This is St. Louis. For all intents and purposes you're going to need a car sooner or later. A run to Home Depot, a trip to Babies 'R Us, just want to see Lone Elk Park? You can go car-free in St. Louis, quite a number of people are doing so by choice (check @KaseyKlimes on Twitter to follow just one of them), yet for most that remains one step too far. Metro bus and train service is pretty good and cycling is easy, if not always well accommodated. Is car-sharing the missing link to go car(ownership)-free in St. Louis.
WeCar, a car-sharing program by St. Louis' own Enterprise Rent-A-Car is giving it a try in St. Louis. The WeCar program has been on the Washington University main campus for more than two years and for almost as long on the school's Medical Campus. Currently there are 9 WeCar locations in downtown St. Louis.
There's a membership fee of $35 (may be waived by some employers, including Washington University), renters must be 21 (unless a university student) and it's just $10/hr. including gas, insurance and a couple hundred miles.
I likely will not go car-free using WeCar, but it could just be the thing that finally pushes us to sell one of our underused cars. At the Washington University rate of $5/hr., I could spend a lot of time in a WeCar before doling out the roughly $65/mo. I spend on taxes and insurance, not to mention gas and maintenance) for my 2001 Civic. Getting to a WeCar may not be as convenient as walking to my garage, but given the number of times we genuinely need two cars, it may be the missing link for me. And let's be honest, I'd probably find that some of the trips I make aren't really necessary anyway. So anyone interested in a 2001 Honda Civic EX Coupe?
