Zipcars

Okay, I can't take credit for this post completely- I was looking at domino's daily dose and saw a write-up on these, but it was such an interesting idea I had to check it out for myself...and then share with everyone I know!

Have your heard of these zipcars? Apparently they are in a lot of cities- seemingly towards the coasts, for now, but they seem to be growing inward of the US and in the UK. They are cars, stationed around the city, that you can rent for an hour, a day, or longer. It's an alternative to having to rent a car for days and days (and find a way to get to it), and an alternative to owning a car when you don't do much driving. They advertise using it to go get groceries- wonderful. If you walk to work, why would you need to own a car?? Honestly- there are like...three errands, maybe, that I need to run each week - I walk to the gym and if I could walk to work, would never need to drive. I looked at the rates for Chapel Hill because it's the closest to Charlotte and we're looking at like $5 / hour, including insurance, maintenance and GAS. If I read the website correctly... apparently you get a card - a ZipCard - hold it up to the windshield of the car you've reserved online, and it unlocks and you drive it! They've got little mini coopers, VWs, SUVs, trucks, etc... Your credit card is charged automatically... all in all, this sounds pretty sweet, and once they get to Charlotte, might be pretty tempting. We'll see, though.