SAN ANTONIO – The City of San Antonio’s Office of Environmental Policy has issued an RFP for a car-sharing program. The City encourages car-sharing vendors to incorporate plug-in electric vehicles into the program, according to the RFP. The car-sharing vendor would be responsible for full-service maintenance and management of the car-sharing fleet.

According to the RFP, the car-sharing program would be located in downtown San Antonio. City of San Antonio employees, employees of other businesses/institutions, and residents will have access to the program.

In January, 2011, the City of San Antonio reported the findings of a car-sharing feasibility study, which determined the City could save money and reduce emissions by implementing such a program.

The feasibility study found that no San Antonio neighborhoods are being served by a car-sharing operator and that downtown San Antonio has a mix of neighborhood characteristics that could support this type of program. The study also found that a five-car car-sharing pilot program would save $160,000 in net savings during a five-year period. In addition, a pilot program would reduce net greenhouse emissions by 55.8 tons annually. The study based these numbers on the annual cost to operate a City-owned Prius.

A number of other cities have instituted or are interested in establishing car-sharing programs recently, such as Chicago, San Jose, and Baltimore.

By Greg Basich