Ann Arbor is just one of many cities embracing such car-sharing programs as Zipcar. With more than 750K members, car-sharing programs are becominga vianle alternative, particularly for a younger generation with different transportation priorities than their parents.
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"In the case of car sharing, a few factors have contributed to its rise. "Re-urbanization is a big trend," says Mark Norman, president and chief operating officer of Zipcar, based in Cambridge, Mass. "Lots of people are staying in cities, raising their kids there. Empty nesters are returning to walkable communities."
"We're dancing around the issue of young buyers," says Bruce Belzowski, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor. Young adults have "different priorities than having a new vehicle," he says.
Millennials aren't buying cars in the volumes their counterparts once did. Adults ages 24 to 31 bought just 27 percent of vehicles sold in the United States in 2010, down from a peak of 38 percent in 1985."
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