CAN I BORROW THE CAR? SEATTLE-BASED FLEXCAR BRINGS BY-THE-HOUR AUTO RENTING TO SOUTHLAND.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Just about anyone who's considered taking a bus or train for their daily commute has most likely run into the inevitable dead-end: What if you need to step out for an appointment, run an errand, or go to an unexpected meeting with a client?

Flexcar - the nation's largest car-share company, which loans out wheels for about $7 an hour - is gearing up to pull its fleet into Los Angeles to provide what it calls the missing link in public transportation.

``I think it has real significant potential in the L.A. area ... This allows you to basically have what I call mobility insurance. You've got a safety valve when you're there,'' said Neil Peterson, the former head of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a precursor to today's MTA, who is the founder, president and CEO of the Seattle-based company.

To head up the new Los Angeles office, Flexcar tapped former City Councilman Michael Woo, who has been on the job for the past few weeks, shopping the idea to corporate clients and neighborhoods.

``I think there are going to be a lot of opportunities all over town - from Burbank to Santa Monica to Long Beach,'' said Woo, who represented the Hollywood area on the council.

``I can assure you the San Fernando Valley is very much on our radar screen. Warner Center, CSUN, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Universal City, Burbank - those are all candidates for an early car-sharing project.''

Started in 2000, Flexcar is now the oldest and largest car-sharing company in the nation, with 6,000 customers in Seattle, Portland, Ore., the San Francisco Bay area, and Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Based on models of similar services in Europe, Flexcar started first in residential areas, where neighbors signed up to share cars, and has since expanded to corporate clients like Starbucks in Seattle, who park Flexcar vehicles in the company lot, officials said.

Here's how it works:

In Southern California, members pay $25 to join - which covers the costs of running background checks with the DMV - and are given a key that fits into any Flexcar in the fleet.

When members want to use a vehicle, they call up the reservation center, check out a car for a block of time, then return it when they're done.

Prices vary for those using the cars just once in a while to those who would use it more than a few times a month. For example, individual use is about $3.50 an hour, plus 90 cents a mile, making the cost of an average few-mile errand about $10. A program Flexcar now has running in Long Beach charges $8 an hour.

For more frequent users - those with regular commitments to haul the soccer team to games or visit a relative, for example - there are various pricing plans starting at $35 a month.

On average, members spend about $75 a month, which compares with the average $600 a month that Flexcar says Angelenos spend to keep their cars up and running.

Flexcar covers the insurance and gas, and offers a range of vehicles, including four-door Honda Civics, pickup trucks, electric vehicles and even Mazda Miata convertibles.

The company's first foray into the Los Angeles area came earlier this year, when it stationed a few electric vehicles at the Bikestation Long Beach, which is a sort of pit stop for bicycle commuters heading to and from the city.

Justin Adleff and Chad Cross, two 20-somethings looking for office space for their Web design business in downtown Long Beach, had figured they would just bike to work - until they realized they might occasionally need more powerful wheels to get around.

``Just in case we had a big day, and we both pedaled in to work, we can rent it for the day and the cost won't kill us,'' Cross said.

Adleff adds that with parking spaces going for about $80 at the downtown buildings, they plan to keep on biking to work and keep whatever company spaces they eventually rent open for their clients.

Another Long Beach customer, new mom Amanda Lambert, signed up for the service in April when her daughter was born, after growing tired of having to take buses to prenatal appointments and grocery shopping, since she and her husband could no longer afford to keep up their car.

``It's excellent. It's like the most awesome thing,'' said Lambert, who works within walking distance from her home. ``We've been using it to, like, run errands and stuff, because it's horrible not having a car.''

Members say it's easier than using a rental car company because you simply call up and reserve the vehicle, without going through the paperwork for each rental.

The company sees the business as an opportunity to try to help reduce congestion on the area's crowded freeways by encouraging transit in a way that doesn't leave riders fully dependent on public rides.

Flexcar says its customers tend to be those transit users in urban areas, many with college degrees, who consider themselves environmentally conscious. At the same time, the company views its cars as retail outlets that will be moved from one neighborhood to another to meet demand.

Caltrans has been considering creating a similar car-sharing program with a fleet of vehicles available to groups as a way to reduce highway congestion.

The Metropolitan Transportation Agency has had talks with the company about ways to possibly include the service in ride-sharing or other programs.

``We do think it's a good idea, one we're evaluating as a possible element in a range of MTA-sponsored employer programs,'' MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said. ``Particularly in an area like Los Angeles, you need a whole range of options.''

Woo, a councilman until his unsuccessful bid against Richard Riordan for mayor in 1993, is an urban planner by profession and saw the job with Flexcar as a way to continue work he has long studied.

``I thought it would be an interesting way for me to deal with some of the traffic problems I had to deal with as an elected official,'' said Woo, who also ran for council again in 2001 in the widely contested 13th District. ``A lot of people assume you can't do anything about traffic. Car-sharing, on one hand, is a kind of transit enabler; on the other it gives people a freedom of mobility that existing transit may not be able to provide.''

Peterson hopes to start nothing short of a trend.

``My goal, my vision is to make it like a movement, to make it something everyone wants to be part of,'' said Peterson, who also headed up the Seattle transportation bureau and the Alameda/Contra Costa Transit District.

``It's like recycling ... If a whole bunch of people do it, it can have an impact. It doesn't take years.''

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Former Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Woo, above, heads up the Los Angeles branch of Flexcar - a Seattle-based firm that rents cars by the hour. Left, Woo drives a Flexcar at the Bikestation in Long Beach.

Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer