Corner Cars in Hoboken

Hoboken, New Jersey, is taking a novel approach to promoting car-sharing. This spring the city government launched Corner Cars, a program that places car-sharing vehicles in special bright green parking spots on the streets — typically one every few blocks. Ariel Kaminer wrote in the July 18 New York Times that Connect by Hertz is paying the city $100 a month for each on-street parking spot reserved for its vehicles. Drivers pay $5 to $16 an hour (plus 7 percent sales tax and a $5 New Jersey “domestic security fee”) to rent the vehicles.

Hoboken is known as a difficult city in which to find an unoccupied parking space. It’s hoped that the program will lead some car owners to give up their vehicles now that short-term rentals are widely available. Kaminer noted that in other cities, studies have shown that “for every car that can be rented by the hour, 6 to 20 drivers have liked the experience so much, they’ve given up the car they owned.”