I have always thought that there must be some carrots out there that would encourage people to just drive a little less. You know what I mean; walk to the store to get milk or start your kids walking to school instead of being chauffeured. As it stands now, the only thing we would save is a little bit of gas. Until I came across this article by Springwise...Auto Insurance By The Mile!
Back in 2005, we covered Norwich Union's Pay-as-You-Drive program in the UK to charge consumers for auto insurance based on how often, when and where they use their vehicles. Starting in Texas, the United States will soon see a similar service for the first time thanks to MileMeter's "auto insurance buy the mile."
Like Norwich Union's offering, MileMeter will use consumers' usage levels to determine how much they must pay for auto insurance. Unlike Norwich Union's, however, MileMeter will not use any kind of vehicle tracking device to record that usage. Rather, consumers will buy coverage in advance in increments of as few as 1,000 miles; when their odometer reaches the end of that increment, the coverage expires. The cost per mile varies with the geographic area and the age of the driver, but a reasonable ball park for a 30-year-old driver and minimum coverage in a midrange urban ZIP code in Texas might be 4 cents per mile, MileMeter CEO Chris Gay says. Multiple drivers in a household can also be covered for a single vehicle.
Dallas-based MileMeter will launch in Texas this summer, with plans to roll out quickly to other states, Gay says. In the meantime, it's attracted a fair bit of attention, not least because it was one of only seven finalists in the most recent Amazon Web Services Startup Challenge. Because it doesn't use gender as a basis for determining rates, MileMeter has been ardently supported by the National Organization for Women (NOW). And by rewarding drivers who use their cars less, it has the potential to make an environmental impact as well.
Sounds like a win-win all around—time for more entrepreneurs to start thinking in increments!
I don't know about the legalities of this type of insurance in Canada, but this is something that we should really have access to. I know that my vehicle spends most of its time just hanging out in the driveway collecting dust, and I would be very interested in reduced auto insurance. The more reasons for people to opt out of using their cars, the better the health of our communities.
1 comment:
Speaking of gentrification and car-free zones...
From the Tottenham Journal in the UK;
'No place for working class' in car-free new homes
nlnews@archant.co.uk
16 January 2008
WORKING class people are being squeezed out of Tottenham by new car-free developments, which could turn the area into a "Little Islington".
The accusation came from Councillor Ray Dodds, deputy chairman of Haringey Council's
planning committee, who said you are "not allowed" to live in new "car-free" or "almost car-free" developments "unless you are nice and middle class, and carry a pen in your top pocket" in place of using a vehicle.
The Labour councillor for Bruce Grove ward said car-free developments "are now being seen as a way to keep working class people out of housing" as many people's livelihoods depend on vehicles, from electricians and plumbers to taxi drivers and
mobile mechanics.
His outburst came as the committee debated an application for a five-storey block of 27 flats and houses in Tottenham High Road last week, which offered just five parking spaces - one of a steady stream of similar applications in the area.
Residents objecting to the plan on the site, at the junction of High Road and Hampden Lane in the Spurs match day controlled parking zone (CPZ), said their lives would get
even worse if parking pressures increased.
One objector from the clogged, narrow Hampden Lane said she had a traffic cone thrown through her front window in December after taking a parking space that a neighbour believed to be "theirs".
The application, for a former furniture salesroom, included four five-bedroom homes, one four-bedroom home, three three-bedroom homes, nine two-bedroom and 10 one-bedroom homes, plus commercial space on the ground floor.
Councillor Dodds called for planning policy to be changed from a "very, very middle class concept" so it stops "excluding a large number of people".
He added: "I understand why people think, 'Use a bus', but I defy you to be a plumber, electrician, or anything like that, and use public transport.
"If you're excluded from having parking permits then you're saying, 'Right, no more working class people in Tottenham, let's move them all out, let's make it Little Islington', and I for one don't want to live in Little Islington."
Joyce Rosser, of the conservation area advisory committee, added the "desperate overcrowding on the current buses" and the building's "unsatisfactory frontage" to concerns over parking and density.
Another Hampden Lane resident called for a seven-day CPZ to regulate parking before any more flats were approved.
After 45 minutes' debate, councillors threw out the application on the grounds of its
bulk and mass, the lack of recreation space and parking spaces.
OH, to have these problems! This article tells me that someone, somewhere, holds some progressive planning ideas but didn't think through all the details of its implementation. It also screams of the importance of quality communications between stakeholders.
Post a Comment