It’s obvious that cars cause considerable air pollution and urban congestion. One-third of CO₂ greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. come from the transportation sector. Car sharing has the potential to produce significant environmental benefits by reducing car ownership and, subsequently, road congestion and our collective carbon footprint. The statistics speak for themselves: Each I-GO car replaces about 17 cars on the road, resulting in a estimated reduction of more then 3,200 vehicles in Chicago since I-GO opened for business in 2002. Combine that with our fuel-efficient, low-emission fleet—about half of which is hybrid, including plug-in electric cars—and we estimate I-GO members have reduced CO₂ emissions by nearly 25,000 tons annually.

Car sharing goes a long way toward alleviating congestion, a rapidly increasing problem in America’s urban areas. In 2007, according to a leading annual report, congestion caused urban Americans to travel 4.2 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.8 billion gallons of fuel for a “congestion cost” of $87.2 billion—an increase of more than 50% over the previous decade.

The finding that car sharing can significantly reduce car usage has attracted considerable interest nationally among transportation planners and policy makers. Car sharing is the only program that has succeeded in reducing car ownership by such a significant amount. I-GO is working closely with city, state, and federal governmental agencies, alternative-energy innovators, and public transit on environmental initiatives that will make widespread sustainable transportation the rule, not the exception, throughout the metro area.

Learn more about I-GO’s green vision for sustainable transportation ››