State park of the week: Fort Snelling

We recently put state park passes in all of the HOURCARs with daily rates. And each week we are going to be featuring a park the blog. Our first featured state park: Fort Snelling.

"Fort Snelling?" you might say. "Hey, that's right here in the Cities! What's the bloody point? Who would drive an HOURCAR there? Why not bike—it's right on a bunch of trails! Heck, you can get there easily on the bus (from Saint Paul) or the Light Rail (from Minneapolis)!"

Well, that's kind of the point. Most of our members, if they wanted to go to Fort Snelling (or Minneahaha Falls; bet you didn't know it was originally a state park), would grab their bike or Go-To card. Why bother driving? It's right in our backyard. And it's pretty darned nice.

There are miles of walking and bike trails to enjoy amongst the lakes at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The trails are groomed for skiing in the winter (throw your skis in the HOURCAR when the snow flies for these or any number of other trails). You can get lost in the woods, that is, until a plane buzzes over or you run in to a bridge abutment. And it's wicked easy to get there.

Minnesota State Park Passes

HOURCAR recently put Minnesota state park passes in each of our daily rate cars. Each week, we'll profile a state park where you can drive the HOURCARs and not worry about paying the fee there.

Minnesota has 66 state parks and is the second oldest state park system in the country (did you know that?). The range from waterfalls to prairies, dense forests to deep underground. And a bunch are along some big lake.

If you have your own pictures from our state parks (whether you got there by HOURCAR or not, although pictures with an HOURCAR, or HOURCAR t-shirt, are great), send them in to us and we'll be glad to post 'em!

Bikes and transit at the MIA

This sounds like too much fun: bike valets and a bike-and-transit-related Third Thursday at the MIA on the 16th. No need to drive an HOURCAR there, although there are some in the neighborhood should you need them.

Bike on by for a rousing good time. Enjoy free bike valet service at the Third Avenue entrance. Create your own "vintage" French bike poster. Take a self-guided tour celebrating all things transit. View the 1948 Italian Neorealist classic The Bicycle Thief. Check out Ruby3 bike-friendly fashions by local design maven Anna Lee. And gear up for a fabulous alchemy of rock, folk, and country by acclaimed local band Kid Dakota.

Also, enter to win a Surly bike, Twin Six gear, and Nutcase helmets!

HOURCAR welcomes car #21

A few weeks ago we told you about a new HOURCAR hub coming to Kingfield in Minneapolis. We've been driving our spiffy new red car around for a couple weeks now, and with everything ready to roll, you can too! Car #21, a red Honda Fit, goes in to service at 38th and Nicollet, right on the 18 and 23 bus lines, today. We hope that it will serve many of you who live in Uptown and southwards (and we are working on new cars there, don't worry), especially if you need to make trips south of town. We also hope that it will entice a bunch of Kingfielders to join in on the car-light lifestyle and take some vehicles off the road!

The Kingfield car is partially funded by the Kingfield Neighborhood Association through a Minneapolis Climate Change grant and the McKnight Foundation. Our thanks to the folks at the Kingfield Neighborhood Association, the city of Minneapolis and the McKnight foundation.

(Also, if you want to help sponsor an HOURCAR, we still have McKnight challenge grants hanging around, but they are going fast. email us for more information.)

We'll be out and about in the neighborhood promoting the HOURCAR, so come drop by and get more information or just say hi!

And if you want to join HOURCAR, you can sign up here!


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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!

Newer, shorter Facebook page

A few weeks ago Facebook announced that users could register their own, personal Facebook usernames. Huzzah. Thus, their facebook URL would be facebook.com/[their name]. First come, first served.

Some of us were fast on the uptake (one HOURCAR staff member beat out the other five people with his last name). Some didn't care and some aren't even on Facebook (gosh!). It took us a bit longer to realize that you can do the same thing for pages (like HOURCAR's) but today we snagged

facebook.com/HOURCAR

for ever and ever. The end.

Oh, the places you will go: Chicago

The Windy City. Second City. The City of Big Shoulders.

Whatever you call it, it's the closest big city to Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and even though the El runs all night and the buses generally come every ten minutes, you might need a car while you're there, right?
(Okay, maybe not. Traffic is atrocious and parking is a nightmare. But that's why shared cars have reserved parking spots)

In any case, if you do need a car, our friends at I-Go are there for you. Give us a shout in advance, and we can set the whole thing up for you. I-Go's offices are right off the El in Wicker Park if you need to pick up a key card (which can also be mailed to you in advance), and with about 200 cars, there's many for you to choose.

So if you plan to go down to Chicago, you car can be waiting for you there, too.