SOCIAL: CCS, Flexcar, Zipcar rates

[bk]

:) of course we do... and we're cuter, too! hee... i've been working  
here at city carshare for 3+ years and been a member for 4. a cuppla  
nuggets i should prolly add:

- flex and zip both charge an annual fee. that should be pro-rated  
into the "monthly" category, imho.
- please note that miles are NOT totally free with flex and zip. in  
the fine print, they both limit the total amount you can drive per  
day, so if you were thinking you could take a car to tahoe for $60 a  
day, think again.

some other things to think about:
- city carshare has an environmental mission: every mile you drive  
burns gas, so every mile costs. you've always got an incentive to  
drive less.
- we also have a social mission: neither of our competitors offers  
programs for low-income people, nor do they have it in their mission  
to expand mobility to disadvantaged communities.
- we are the only carshare to open up our records to allow an in- 
depth study of the effects of carsharing on people's driving habits.  
UC Berkeley's cervero study concluded that our members had saved over  
1 million gallons of gas since our founding.
- flexcar's major funder is steve case. in case you don't know his  
politics, do a google search... ( e.g.,  http://www.onlinepolicy.org/ 
research/ospa/aolcasedonation.htm )
- zipcar is funded by benchmark capital. VC's like bigbig returns on  
their $10 million. guess where that's going to come from?
- zipcar worked to squash WalkBoston's grant for funding for starting  
up a non-profit carshare in boston, according to one of their special  
projects directors.
- zipcar tried to sue city carshare for using green beetles (!)

i have a zillion stories i could tell about cool stuff we do and the  
even cooler stuff our members do, but i'll spare you all :) or i'll  
write "carshare confidential" someday...

so sign up! (if you use the promo code 1776 when you join, we'll even  
waive the application fee!)

: b





On Apr 4, 2006, at 6:19 PM, Paul Spinrad wrote:

> I looked at the websites so you don't have to!  Here are price  
> comparisons
> for City CarShare and local Flexcar and Zipcar franchises:
>
> City CarShare - citycarshare.org
> Monthly: $10
> Hourly: $4 (or $2, from 10pm to 10am)
> Mileage: $0.44/mile
>
> Flexcar - flexcar.com
> Monthly: $0 (or more, depending on plan)
> Hourly: $9 (or down to $7.30, depending on plan)
> Mileage: $0
>
> Zipcar - zipcar.com
> Monthly: $0
> Hourly: $8.50 (or down to $7.25, depending on plan)
> Mileage: $0
>
> I like the no mileage thing, but CCS's per hour is way lower, so  
> that still
> seems better for around town.  Normally I'd trust for-profit chains  
> to run
> more efficiently and have better prices than a nonprofit, but  
> apparently in
> this case it ain't necessarily so.
>
> Paul
>
>
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>