Comments on Jonathan's review of Zipcar, Inc.
Zipcar, Inc.
Description: A car sharing company with a motto of a creating a positive impact on the environment and local communities.Flexcar and Zipcar are now one car-sharing program, operating as Zipcar.
Just right for a big city dweller
Choosing to live in a large city comes with its own set of compromises. One of the larger ones: transportation.
Where I live in San Francisco, I only have a handful of options for getting around town. However, when it comes to getting groceries or going out of town, I pretty much have to take a car. So I can either buy a car to sit mostly unused most of the time, take a taxi (expensive), or I can just share some cars with other people in the same position and make use of it only when it's needed.
This is where Zipcar comes in.
Zipcar is a fleet of vehicles placed in different parking lots throughout the city. From there users reserve a car online, use it, and bring it back to the same lot.
Getting set up with the service is dead simple. Sign up online using your drivers license with which Zipcar checks your record and sends you an email to let you know that you're approved. From there, you prepay a set amount each month according to your account plan. After you've signed up, you'll receive a plastic card with an RFID wafer inside called a "Zipcard". This is used to lock and unlock cars you've reserved.
When you're ready to drive somewhere, the process is straightforward. You call or go online to reserve the use of a particular car. Zipcar informs the car from remote to unlock the car when you use your Zipcard. When you get to the car, you just hold your Zipcard over a reader behind the windshield which either unlocks or locks the car. The keys to the ignition are kept inside, so you can just hop in and take off.
One of the biggest pluses for more regular users is that the cost of all gasoline is included. There's a gas card kept inside that you can use at the pump to pay. With gasoline prices well over $3 in California, this one feature alone can make it more cost effective to use a Zipcar over owning one's own car.
Jonathan's keywords: transportation, city living, cars
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