After staying on campus for little more than a full semester, PhillyCarShare’s car is no longer at Eastern, leaving its spot in the McInnis parking lot empty.
PhillyCarShare contacted Eastern in January over Christmas break, informing the school of the company’s decision to take the car back because the number of people using the car was too low. In general, Eastern’s pact with PhillyCarShare was just not economically working out.
Katie Brenneman, student development office manager, was in charge of working on ways to advertise PhillyCarShare to students. She thinks that if there was more marketing for the car, students’ awareness would rise about the car’s existence.
“Educating the community could dispel any confusion about the program,” Brenneman said. “It definitely has potential.”
While just getting out the word might be helpful, some students expressed concern that signing up for the car was too confusing and difficult.
“It was too much of a hassle,” first-year Jenn Schifano said. “I just wanted to go to the mall.”
Others expressed genuine sadness that the car had been taken, especially those who used it on a weekly to monthly basis.
“It was really nice to have a car from time to time to do personal errands with,” said Leah Mulhearn, resident director of Gallup and coordinator of housing. Mulhearn only has one car to share with her husband, Jim, and she enjoyed taking the PhillyCarShare car for those necessary appointments.
The cherry red Toyota Prius hybrid is gone for now. Brenneman hopes that PhillyCarShare will provide another car someday. However, she commented that Eastern would have to prove it would use the car more before the program would return to campus.