2022 marks the first year of Park Your CARbon, an updated and re-imagined version of the previous Way to Go! Challenge. Park Your CARbon is an awareness campaign encouraging Vermonters to park their vehicle for one trip, one day, or one week in an effort to curb carbon emissions and promote the use of other transportation modes.

This report details CarShare Vermont’s key findings and recommendations for effectively integrating electric vehicles (EVs) into shared fleets following a research-turned-pilot project. CCRPC funding supported research and planning, then CarShare Vermont self-funded a project to pilot our first EV with in-kind support from the Burlington Electric Department. The report provides more than 12 months of data about how the EV was used and by whom, its environmental impacts, and the financial and operational implications of converting to an electric fleet, as well as our recommendations for policies that will better support the integration of EVs into carsharing systems.

It’s not often that carsharing is seen as a potential solution for concerns about increasing housing cost burdens. Hidden vehicle and parking costs can contribute to an overall higher cost of living--housing and transportation. This report highlights the role that transportation and parking costs play in housing affordability and describes the role of CarShare VT in changes to Burlington’s development ordinances and new directions for the organization.

Historically, carsharing programs across the country have primarily served a younger demographic (people aged 18-45). However, recent research has indicated that Baby Boomers are increasingly relocating to urban areas that offer increased mobility options. As they enjoy a more active, multimodal lifestyle, many are choosing to reduce their vehicle ownership. We wanted to understand if this trend is consistent in Chittenden County, and whether this growing demographic is ripe for carsharing. Our goals for this project were to conduct market research, conduct outreach in collaboration with partners, and increase membership among the population aged 51-69.

This report summarizes the efforts of CarShare Vermont to activate employee members of existing business accounts by encouraging them to utilize CarShare Vermont's service and supporting employers in better integrating CarShare Vermont into their personnel policies and transportation practices. As part of the project, CarShare Vermont set out to develop a suite of outreach materials targeting employees that could be distributed among business members to help them promote carsharing across their organizations. Additionally, CarShare Vermont wanted to understand from business members what information and guidance they needed to best utilize the service and maximize its benefits, such as VMT reduction, cost savings, and employee wellbeing. Finally, CarShare Vermont wanted to develop a resource to help businesses evaluate the impact of offering CarShare Vermont to their employees.

In 2011 the CCRPC, in collaboration with CarShare VT, Chittenden Area TMA, Local Motion, and Green Mountain Transit, was awarded a Transportation, Community and System Preservation (TCSP) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to launch a Chittenden County Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Pilot Program, which features ready-to-implement TDM activities to meaningfully improve transportation system efficiency, reduce VMT, improve air quality, reduce traffic congestion, improve access to employment, and enhance the livability of our communities. The suite of complementary projects included creating two regional multimodal transit hubs, developing a regional walk/bike program, developing an employee transit pass pilot project, establishing a TDM circuit rider, launching a marketing program to change transportation behavior, and expanding the existing car-share service in Chittenden County.