising gas prices and other costs of owning a car. "At first, I didn't want to use my old beat up car for business so I signed up to get access to shiny, clean cars," said Watkins. "Then the price of gas went up and my car broke down. I realized how much money I was sinking into cars and decided to go carless, except for City CarShare."

The City CarShare member survey also indicated that the number of members citing the rising cost of gas as an important factor in joining is up 52% during the last three months. The same survey indicated that 40% of respondents estimate their household saves $20 or more per month on gas each month, because of City CarShare's low-cost access to cars.

Since May 2005, more than 1,150 motorists have applied for City CarShare, and membership continues to surge. What began as a good price deal for City CarShare members is becoming an even better deal as the price of gas has continued to rise. This is especially true as City CarShare's prices include gas, insurance, parking, cleaning and maintenance. As gas prices keep going up, City CarShare prices have remained at the same affordable rate of $4/hour and 44cents/mile.

A September 25 article in the New York Times reported that traffic on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system was up almost four percent during the first two weeks of September, compared with a year ago. These numbers are likely to increase in 2006 as Caltrans continues its work to seismically retrofit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay. City CarShare's locations at many Berkeley and Oakland BART stations supply additional commuting options for Bay Area residents and workers who need to travel back and forth between San Francisco and the East Bay, without driving on the bridge.

City CarShare today has over 50 Bay Area locations. New cars and locations are being added monthly as part of City CarShare's ongoing program of providing Bay Area residents with convenient neighborhood locations where they can choose from different vehicle types, including hybrids, trucks and wagons. City CarShare has more than 4,000 Bay Area residents who rely on their low-cost access to cars.

Last-minute or advance reservations can be made online or by phone for any length of time from half-an-hour to half-a-day or more. Members can immediately access their vehicle at their neighborhood location without further paperwork or delay.