Car Shares Options

[Hartmann]

While I was in San Francisco I noticed a few different car sharing services, ZipCars and Flexcar. After looking them up it seems pretty cool and a good idea. If I was living there, I probably would not want to own a car so they have shared cars, that you get a little card for and can use as they are left at specific places across the city.

Just thought it was a neat way with people only needing cars on certain days or for only a few hours at a time.

Thoughts? Anyone seen anything like this elsewhere?

[schwab]

i just dont see how the logistics of that would work, like how can you trust people to clean, leave the cars where they are supposed to , etc....

[blaarg]

While I was in San Francisco I noticed a few different car sharing services, ZipCars and Flexcar. After looking them up it seems pretty cool and a good idea. If I was living there, I probably would not want to own a car so they have shared cars, that you get a little card for and can use as they are left at specific places across the city.

Just thought it was a neat way with people only needing cars on certain days or for only a few hours at a time.

Thoughts? Anyone seen anything like this elsewhere?

I saw a report on them on CNN a couple days back.
Seems like a pretty good idea.

[impala454]

i'm not really certain where i see the benefit of something like this... depending on how much it costs i guess. i'd be pretty pissed if i drove my shared car somewhere, went into a store for 5 mins, then came out and it was gone. just seems like it wouldn't be too reliable.

[Spectatrix]

i'm not really certain where i see the benefit of something like this... depending on how much it costs i guess. i'd be pretty pissed if i drove my shared car somewhere, went into a store for 5 mins, then came out and it was gone. just seems like it wouldn't be too reliable.

Members have keycards to access the cars and the only work during the time that they have the car reserved. Thus another person can't nab the car while you have it checked out.

[impala454]

ahhh ok. well that makes a little more sense. so this is basically a car rental service.

[Spectatrix]

Pretty much, yeah, except that it's intended for regular use as a substitute for owning your own car.

From Flexcar's wiki entry:

Flexcar members choose a rate plan and pay an annual fee. The fees cover gasoline, insurance, maintenance, and cleaning. The vehicles are mostly late-model sedans, with other types, such as light trucks, hybrids, and minivans, also available. Each vehicle has a home location, a reserved space either in a parking lot or on a street, typically in a highly-populated urban neighborhood. Members reserve a car by web or telephone and use a key card to access the vehicle. The reservation must specify the pick up and return time, so others can schedule the vehicle. Vehicles are returned to their home location.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexcar

Zipcar:

Members are given an access card, called a "Zipcard", which will open the vehicle they have reserved only at the time they have reserved it. Each vehicle records hours of usage and mileage, which is uploaded to a central computer via a wireless data link. The location of the vehicles is not tracked during a reservation for privacy reasons but is trackable. The reservation includes driver's insurance (state mandated minimums), a gas card for the car, XM Satellite Radio, and reimbursements for typical car maintenance items like car washes and window wiper fluid refills. When someone becomes a member, they can also automatically reserve and use a Zipcar in any Zipcar city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipcar

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Jul 31 2007, 12:08 PM

[Hartmann]

Yeah, it's a rental car service at its core but the expense is different and there is not a whole lot of crap to go through to get one.

We saw them all over the city in San Francisco, parked in places that would be really convenient to not only pick one up but also to drop one off (close to public transit). When I was at the Farmer's Market near the Ferry Building I saw 5-10 of these cars parked in the nearby parking lot, I'm assuming from people who took BART from outside of the city but didn't want to ride MUNI.

Just an interesting idea. I doubt it would work here in Houston but I could see it being useful for someone in downtown Austin (maybe Houston for that matter).

[Inferia]

Zipcars are usually rented on an hourly bases. I think it's more useful for inner city folks. My friend was telling me that people in NYC use it for grocery shopping when you would like to purchase a week worth of groceries, but would not like to carry 15 bags down 10 blocks. I'm not sure of the benefit of a zipcar in smaller towns...

[chook]

I always liked the idea if I was in a big city.