Car Sharing Companies

I live a car free diet. What is a car free diet? Well, that is a person who does not have a car and relies on public transportation, their two feet and other means to get to work, school etc.

I have not owned a car since I was 18. It's not that I can't afford a car. Rather its that a car in Washington, DC would cost me close to $500-$600 a month, with the car payment, insurance and parking space cost. (One building I lived in charged $250 a month for a parking space). I could do a ton of travel with $500 a month.

Well, back to the subject of my post, when I can't use public transportation to get somewhere and I need a car, I sometimes rent cars from Hertz or Dollar and other times I use car sharing companies like Zipcar or car2go. I use each for different reasons.

For example, I rent cars from traditional car rental companies (and bank airline points) when I need a car for more than a few hours. Traditionally, I can rent a car, in Washington, DC, for about $20 on a weekend, when I schedule a few weeks in advanced. However, I can not always plan, when I will need a car. Sometimes, I need to run some errands and need a car for a few hours. That is when I turn to car sharing companies for help.

I use Zipcar in this instance. I pay zipcar an annual membership fee and then pay for each hour, anywhere between $8.00 to $15.00 an hour, to use a car. Unlike rental cars, I do not need to travel to airports to pick up a car. Zipcar's cars are parked on the side of  the street in many locations around Washington, DC and the surrounding counties. In fact, there are 20+ cars in a 5 minute walk of my apartment, including one across the street from my apartment's front door. Similarly, I do not have to pay for gas when using Zipcars, its included in the hourly price.

If you are interested in joining Zipcar, check the various organizations that you are a member of, because being a member of certain organization may have lead to a discount on your Zipcar membership fee or free credits. I gained my membership through my alma mater and save money annually on my membership fee.

Why do I bring this up on a travel blog?

A few weeks ago,  I was thinking that I have never though about using Zipcar when visiting a city on vacation. Zipcar has cars in over 50+ cities around the United States. For example, in San Diego, I wanted to go visit, Cabrillo National Monument, but it would have taken 2 hours via a combination of a tram, 2 buses, and my feet. I decided not to go visit the monument, because I only had 4 hours until the monument closed.

I wish I would have brought my Zipcar card on the trip. I could have rented a car for a few hours (for probably about $30 total) and drove to the Monument in about 30 minutes. One might wonder why I did not rent a car on the San Diego trip from Hertz. The reason was the cost of parking at the two hotels I stayed at cost about $15 a night (or $30 for the two nights). Add in the cost of the car rental for two days and gas, the price for the weekend could have been close to $75. 

For future trips, I will be bringing my Zipcar card with me. One never knows when a spontaneous side trip might arise and the ability to visit something out of the reach of public transportation. I like the ability to take the track less traveled and car sharing programs like Zipcar will allow me to do this.

Have you ever used a car sharing program when traveling?