Andrew deCoriolis ‘07, and Nancy Dye stand in front of the 2006 Toyota Prius hybrid with a representative of CityWheels Cleveland.

Hey Obies! Are you tired of bumming rides from friends? Sick of carrying your cello on the bus? Want to catch that hot show at the Cleveland’s House of Blues?

Take heart. Now there’s a more convenient way to get to Cleveland and other area cities and towns, thanks to the launch at Oberlin of Ohio’s first car-sharing program.

In partnership with CityWheels, a Cleveland-based, car-sharing organization, the College’s Environmental Policy Implementation Group (EPIG) has brought two brand new vehicles to campus and made them available for rental by students, faculty and staff members, and residents of the community.

Car sharing, a European phenomenon that made its way to the United States a little under a decade ago, has seen great success in 17 major U.S. cities and continues to expand. Car-sharing programs allow members to reserve and drive cars on a per-use basis; they are ideal for people who have occasional transportation needs and who do not need to own a car.

“We are delighted that CityWheels has come to Oberlin,” says Oberlin College President Nancy Dye. “Part of the College’s sustainability program is to find ways to show students that they don’t need to have their own cars. This program takes an important step toward greening our campus and community.”

EPIG and CityWheels held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 9 at the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies to celebrate the new program and showcase the two cars: a 2006 Toyota Prius, one of the most efficient gas-electric hybrid vehicles on the market, with mileage ratings of 60 miles per gallon in cities and 55 on highways; and a 2006 Scion xB, a highly fuel-efficient vehicle (rated at 30 miles per gallon in cities and 31 on highways) that provides more cargo room than the Prius. CityWheels hopes to add more vehicles to the Oberlin fleet as membership expands and demand increases.

“Oberlin Conservatory students will find the Scion especially useful in transporting their instruments,” says CityWheels representative Megan Wilson.The vehicles are parked in designated spaces behind the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies and Stevenson Hall.

Oberlin College and CityWheels are offering discounted application fees and free driving hours for the first 100 students who join the program. Membership in CityWheels is open to anyone age 21 years and older who has had a clean driving record for at least three years. Application forms and more information are available at the CityWheels web site. 

Members will be able to use the vehicles for $8.50 an hour or less; the price includes gasoline, insurance, and maintenance fees. Members will refill gas tanks using gasoline cards purchased by CityWheels, which also provides maintenance and road service.

The pilot program was initiated by environmental studies major Andrew deCoriolis ‘07 with the assistance of Gavin Platt ‘06, Olivia Winter ‘08, Lucas Brown ‘09, and Lora Difranco ‘08. deCoriolis also played a major role in the 2005 purchase of hybrid vehicles for the College’s Office of Safety and Security and for mail delivery.

"Andrew was central in bringing the CityWheels program to Oberlin,” says Wilson. “He was a real community champion. We are a very small organization—these are the first two cars in our fleet—and we depend on community champions to make this program work. We hope that other communities will pick up on this. After the program gets under way in Oberlin, cars will be placed in Cleveland neighborhoods, including Ohio City, Coventry, Edgewater, and Shaker Heights.”

“Since all CityWheels vehicles are either gas-electric hybrid vehicles or other fuel-efficient, clean models, they significantly reduce the environmental impact of driving,” says deCoriolis, who hopes to make transportation the focus of his senior honors project.

“Transportation is at the heart of our future sustainability efforts. If transportation can be made more efficient, it may become part of the solution in dealing successfully with global climate change and other ecological crises. The ways in which people move around, and making those systems more efficient ecologically and economically, will play a incredibly important role in shaping and defining the new America after cheap and easily portable oil is no longer available,” he adds.

CityWheels was given some start-up advice last year by car-sharing veteran Chris Bradshaw ’66. As co-founder of Vrtucar (pronounced virtue-car), an eco-friendly, car-sharing organization in Ottawa, Canada, he couldn’t be prouder of Oberlin’s role in kicking off the car-sharing movement in Ohio.

“My buttons are popping off my shirt,” says Bradshaw, who also was co-chair of Canada’s recent Green Party campaign. “Oberlin is among the few colleges in the nation to do things before they enter the mainstream of society. This is just another feather in its cap.”

Bradshaw first connected with EcoCity Cleveland and CityWheels at a car-share conference in Toronto in 2004; later, he volunteered as an unofficial, long-distance consultant to the group. In the past six years, Vrtucar has grown from 3 cars shared by 42 members to 25 cars shared by 500 members.

CityWheels: Oberlin Oberlin Alumni Magazine Profile: Chris Bradshaw '66 Plain Dealer Article