Found in Zipcar
byEver since I used Zipcar’s service for National Digital Media Day I’ve been hooked. I still walk where I need to go, take the bus etc. but it’s great to have that option. Last Sunday we were supposed to head out to Surrey so that my family could celebrate John‘s birthday with him however, that morning while running, his calf muscle seized up and caused him excruciating pain for hours. We didn’t want to miss seeing my family but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to walk, bus, then Skytrain all the way out there. I hopped on Zipcar.com, booked a peppy little Nissan Versa, and we were off to Surrey for the afternoon.
I’ve used Zipcar about three times now and not only is it convenient in a pinch, it also gives us a chance to shop around for cars. We were recently thinking about purchasing a vehicle and were in love with the Yaris based on a rental we once had. Now after having the Mini, John’s pretty much in love and I can’t get enough of the new Civic. Although with an option like Zipcar our plans for purchasing our own vehicle might very well be put off for a while.
One thing about the service is that it is a car sharing program, there could be 8 drivers of the same car in one day. I may have heard from unnamed sources that cars from other programs in the city sometimes have a … personal funk to them, which I’m lucky has never happened with Zipcar so far. For example, the Civic I drove the other day only had 1060kms on it – these are some shiny new cars. Regardless, with so many users there’s bound to be some that forget to clean up when they park the car at the end of their reservation. As such, I’m starting a mini-series called on Flickr called “Found in Zipcar“.
It’s not so much to point out that the cars are dirty – they’re far from it – but to perhaps remind some folks that when you’re sharing a service (or even if you’re on public transit) littering and forgetting to pick up after yourself isn’t okay. This is PSA meets entertainment – I’m waiting til I find something totally bizarre like a knitting needle… or a sheep.
The Miss604 referral program is still working in case you’d like to check out Zipcar for yourself with a discounted annual membership rate. They have over a dozen locations to pick up a car downtown alone – just reserve online, walk up to the car, (snap a picture of anything left in it for the Flickr group), and off you go.
Full disclosure: Zipcar has not paid me in any way to endorse their product, they did however, cover my membership as a part of the NDMD08 sponsorship. “Found in Zipcar” is purely a Miss604.com idea and has not been put forward to Zipcar.
9 Comments — Comments Are Closed
I love the rotting banana peel 🙂
Why can’t people treat things like that as ‘if it was their own’? Or do they? :S
Ew, banana. I use Co-op. Auto Network cars (should there be another flikr group for those??) and rarely find gross things left behind: an umbrella in yesterday’s.
Like smallduck, I use the Co-op and have never found anything gross in their cars (and never encountered a “personal funk”). Although I once found a complete set of dishes and a pair of running shoes in the trunk of one of the cars. Very odd.
Any particular reason you choose Zip over the Co-op?
My experience with both was limited, aside from visiting booths at the Green Living Show and EPIC Expo although I did look around the blogosphere and ask a few people. Each have their benefits, strong points, and weaknesses and I think I know more people who use the Co-op (thus I’ve heard more positive and negative feedback in general about the Co-op). However, Zipcar is also North America-wide which may come in handy during travels south of the border.
I also use the Co-op, and it’s been nothing but a good experience. The cars in my area are new and clean. Though they go through quite a bit of use, they’re well maintained. I’m pretty passionate about my Co-op!
I’ve been a member of CAN (co-op) as well for over 8 years. I’ve never encountered any kind of ‘funk’. I wonder who your ‘unnamed sources’ are.
I also have used CAN for 5 years and have never had any problems or ‘funk’ except maybe once. It’s an extremely well managed organization and if members are consistently disrespectful to cars, they will be fined or asked to leave. I also am a member of zipcar and haven’t had any problems with them either ( except that their pricing is too expensive for many trips). Just join both and try them out before coming to conclusions.
Recently on a business meeting with a zipcar, I found somebody’s retainer in the glove compartment when grabbing the fuel card. Ewww.
I personally think Zipcar is much better, I find Zipcar has newer vehicles as well less restrictions in regards to picking up a vehicle at anytime. I have faith in my zipcars, a few days ago I saw a co-op vehicle in a back alley on blocks and another vehicle that had its bumper attached with duct-tape. Another point to note is co-op is really only usefull in Vancouver, but what if I want to go to say Seattle, San Fran, just to name afew places, well atleast I have option with zipcar they are all over the place.