There is no shortage of online carpooling or rideshare websites -
PickupPal, Ridester, 511 Rideshare, to name just three. What might set the new "carpool community" Zimride apart is a tie-in with Facebook (it's also a Facebook app) that will give users an easy way to find out a thing or two about their potential ride partners before hopping in the car with them. Through Facebook, users can check out pictures and see what hitchhikers/drivers are into and pick a ride based on compatibility (or looks, if you wanted).

Aside from Zimride, another new online rideshare application (whose name I forget right now) is available on the iPhone/iPod Touch. You know, just in case you want to ride with someone who shares your sense of Mac style.

[Source: Zimride]

Most of us here in the U.S. don't get the opportunity to drive around in the UK very often, and that includes myself. Still, I was a bit shocked when I read the press release I've now posted after the break, which announced that the UK has just opened the country's first High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane. So, they're a little ahead in roundabouts, and we're a little ahead in carpooling.

Anyway, the lane runs just 1.7-mile and links the southbound M606 near Bradford to the eastbound M62 towards Leeds. Any vehicle with more than one occupant is welcome to use the lane, as are motorcycles. The lane was added by utilizing the already available shoulder of the roadway. Assuming that this experiment goes well, the Department for Transport has identified 500 more miles of roadway where a hard shoulder could be utilized as an HOV lane.

[Source: Department for Transport]

The video above is a France 24 news report about City Car Share, a not-for-profit car sharing program based in San Francisco. The video report says City Car Share has 15,000 members that pay rates of $4 an hour and 44 cents a mile. A mother of two was interviewed in the report and she says that the most she ever spent in a month, which happened when her family moved, she only spent $80. Below the jump is a video ad, by San Francisco State University, showing the benefits of City Car Share. The benefits include no insurance cost, no fuel cost, free parking and no maintenance. Are you sharing a car?

Related:

• Carsharing, yes; owning, no - An AutoblogGreen writer's story
• Zipcar in San Francisco: 5,000 members strong and growing
• Car-share programs heat up Chicago
• UHaul enters the car-sharing system with U Car Share
• CityWheels carsharing program offers alternative to car ownership
• Car sharing is the new hip thing in Japan
• "Swipe a Car" is how Charter Drive pitches their car sharing service
• Now you can WhizzGo in York

[Source: YouTube]

The video above is of a BAE Systems' electric-powered military vehicle. According to one of video description, BAE Systems has made military vehicles with "electromagnetic hub mounted wheel motors from MST." The military is very interested in the silence and efficiency of electric vehicles because of the tactical advantages of stealth and long ranges. Below the fold you will find a video of MIT's concept electric city car. The car stacks in a row, which allows for a better use of space and the car at the end of the stack to recharge. The cars can even be customized to match the drivers preferences. Watch it change colors in the video.

[Source: YouTube]

There are reports that the car share companies Zipcar and Flexcar will merge. Financial terms were not disclosed but it looks like Zipcar is absorbing the smaller Flexcar. The name of the merged company, which will have more than 5,000 vehicles and 180,000 subscribers in 48 cities, will be Zipcar. The news is expected to be made official by the weekend. We will have more as the story develops.

[Source: Washington Post, Seattle Times]

As you can see in the pic, my car sharing user card arrived in the post today. That's nice, 48 hours after I faxed all the documentation they requested. The pic also shows the T10 cards that allow 10 trips on any kind of public transport in Barcelona Metro Area, on up to 4 different transport modes.

Now what I have done is checked the reservation system at the website, which is really easy to use. The reservation management screen is very simple: simply choose the start time and date for rental and the time you want to return the car. Cars must be rented at least for one hour.

Then simply choose the location and drop station. Note that I must return the car to the same station I took the car from. Avancar has 21 stations in the city of Barcelona and 4 additional ones in nearby cities (Granollers, Sabadell and Sant Cugat del Vallès). All the stations are in easy-to-find parking lots and most of them are at just a few minutes from a public transport stop or station.

Finally, the systems asks me to choose the car I want and gives an estimate of the cost of the rental, without figuring in miles driven. Continue after the break to find about the cars available.

Related:

• Carsharing, yes; owning, no #3: Registration process (and reading small print)
• Carsharing, yes; owning, no - An AutoblogGreen writer's story, pt. 2: Knowing your provider
• Carsharing, yes; owning, no - An AutoblogGreen writer's story

I need to replace my car. But, I have decided, more exactly, that I'm going carless. I currently have a car which has served me good. My late-1998 Seat Ibiza TDI Hit has reached 200,000 km on the odometer. The car has been a constant source of satisfaction. Since the TDi engines appeared in Audi in 1989, they have delivered excellent mileage, emissions and reliability. Most of the diesel craze that Europeans live in is a direct influence of that technology. However, after 9 years of good service, my car has started to show severe signs of wear and tear.

I was born and raised and am currently living in Barcelona, Spain. As with most major European cities, Barcelona has a decent network of public transport, although we locals consider it dramatically insufficient and outdated. It's also a permanent focus for political debate among different administrations and the press prints pages and pages about it.

So why rely on this for my transportation? Find out after the jump.

Many car rental services have an age requirement of 21. Car sharing services Flexcar and Zipcar are lowering their requirement to 18 as they expand into more universities this Fall. Car companies avoid younger drivers because they crash. 16 to 19 year olds crash four times more often than people over 20 according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Car shares are membership services, so they think they can offset the risk by considering driving records and avoid bans or fees like the major rental services. Flexcar's pilot program of six universities showed college students are actually safer drivers than the average young person. So they plan to expand the lower age requirement to 18 schools this Fall. The car shares are also expanding into new schools.

Flexcar is about to announce deals with Arizona State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Zipcar says it's launching in up to 15 schools this Fall, including Yale University and Carnegie Mellon University. Hertz recently said it would start renting cars by the hour for special card members, an option pioneered by car sharing companies. Don't be surprised if you see the major car rental services on campuses soon looking to get into the younger, safer driver market.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]