Crowd-Shared Cars? Car2Go, Zipcar and Others Make This Fantasy A Growing Reality
Scotty Reiss
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If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic and thought “I wish I could just leave my car here and walk!” well, now you can. Or, if you’ve ever needed a car just for a few minutes, or a few hours, or a few days, but the closest rental agency is a $100 cab ride to the airport–thus killing the idea–your needs are now served: Car sharing services and convenient phone apps that make them handy and manageable are on the rise.
Car Sharing Services
Car2Go, a product of Daimler (parent of Mercedes-Benz) even allows for one-way rentals and charges by the minute (38 cents per); the service is operating in six US sities and has 12 other operations around the globe. There are more than two dozen car sharing services in operation now, and if the recent $491 million dollar acquisition of Zipcar by Avis is any indication, the idea is a growing one, according to a story in the New York Times.
And, these services may be great ways to see some cool cities when travling: Car2Go’s US locations include Austin, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, San Diego and Portland; Zipcar can be found in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago, among others.