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The Festive 5: Reason to Invest #5

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Every Monday in December, we brought you another reason to support carsharing in Winnipeg. Help us grow by purchasing investment shares. The deadline to receive a 30% tax credit from the Province is TODAY!

Invest in Less

This week is a recap of the reasons and is a reminder that today is your last chance (this year) to buy your investment shares and qualify for a 30% tax rebate. No worries if you can’t get the paperwork  in today and we have a handy Paypal option for the last minute investments.

Throughout the month, we’ve written specifically about the economic, environmental and health benefits of living in a city with a robust carsharing service. Last week, we reached our year-end goal of raising $50,000! With a week to spare! With that money , we will be able to purchase new cars for the fleet and expand into new neighbourhoods. We are already planning our next locations.

We have been approved to raise $200,000 and with our $50,000 goal surpassed, we are still accepting share purchases. So don’t let the year end pass without getting the benefit of the tax credit!

Finally, we didn’t go into great detail on the topic of community. The truth is, carsharing is a tough business. Anybody who works in this industry can tell you it isn’t a get rich quick scheme. Cars are expensive to run, owners know this.  They get even more so when you are committed to keeping them in the best working order possible and providing great customer service. To be a successful and sustainable carshare, we will need to grow.

So why do we do it? We believed that Winnipeg would benefit from this service. Exactly for all the environmental, health, and economic reasons listed before. We chose to become a co-op because we knew it would be the business model that is most likely to succeed. We also wanted this to be a service that is member focused. All decisions are made with our members in mind. Not profits. It is also why we are able to offer some of the lowest prices in the industry.

So, thank you Winnipeg, for supporting us over the past year. We launched in June of 2011 with 3 cars and 36 members. We now have 4 cars and over 110 members. Thank you for helping us grow.

Happy New Year from the board and staff of Peg City Car Co-op!

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The Festive 5: Reason to Invest #4

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Every Monday in December, the Festive 5 will bring you another reason to support carsharing in Winnipeg. Help us grow by purchasing investment shares. The deadline to receive a 30% tax credit from the Province is December 31st, 2012. This week we’re talking…

COMMUNITY

In this post, we were going to speak about carsharing and co-ops as builders of stronger, more resilient communities. Instead, we have been so inspired by the demonstration of support given to us, that we realized, we are benefiting from the strong commitment to community that is already here.

This may come across as sentimental, but isn’t that what the holidays are for?

While our over all goal is to raise $200,000 so that we can grow to 11 cars in the next 2 years, we made it our short term goal in November to raise $50,000 by the end of December. As with many goals, we set our target on our most reasonable expectations, with the understanding that we may not make it. But we did!

We are officially over the $50,000 goal, which is enough money to allow to expand our fleet!

So from all of the members and staff at Peg City Car Co-op we want to take this opportunity to say thank you! Thank you so much for believing in this project. We chose to be a co-op, because we knew that making a carshare work in Winnipeg was a challenge, but we also firmly believed that this is a city that deserves the transportation perks and amenities available in larger cities.

Earning your support has been the biggest reward to date. Ultimately, that is what the CED tax credit program is all about. Community-supported and funded business.

That being said, today is December 24th. Please enjoy the holidays! Dress warm and drive (or bike) safe!

Oh, and we are still accepting investments until the end of the year!

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The Festive 5: Reason to Invest #3

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Every Monday in December, the Festive 5 will bring you another reason to support carsharing in Winnipeg. Help us grow by purchasing investment shares. The deadline to receive a 30% tax credit from the Province is December 31st, 2012. This week we’re talking…

HEALTH

Photo cred: Stephen Kurz

We haven’t yet talked about the health benefits of carsharing. They aren’t obvious, but as you will see below, there is generally a correlation between a reliance on driving and rates of obesity. Along with obesity come other health risks such as heart disease and diabetes.

However, by choosing more active transportation (like biking and walking), you’ll not only get to where you are going, you will also be doing your health a favour.

Manitobans are in dire need of more exercise, because we are getting fat. According to a recent study by the University of Manitoba:

“Like Canada overall, Manitoba has experienced a significant increase in the prevalence of obesity over time; Manitoba values have consistently been higher than national averages. This study is based on Manitoba–specific data from 1989 through 2008. Over that period, ‘corrected’ adult obesity increased from 18.4% to 28.3% among males and from 16.6% to 25.9% among females. Interestingly, however, the increase in obesity prevalence over time appears to have stopped for females, who reached 25% in 2000 and then remained stable through 2008.”

The data gets more interesting when you look at the difference in obesity trends between urban and rural areas. According to Statistics Canada, prevalence of obesity tends to be higher in rural areas. The study also suggests, that based on studies in the US, rates of obesity are linked with reliance on automobiles and decreased opportunities to walk as a mode of transportation. The link between driving, a more sedentary mode of transportation than biking, walking (including walk to the transit stop) and obesity has also been noted over and over in other places.

The second major health issue caused by vehicles is in the emissions they create. Traffic-related emissions are a complex mix of pollutants comprised of nitrogen oxides (including nitrogen dioxide), particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, ozone, and many other chemicals such as trace toxics and greenhouse gases. All of which we are forced to breath in.

In 2004, Toronto Public Health (TPH) estimated that air pollution (from all sources) is responsible for about 1,700 premature
deaths and 6,000 hospitalizations each year in Toronto — an effect that could be changed by reducing traffic congestion by 30%.

Beyond the benefits to your waistline and your respiratory health, biking also offers another really important health benefit: it makes you happy.

The difficult news is that often the form of transportation we choose is also dependent on the built environment of the cities we live in, as well as the availability of efficient and affordable transit. While both of these elements pose a challenge to many of Winnipeg’s residents, carsharing provides a transportation bridge that grants those wanting to drive less the ability to do so, while providing access to a vehicle when it is needed.

All told, carsharing represents a healthier, affordable, and more environmentally sensitive way to get around.

Visit www.pegcitycarcoop.ca/invest to find out how you can help us expand.

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The Festive 5: Reason to Invest #2

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Every Monday in December, the Festive 5 will bring you another reason to support carsharing in Winnipeg. Help us grow by purchasing investment shares. The deadline to receive a 30% tax credit from the Province is December 31st, 2012. This week we’re talking…

ENVIRONMENT

We’ve already covered some of the most significant environmental benefits of carsharing on our site.  For example, there is overwhelming evidence that in the aggregate, carsharing has a positive environmental outcome by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of our members.

In general, one carshare vehicle replaces 9-13 owned personal vehicles. This is due to members either putting off car ownership or selling a vehicle. This could even mean transition from a two car household to a one car household.

Why is this important for Manitoba?

According to 50 by 30 , a local group working on practical solutions for Manitoba to get 50 %  of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, about 33 % of the energy we use is in transportation.  That is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in our province. On the household level, driving is the single largest activity that we do that emits greenhouse gas emissions, so every effort we make to reduce the number of kilometers driven is good for the environment.

The good news is that the overall driving trend for  North America has been declining for the past decade, and in general young people are driving less and holding off on getting their licenses.  This is great for the environment, but also for health, as these people are choosing to bike, walk and bus more.

However, closer to home we remain committed to driving:

  • In Manitoba, light-duty vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) comprise 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the province, and 43 per cent of all emissions from all transportation activities. Between 1990 and 2006, emissions from all light-duty vehicles in Manitoba increased by 21.6 per cent.
  • From 1996 to 2006, the proportion of Canadians commuting to work by car decreased by 1.3 per cent, in Winnipeg this proportion increased by 1.4 per cent; the largest increase among 35 metropolitan areas surveyed.
  • From 1996 to 2006, the number of Canadians using public transit to commute to work increased from 10.1 per cent to 11.0 per cent. In Manitoba, this number declined from 9.8 per cent to 8.9 per cent.

The good news is that residents of Winnipeg now have another transportation option that can ease their transition into the bike, walk, bus lifestyle. Carsharing means you don’t have to forgo the convenience and speed of driving.  There’s more: all of our vehicles are fuel-efficient and we have an extended range electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt.

All told, carsharing represents a healthier, affordable, and more environmentally sensitive way to get around.

Visit www.pegcitycarcoop.ca/invest to find out how you can help us expand.

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The Festive 5: Reason to Invest #1

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Every Monday in December, the Festive 5 will bring you another reason to support carsharing in Winnipeg. Help us grow by purchasing investment shares. The deadline to receive a 30% tax credit from the Province is December 31st, 2012. This week we’re talking…

ECONOMICS

We’ve covered the economics of carsharing in the local economy before. For example, if you own your car, you can probably relate to how expensive the convenience can be, car payments, interest, depreciation, insurance, gas prices, parking, repairs, winter tires, etc. CAA estimates many thousands of dollars spent on ownership and driving alone.

Alternatively, our members only pay for what they use.  While usage and vehicle-need vary, the average carshare member spends less than $1500 a year to use our vehicles. A significant cost savings by any measure. With all the access.

Members of Peg City Car Co-op have decided to spend most of their travel-time, biking, walking and busing.  Grist has an entire feature that focuses on Bikenomics, the economic benefits of investing in bicycle infrastructure and active transportation.

Some examples are:

There is an assumption in Winnipeg that only those who can’t afford to own a car would choose to join the carshare. This statement could not be further from the truth. In fact, across North America, the typical carshare member is university educated, middle-class and between the ages of 25-35. This rings true for our members. They are lawyers, retirees, students, parents, home owners, architects, professors, government workers — you name it.

The economic benefit to the rest of the community is that these members have more money to spend in the local economy. Their money isn’t tied up in the purchase and maintenance of one large asset – it is free to  be distributed to local restaurants, shops, and other businesses which in turn, help support local jobs.

We understand that not everybody can become a member. But most of us can admit that the positive outcomes of more Winnipegers biking, walking, and busing benefit us all. Healthy vibrant local economies? Carsharing can help us get there. Visit www.pegcitycarcoop.ca/invest to find out how you can help us get there.

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