SketchUp

Studies show that cars spend around 95% of the time parked, and we devote a lot of urban space to parking. This is something that carsharing has the direct potential to change.

As a demonstration, I modeled the conditions at the Torrance Promenade strip mall, which is within car2go's LA service area, as it currently stands (a lot of surface parking), and in a hypothetical carsharing utopia, with 80% less parking. The reclaimed space is shown as potential park space and room for additional mixed-use development.

Currently, this development is an SOV-oriented stripmall, with nearly 1600 parking spaces.

With only 20% of that many parking spaces (half of that designated for carsharing here), a great deal of usable land is opened up. For example, this could be used for new mixed use development and park/recreation space.

Notes/Sources: Current conditions modeled from scratch based on Google Maps, Earth, and Streetview imagery. In addition, the potential future model uses the following models from SketchUp's 3D Warehouse: Patio set by LBV builders, MPE100 Series Patio Enclosure by Maglin, COYOTE MOD Playground Equipment by Play Mart - Mega, 2005 Smart fortwo Low-Poly by Manager, Casual People Collection by Lee Kew-Moss.