Mixed results after first year of Oberlin's electric car sharing service

OBERLIN — Metrics from the first year of Oberlin's electric car-sharing program are raising some City Council members' eyebrows. The city is paying Sway Mobility of Shaker Heights a total of $223,000 over five years for the use of two Nissan Leafs and a charging station in the Oberlin Police Department parking lot. For the year ending April 1, 59 city residents and 280 Oberlin College students had rented the cars for 1,163 trips, logging 42,038 miles, Sway CEO Michael Peters said in a report to Council on Monday. That works out to Council spending $131.56 on every person who used the car over the 12-month period. While at first blush it may appear that taxpayers are subsidizing a ride service for college students, Peters said the smaller group of Oberlin residents tended to use the Nissans more often. In fact, just 10 people were responsible for driving 14,000 miles last year, Council Vice President Kelley Singleton noted with some incredulity. Trips averaged 36 miles and about two and a half hours, Peters said. Many stayed within Oberlin's city limits, but sometimes the cars were taken to Elyria, Lorain, Cleveland and as far as Michigan, Pittsburgh and Columbus. Peters said there were some who used the publicly shared vehicles "religiously" to pick up and drop off people at work. Other popular uses included medical appointments, accessing government services and going to the airport or train station. Running to the grocery store was a big one: "We sometimes joke that maybe Walmart should really be the sponsor of this program, since the cars are there quite a bit," he said. But some on Council believe Oberlin College should be sponsoring the program. "It does occur to me that the city is providing a significant service to the students of Oberlin College," Councilman Ray English said. Peters said the college is considering — but had not yet signed a contract — chipping in to cover the cost of a third electric vehicle under the city's sharing program. If the college does so, it would be paying 33 percent of the program costs while 83 percent of the people who use the service are college students, Singleton said. Council also heard about first-year operational challenges. For example, Peters said the rear window of one of the Nissans has been smashed out twice and had to be replaced. There have been issues with the vehicles' suspension and tires and mirrors, and a couple of times drivers ran out of electricity and the cars had to be towed, he said. There were also some early issues with the charging station itself, he said. On the other hand, ride use exceeded expectations for the first year, Peters said. He previously told City Council that persuading residents to actually use the service usually takes a couple of years. Sway Mobility estimates that use of the two Nissans reduced about 27,000 pounds in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that's the equivalent of taking 2.6 gasoline-fueled cars off the road for a year. To put it another way, burning 13,550 pounds of coal would generate that amount of carbon dioxide. The EPA assessment varies, however, from Sway's claim last fall that every shared vehicle introduced is equivalent to removing 11 personal vehicles from the roadways. Using the car costs $8 per hour to travel up to 25 miles, and an additional 36 cents for each additional mile in that same hour. The company's app is used to sign up, schedule times for use and unlock car doors. It can be found at www.swaymobility.com/oberlin-carshare. Using the electric car charging port in the city lot also incurs a fee of about $1.30 for an hour's charge. Sway Mobility contends that making its cars available saves the average user $5,500 per year that they would otherwise have to spend on vehicle payments, gas, insurance and related costs. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.