I just did a City CarShare rental last night, and thought it might be

interesting to look at what I did and why, based on the capabilities of

the tragedy-of-the-commons-prevention system and the incentives in

place, as an analogy (not exact) to SimplySeating and similar

shared-resource-reservation-and-allocation systems.

1. I was on BART in SF last night at 6:10 PM, heading East through the

transbay tube, when I realized that I had to get to the Berkeley Marina

to help videotape an event very quickly, too quickly to rely on a bus

connection. I could take a cab (there's always a bunch at the closest

station, North Berkeley), but that would cost a bunch and I'd have the

return trip to worry about.

2. I got off at West Oakland (needed to change trains anyways) and

called CityCarShare, which I pay $10/month to be a member of. I didn't

have the reservations line in my cellphone, so I called their main #

and their voicemail referred me over. I used an interactive voice

response (IVR) system to log in and request a rental at the North

Berkeley "Pod". I said "Toyota Prius" since there are two parked there.

The system informed me that they were tied up 'til after 8:30, but the

Honda Element was available right away, at a slightly higher price

($6/hr plus mileage instead of $4/hr). I reserved it starting at 6:30

for three hours; if I had been more efficient I would have requested

the reservation start at 6:45, since the system automatically builds in

a 15-minute pre-arrival cushion, that way I wouldn't be paying for any

minutes before my arrival. Total time: 2 minutes on the phone; on the

web, it's doable in seconds.

Oh, I also could have reserved a car right at West Oakland BART, but

then I'd have to deal with traffic getting through there maze, mileage

charges roundtrip (45 cents/mile, including gas and insurance and

maintenance), plus then would have to take BART home to North Berkeley

later on.

3. 15 minutes later, my Richmond train arrived North Berkeley BART. I

walked outside, held up the keyfob on my keyring to the car there, got

in, and drove off, getting to the event just in the nick of time. My

phone showed an incoming text message including the reservation details

and the emergency and reservation-extension phone #'s.

4. The event ran a little long. Knowing that there were big $ penalties

for not returning a car on time (to avoid inconveniencing anyone else),

and that I might go beyond the 15-minute grace period. I called the IVR

at 9:24 and extended my reservation block of time by 15 minutes, which

I could do because nobody else needed it. Doing so allowed me to drop

off a famous artist (creator of the Berkeley and Ashkenaz Peace Walls)

at her home and not rush.

5. On my way back, at 9:54, I noticed that the tank was close to

half-full. City CarShare policy is: if the tank is less than

half-empty, you fill it up (at their expense, but with your time

on-the-clock). I didn't want to get dinged with a penalty (while

driving down the hill, the needle appeared to be on the other side,

i.e. half-empty), so I drove past the BART station to the corner gas

station and called to extend my reservation another 15 minutes to take

care of that, and then perhaps drop off all my gear at home which would

allow me to walk home. However, the IVR said the vehicle was reserved

starting at 10, so an extension would not be possible, and the

penalties for returning late when someone else has reserved the car are

an order of magnitude greater -- they will use these fees to offset

paying for someone's cab fare or alternative rental if the vehicle is

not there when they show up for it. So I pulled a quick U-turn and

zipped back, in order to drop the vehicle back in its parking space

within the grace period, at 10 o'clock on the dot, locking the car with

my keyfob pressed to the window sensor (RFID) to sign out.

The AC Transit bus that goes to my front door was there and due to

leave at 10:10, so I wouldn't have to carry all my gear walking the

whole way home (half a mile), so I hung out and noticed that whoever

reserved the car next didn't show up right away; perhaps they had

cancelled within the 15-minute cancellation grace period, or just

reserved it ahead of their arrival. Both of the Priuses were back in

their slots, awaiting the next customer. I used my TransLink card to

pay my bus fare without even reaching into my pocket.

Raines