I believe it started in NYcity where many folks go without cars.
On Tue, 2 Feb 2010, Don wrote: > I recently read a good audio book, called car free. Basically about a growing > group of sighted folks, that are learning, that they actually can live with > out a car, by using altermitive forms of transportation, such as buses cabs, > from time to time, and renting a car are truck, once an a while, all so > walking, and riding bikes. > They are finally realizing how much money they can save very quickly with out > a car payment, and all the insurance, and repairs, that go along with owning > a car. > This Zip car idea would be great for them. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dan Rossi > To: Blind Handyman List > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 10:16 AM > Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Zip Car. > > > > This is pretty tangentially related to handyman stuff, but follow me here. > Many blind handymen don't own vehicles. Often we may not know someone who > does own a proper vehicle, something useful like a pickup truck. But we > do know sighted people who drive. > > Teresa and I have rented trucks in the past for hauling large items but it > looks like this Zip Car concept, www.zipcar.com, has some pretty good > benefits as well as being comparatively inexpensive. > > You pay a $50 annual fee. Then you can use any Zip Car anywhere in the > world, they are pretty much only in major cities, for a reasonable hourly > or daily rental fee. The rental fee includes gas, insurance, maintenance, > and milage. > > The cars are parked at various locations around a city, and there are maps > of where the various cars are located on the website. You can reserve > online anywhere from a few hours, to a year in advance. You have a > special ZIPCar card, with an RFID tag on it. The card will unlock only > the specific car you reserved at the time you reserved it. It won't > unlock it early, and it won't unlock a different car in another location. > The keys are in the car, and there is a gas card that you can use to fill > the tank. Don't ask me how they prevent you from using the gas card to > fill your car, I haven't seen that answer yet. > > Technically, milage isn't unlimited, but you get 180 free miles whether > you rent for an hour or a day. > > Vehicles rent for anywhere from 7 bucks an hour up to something in the > teens for high end vehicles. They have a couple of Toyota Tacoma pickup > trucks in Pittsburgh and those rent for about $11.50 an hour. Although, > there are PA and PGH taxes and fees that make it more like $16.50 for the > first hour, and $12.50 for each additional hour. There is a one hour > minimum rental period, but after the first hour you can rent by the half > hour. > > There are heavy penalties if you don't return the vehicle by the end of > your rental period. You can extend your period by phone, but if the car > has already been reserved right after your original period, you can't > extend. > > I've spoken with a guy at work who uses the system mainly for the pickup > truck as well. He says he never has an issue reserving the vehicle, > especially if he does it a few days in advance. > > Overall, it sounds like a very flexible and affordable way to get one's > hands on a vehicle from time to time. Less expensive than UHaul from my > experience. > > -- > Blue skies. > Dan Rossi > Carnegie Mellon University. > E-Mail: d...@andrew.cmu.edu > Tel: (412) 268-9081 > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > >
