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Sep 2, 2008 10:02 pm US/Eastern
New Company Helps People Share Cars
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Sharing a car with more than a thousand people may sound like an impossible idea, but there's a company that says it has figured it out.
CBS
Sharing a car with more than a thousand people may sound like an impossible idea, but there's a company that says it has figured it out. The concept is expanding here in Maryland.
Kelly McPherson has more on how the Zipcar service is catching on.
You'll start seeing these cars around the area. The driver could be one of thousands of faces. Starting this week, Goucher College students and staff can join Zipcar to reserve a hybrid.
"It helps students get around without actually having to bring a car up here," said student Katherine Sadasivan.
The shared car services gives card-key access to the cars 24 hours a day whenever you have signed up to take it. Weekly cleaning and maintenance is up to the college.
"It also knows what the odometer reading is, so what it does is signal 1,000 miles before it needs service so we can schedule the service to take it in and have service done on it," said Therese Neal with Goucher College Operations.
Zipcars are popping up all over the area. To find one near you, just go to the website and it's very easy. Type in your zip code and you can see where the cars are located. If you're going to other cities and need to borrow a Zipcar, you can do that on the website, too.
In Washington D.C., there are hundreds of Zipcars parked in different neighborhoods. The campus is paying about $3,000 per month to the Zipcar company to provide two cars to students.
"There's a lot of people here who are from New York and other places where it's really normal not to drive, so they don't have cars," said Jordan Yoder.
The cars always come back to campus filled up and ready for the next user.
"When the car gets to a quarter full, then the student who's driving the car at the time takes it and gets it filled with the Zipcar credit card and puts it back in its place," Neal said.
Once it catches on, hundreds of people could be sharing the hybrids, keeping other vehicles out of campus parking lots and roads.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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