I already take part in a car sharing program. It's called parking your car at the MAX Park'n Ride.

Oh, how badly Portland wants to become San Francisco del Norte.

It will be really interesting when some young dummy gets involved in a major accident in a high dollar rental; and they quickly find out that Buffett's cheap ass insurance company is not going to pay for all of the damages.

My first thought was about the insurance also.

If I loan you my car, and you get in a wreck, even if you have your own insurance policy, that accident goes on MY insurance record, and MY insurance rates go up. Not a good risk for the estimated $200/month I could get, assuming anybody would want to drive my 1994 Camry or 2000 Sienna.

After reading the Bill, It looks like someone could easily find the loopholes and reduce their own insurance, get the ride sharing facilitator to pay for the small dings and dents, and maybe allow private owners to mortgage a beater car at a higher than street value. http://www.leg.state.or.us/11reg/measpdf/hb3100.dir/hb3149.intro.pdf

It's very simple.

1) Rent your car out through this system.

2) Person rents your car, gets drunk, gets in an accident, makes someone a quadriplegic.

3) When you get the legal notice in the mail announcing that you are being sued for millions of dollars, just write back "I had nothing to do with it - I was just sharing my car".

4) Poof! The lawsuit goes away, as if by magic!

.....and then there is the guy who just needs to use the car to run to the bank and make a "little withdrawal", or to deliver an important "package".

Jack, does this rental income count as income for tax purposes? I would think that it would, and those who partricipate as owners are going to be surprised when the taxes on the income come due.

I don't know about the surprise, but of course the rental income will be gross income. Schedule E, I believe. You'll likely need an accountant.

There will be Getaround cars in Beaverton and Lake Oswego, Atcheson says. “Zipcar would never place a car there.”

The guy needs to do a little better research. There are Zipcars in Beaverton.

But in the end, this means more people will be driving more cars. How are the car haters going to deal with that?

ZipCar is pretty great because you can rent a variety of vehicles (we rent vans for transporting large groups of family members from time to time), you can do it online, you know the vehicle will be clean and available, you don't have to pay for gas, etc. When you have to depend on another person, it's much more questionable. I wonder how often the rental car isn't available because the person had to run and pick up their kids, or because someone had to go to the ER, or whatever. Combining a rental service with the random events of human life seems like a bad match.

"But in the end, this means more people will be driving more cars. How are the car haters going to deal with that?"

The "car haters" love this idea - what they would like to do eventually is ban private ownership of cars, and force people to get around via public transportation and the occasional highly-taxed Zipcar rental. Anything that they think reduces the percentage of people owning cars will meet with their support.

Be sure to smile for the red light cameras and photo radar...

Great until some 5 year-old gets carsick in back seat or smears ketchup all over. Or you find empty vodka bottles rattling around.

But in the end, this means more people will be driving more cars.

Not true, at least according to Zip Car. So much of a private car's cost is a fixed expense that the owner's incremental cost is not high enough to induce one to scale back driving. But selling one's car and using a Zip car (or other arrangement such as this) makes almost all of the expense incremental, and reduces net mileage driven.

Each Zip car is claimed to replace 5-6 private cars.

People don't choose ZipCars because they save you money, they choose them because they rarely need one and can't justify the full-time expense.

Is your car still subject to seizure if you use it to solicit a prostitute? If so, this program has at least one practical use.

In principle, it's a great idea. I'm sure lots of people had a nervous reaction to Airbnb when it first got started. Airbnb is the only travel accommodation I ever plan on using in the future; we even used it in Australia and it was a cinch. Nothing like an advance opportunity to get a Google street view of the house, or getting excited in advance about pictures of the fabulous view over the ocean from the host's living room, or to find a typed list of the best eateries nearby and a plate of cookies on the kitchen countertop when you arrive.

Be sure to smile for the red light cameras and photo radar...

Especially since the state gets a cut of the violation money from cities' photo enforcement programs.