CAR SHARING SERVICES more affordable and environmentally conscious than owning or leasing a car

CITY CAR SHARE
City Car Share is a service that lets clients reserve and use one of a range of vehicles online and pick them up at tons of locations around the SF Bay Area, providing an interesting concept and seemingly great alternative to having to maintain the expenses related to a car. I'd love to see this concept refined (although they are doing pretty well it seems) and implemented in all major cities. Do I really need a car all the time? Do I really want to throw a bunch of money out the window to maintain it and make payments? I'm personally sick of it and wish Austin had a similar program.

"When you join City Car Share, you'll get an electronic key that opens any car you reserve. Take a wagon to Trader Joe's for an hour. Head to Marin in a Mini for the day. Or pick up a truck and help a friend move across the Bay. Once you're done, just return the car to its original location."

Cost:
Membership dues are $10/month; then it's $4/hour and 44¢/mile for most cars in the fleet—gas and insurance included. And you get half-off the hourly rate from 10pm-10am. To join, there's an application fee of $30 and a security deposit of $300 that is refundable.


ZIPCAR.COM
Zipcar.com offers the same car sharing service but in multiple cities. It uses a card system where a member calls or electronically fills out a reservation and walks to the parking spot where the car is and the card unlocks it. They can then drive for the duration of their reservation and gas, insurance, and XM satellite radio are included.

Available areas: San Francisco, Minneapolis, Chicago, Toronto, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, New York, New Jersey, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Massachussetts.

Cost: varies by city but generally $5-10 per hour with various monthly fees.


FLEXCAR.COM
Flexcar.com works most like Zipcar with the two companies offering different cities and overlapping on some. Also they are 100% carbon neutral due to a partnership with American Forests tree planting.

Available areas: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC.

Cost: varies by city but generally $8-10 per hour with various monthly fees and $40 yearly membership.