What is A2C3?
The Ann Arbor Community Car Coop is a group of Ann Arbor residents and University of Michigan students working to bring car sharing to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A2C3 IS ON THE ROAD. 
We're looking for members! For more information, please contact us at info@a2c3.org.

What is Car Sharing?
Cars cost lots and lots of money. Paying a few hundred dollars a month in car payments, insurance, and maintenance only to have the car spend 95% of its time sitting in your driveway does not make economic sense. A carsharing organization pools cars into a fleet and coordinates use of the cars by its members. This allows one car to serve the needs of up to a dozen drivers, who split the cost of owning the car. For people who commute to work by bike, foot, or bus, but still own a car for trips to the grocery store or for use on the weekends, car sharing can save a lot of money.

In addition, there are lots of environmental and social benefits to this system. 

* Car sharing removes vehicles from the transportation network, so that less space is needed for parking on streets and driveways, leaving more space for useful things like trees and houses.
* Car sharing allows members to keep track of the actual costs of their transportation usage and to reduce those costs.
* Car sharing can reduce congestion of downtown parking facilities, allowing them to function more efficiently.
* Car sharing can make mass transit systems more powerful by making shared cars available for destinations not on the bus lines.

Car sharing can take many forms. For-profit operations like Zipcar.com and Flexcar.com are able to provide huge fleets of cars at a reasonable hourly rental rate. Non-profits, some partially funded by tax-dollars, are viable as well, as is the case with The People's Car Co-op. Car sharing can even be done informally by a small group of friends who want to pool resources.

Yes, it has drawbacks. It doesn't work for people who commute to work by car, or live places without public transportation, or who take lots of long trips, or have situations in which they absolutely must have a car with no advance warning. However, in most systems--ranging from Zipcar's 100+ vehicle fleet to PCC's 5 cars--members have a car available more than 95% of the time.