年轻一代爱上拼车

    RelayRides公司的CEO安德里•海达德鼓励陌生人借用他的2006版保时捷911——在他自己不用的时候。

    愿意分享——即便是贵重如跑车的物品——是合伙用车的前提。这是一项蓬勃发展的行业，将车主和需要临时借用汽车的人联系在了一起。Zipcar从2000年的社区车队起步，目前规模已经发展到使私人车主可以通过网络将自己的汽车借给陌生人。其结果是，合伙用车开始动摇长期以来根深蒂固的汽车所有权结构。

    共享经济在几年内就得到了迅速发展。人们出租空余的房屋（例如AirBnB的服务）、利用率较低的会议室（例如LiquidSpace的服务），甚至他们的空闲劳动力（例如TaskRabbit的服务）。交通业则经历了最为巨大的变化。Edmund.com的首席经济学家莱西•普拉茨在2012年的一项研究中发现，2011年，18-34岁的年轻人购买汽车的数量比2007年减少了30%。如今，合伙用车作为一个领先指标，代表了更广阔领域的共享服务。

    合伙用车的支持者认为，对车主而言，把车通过RelayRides或者FlightCar这样的网站租给陌生人可以大幅降低（甚至完全抵消）养车费用。对租车者而言，只在有需求的时候租车比买车更加便宜，在大城市尤其如此。合伙用车和拼车的概念受到了需要用车的年轻智能手机用户的热捧。RelayRides的哈达德说：“很久以来，汽车都是自由和成人的象征。但在许多年轻人心中，这一象征显然已经开始动摇。”

    合伙用车是如何实现的呢？旧金山的FlightCar公司使车主可以在外出旅行时出租他们的汽车。比如，车主们把车停在机场，其他旅客可以在他们回来之前借用。拼车服务公司SideCar和Lyft的总部也设在旧金山，他们把需要用车的人和当地的车主联系起来，让车主将他们送到目的地，双方只需要在应用上进行操作就能实现这项服务。有了智能手机技术的帮助，如今甚至传统的出租车和豪车租赁服务也在加入这一行列。Flywheel和Uber通过GPS寻找最近的司机，帮助乘客招来出租车或豪华轿车。

    美国城市人口的增长有力推动了这类服务的发展。根据人口普查数据，2010年，美国有超过80%的人口居住在城市，而1980年这一比例只有73%。城市给车主带来了一系列经济挑战，如高油价、保险费、找不到停车位或停车费很贵等。持车成本上升，让年轻人不再蜂拥前往机动车驾驶管理处。1978年，16岁的年轻人约一半都拿到了驾照，到2008年，这一比例降至31%，2010年进一步降低至28%。对于偶尔用车的人来说，向邻居租车就足够了。而对于没有驾照的人而言，搭车也变得更加容易。SideCar的CEO苏尼尔•保罗说：“我们的经济已经从面向产品转变为面向服务。我们将会把出行从一项产品（购买汽车）变为一项服务（下载这个应用）。”

    When RelayRides CEO Andre Haddad isn't using his 2006 Porsche 911, he encourages strangers to drive it.

    This willingness to share -- even something as valuable as a sports car -- is the premise behind carsharing, a growing industry that connects car owners with renters seeking out a temporary set of wheels. What started with Zipcar's community car fleets in 2000 has expanded to include individual owners making their cars available to strangers over the internet. Carsharing, as a result, is threatening the long-entrenched structure of auto ownership.

    The so-called sharing economy -- people rent out spare bedrooms (AirBnB), under-utilized conference rooms (LiquidSpace), and even their free labor (TaskRabbit) -- has grown substantially in just a few years. But the transportation industry has seen the greatest change. A 2012 study by Lacey Plache, chief economist at Edmunds.com, found that young adults aged 18-34 purchased 30% fewer cars in 2011 than they did in 2007. Now, carsharing may be a leading indicator for a much broader set of services.

    Carsharing proponents argue that, for those who own vehicles, renting them out to strangers through services like RelayRides or FlightCar can defray car payments considerably (sometimes altogether). For renters, paying for a car only when it is actually needed can be much less expensive ownership, particularly in big cities. Carsharing -- along with a revamped take on carpooling, dubbed ridesharing -- has gotten a jolt from smartphone-wielding millennials in need of a ride. "For a long time the [car] was the symbol of freedom, the symbol of adulthood," says Haddad of RelayRides. "That's apparently been shaken up in a lot of younger people's minds."

    How's it work? San Francisco-based FlightCar allows car owners to rent out their wheels while traveling. Users park at the airport, for instance, and let another traveler use their cars until they return. Ridesharing services like SideCar and Lyft, both headquartered in San Francisco, connect ride-seekers with local drivers who use their own cars to taxi people around; they require only an app to operate. Thanks to smartphone technology, even traditional taxi and limo services are working to get in on the action. Flywheel and Uber help passengers hail taxis or limo-type rides using GPS to find the closest possible driver.

    Such services have been largely fueled by a growing number of American urbanites. In 2010, more than 80% of the U.S. population lived in urban areas compared to only 73% in 1980, according to census data. Cities provide car owners with financial challenges like higher gas prices, insurance, and difficult to find or expensive parking. These higher ownership costs have kept teenagers from rushing to the DMV. Roughly half of all 16-year-olds had their driver's license in 1978. By 2008, that figure fell to 31%; in 2010, it was down to 28%. For people who need cars only sparingly, renting from a neighbor is sufficient. For those without a license, bumming a ride has become easier. "We are moving from a product-oriented economy to a services-oriented economy," says Sunil Paul, CEO of SideCar. "We are going to turn transportation from a product (buy a car), to a service (download this app)."