HOURCAR's 4th annual member survey

Last week, HOURCAR turned four. In late June of 2005, HOURCAR launched with half a dozen cars, a couple dozen members and some hopes and dreams. Every year since, we've surveyed our members to find out, well, all sorts of information. We like to find out if anyone has given up their cars, if people bike and walk more (or less) and what our members think we could do better.

First of all, thank you to everyone who participated. We had over 300 survey responses (and congrats to Nadya, Becky, Rosalyn and Stephanie for winning the four $100 driving credits we drew as thanks for completing the survey), not a bad turnout.

Now to some of the nitty-gritty. Is HOURCAR getting cars off the road? Yup. More than half of our respondents were car-free before HOURCAR and intend to stay that way, and another 25% have either sold their car since joining or decided not to acquire an additional car.

We also asked people to estimate how many miles they drive per year (overall, not just in an HOURCAR) versus the amount they drove before joining. Now, this is somewhat sketchy because these are self-reported estimates, but of the 188 respondents (less than a quarter of the membership), the aggregate savings (including those who drove more) were 370,000 miles per year, more than are put on the entire HOURCAR fleet.

Then there's walking and biking. (HOURCAR loves walking and biking.) One third of HOURCAR members report that, since joining HOURCAR, they walk and bike more, only a few (fewer than five percent) report walking and biking less. And how often are HOURCAR members hitting the pavement? Well, 58% of members say they walk somewhere daily, and 83% report walking for transportation at least twice a week. 29% bike daily, and more than half bike at least twice weekly. 58% of HOURCAR members ride transit at least twice a week, more than half of those ride daily. Plus, most of our members use transit frequently to get around.

And then there's the use of a personal vehicle. When we asked how often our members drove one, 65% chose "never."

Check back soon for some fun anecdotes our members sent in!