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?

[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