There are plenty of places where having a car is more of a hassle than a help.  Large cities and college campuses come to mind.  Zipcar lets you do away with the hassle of maintaining and owning a car, paying insurance, and worrying about vandals all while improving the environment.

Many people who live in places like New York and London, prefer to use the mass transit system because of its ease and convenience.  But there are times when having a car to escape outside the city is a must.

Zipcar gives big city commuters that option without the headaches of actually owning a car.  The principle works like this, you join Zipcar and get your zipcard that lets you access one of the companies cars.  Look online or call and reserve a car near you.  Walk or take mass transit to the car, flash your zipcard at the windshield which unlocks the car, starts the meter, and allows you to hop in and take off.  At the end of your trip, re-park the car where you found it, flash your zipcard to end the rental and lock the car.  Walk away.  Simple.

Zipcars are especially convenient for students who usually have both on campus and off campus mass transit available and have to pay to keep a car on campus.  Now they can simply sign up with Zipcar and use a nearby car for short trips or day long adventures.  No parking fees, no parking tickets, no insurance fees, no gasoline costs, no maintenance and no hassle – every students dream.

Zipcars can be found in the following cities around the world:  Atlanta, Boston, Champagne-Urbana, Chicago, London, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC.  At least twelve college campuses in North America also have zipcars available for students.  If you have a Zipcar membership, you can reserve and access cars  any where around the world with the same stipulations as the zipcars near you.

Since the car is being shared, the overall driving of Zipcar members (called zipsters), tends to drop by 90 percent once  they become zipsters.  This means that the cities and universities that have Zipcar franchises, have less car emission pollution than other cities of comparable size.

The cars are pretty nifty too.  You can reserve Mazda 3s, Prius’, Mini Coopers, Scions, and more.  The cars are well maintained, clean, no smoking, and have a gas card over the visor for the rare time you need to fill-up.

I wish we had something like this in Asheville, Raleigh or Charlotte, North Carolina.  I’d love to see a light rail system between the three with the ability to reserve a zipcar once you arrive in your destination city.  The savings in gas and productive time would be amazing.

Maybe we can get part of that Green infrastructure money we keep hearing about.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm under Auto, Green Technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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