Having a car on campus can be expensive. The hourly rental car-sharing service Zipcar, however, has arrived on campus to aid students who require a car for their everyday lives.
This fall, the University of Massachusetts introduced a partnership with Zipcar to add to the variety of transportation services available on campus. Six cars are currently on campus and available to students, including a Toyota Prius and a Honda Civic. The Zipcars, in addition to the previous Enterprise CarShare service on campus, are located in campus lots near Central, Northeast and Southwest residential areas.
After paying $25 to join, the partnership allows students who are 18 years or older to use cars for as low as $7.50 per hour or $69 a day. These rates include both gas and insurance, allowing students a more affordable means of getting around than owning and parking their own cars on campus. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Zipcar makes cars available for anything from running to the grocery store to heading to Boston for an afternoon.
While Zipcar is similar to the Enterprise CarShare service already offered, their prices differ slightly. According to Diana Noble, Assistant Manager for Transportation Services, the Zipcars have been added to the transportation options available on campus to “give the user … options as well as the best market price for the service.”
Car sharing allows students to support campus sustainability efforts while also deviating from fixed local bus routes. Studies have shown that each Zipcar takes approximately 15 personally owned cars off the road, reducing road congestion and fuel emission.
“By bringing car sharing on campus, we are encouraging students, faculty and staff to leave their cars at home or ditch them all together,” Noble said.
The first company to offer shared or rented cars to people under 25 years old by the hour, Zipcar is also the first to offer the service to a wider range of college students. While the Zipcar University program has made its variety of on campus cars available to students 18 years and over, only students who are over 21 years old can use the service in other Zipcar locations while at home on breaks.
Offered on more than 300 campuses nationwide, the Zipcar University program has been a continued success.
“College students quickly embrace the concept of car sharing,” said CJ Himberg, communications and social media coordinator for Zipcar. “This is the same generation that buys music by the song. Reserving a shared car by the hour is a natural extension.”
Advertised at UFest earlier this month, in campus media and on the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses, the new UMass-Zipcar partnership has prompted significant student interest, though exact numbers are not yet available.
In addition of their University program, Zipcar has partnered with Ford to introduce “Students with Drive,” which sponsors student groups and organizations on college campuses and provides them with Zipcar membership and grants to further their missions. According to Himberg, the grants were established to “empower student groups by getting them where they want to go easily and efficiently.”
Three finalists per month are chosen for each category (Academics, Arts, Athletics, Community Service and Student Life) and a winning group, chosen by Facebook votes, is rewarded with $5,500 in Zipcar credit for their student organization. A “Students with Drive” Grand Prize is awarded each April, consisting of $5,000 in Zipcar driving credit, $10,000 cash for the group and $10,000 for the university’s scholarship fund.
As a way to support and give back to student-run organizations that support their universities, Zipcar hopes to see some UMass student groups vie for the “Students with Drive” prizes this year.
Carri Bresnahan can be reached at [email protected].
