Something on my never-gonna-happen list happened today. No, RTA didn't announce plans for the Magnolia Avenue Rapid Streetcar, but it's ALMOST that awesome. Riverside is now the first city in the Inland Empire with car-sharing, as Zipcar is now available in two locations on the UC Riverside campus. (Prior to this, the closest Zipcar to us was on the campus of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont- ALMOST in the IE, but not quite.)
Car-sharing is an excellent alternative for those who want to live in suburbia without owning a car. Let's face it- most people will find a need for an automobile at least on occasion out here in the IE. An occasional need for a car does not warrant keeping one in the garage 24/7, though, and ZipCar makes it VERY easy to shed that unnecessary vehicle.
UC Riverside students, faculty and staff are obviously encouraged to join (with insanely low rates- $35/year, with no application fee and no minimums), but members of the community are also permitted to do so (without the insanely low rates).
Let's hear it for the progressive people at UCR's Transportation and Parking Services, for turning never-gonna-happen into happened-Monday.
2 comments:
Zip cars are in use in San Francisco parked at various locations around the City. Perhaps they are also around the SF Bay Area I am not sure about that.
You can pick up zip cars at any location and park them at any location.
Folks can rent them for just an hour or two.
Can't recall how it all works but I believe folks sign up to be able to use zip cars, and once signed up they can use them when they need to use them.
I noticed the zip cars at a couple of locations when I was in SF last November for about a month.
I spoke to a few people who used the cars and they were very happy with zip cars and felt the cost to use the cars was very reasonable.
I should've mentioned- Anyone over 21 who joins Zipcar here gets access to every other Zipcar in the US, Canada and the UK, including the literally hundreds that dot the San Francisco Bay Area (in the City itself, as well as downtown Oakland and Berkley).
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