High gas prices have us all feeling the pinch ($65 bucks last night for me), and as you're all well aware, many folks are changing their driving style, the amount of driving they do, or, in some cases, saying good-bye to their cars or trucks entirely. One beneficiary of people's changes of heart is Zipcar. The car-sharing service announced this week that its average monthly signups are triple what they were a year ago, with 40% of its new members citing fuel prices as the reason they've decided to join. Services like Zipcar allow people to use cars by the hour or by the day, and the vehicles are generally situated in urban areas where car ownership can be inconvenient, expensive, or, in many cases, both.

According to Zipcar (their announcement is pasted after the jump), members who opted to participate in the company's latest survey are saving as much as $600 per month by choosing the service instead of owning a car of their own. Figure in a car payment, insurance, gas budget, and garage/parking costs, and that number gets believable in a hurry, especially for someplace like Manhattan. The company also says that its members are more likely to also use public transportation as they settle into their car-free (or "car-reduced", so to speak) lifestyles, and that the environmental benefits of the service are myriad. If any readers are current Zipcar users or patrons of a similar car-share service, we'd like to know your experiences and hear how well (or badly) it has worked out for you in the comments below.

[Source: Zipcar | Photo: akseabird]

The city of Philadelphia has found a new way to cut expenses by eliminating vehicles from its city fleet. However, many city employees still need to get around sometimes. They've decided adopt the car-sharing model and they put out a request for bids. It's been announced that ZipCar has been awarded a new contract to provide car-sharing services for municipal employees. Philadelphia has already eliminated 330 vehicles from its fleet over the last 4 years and this new deal will expand on that. The ZipCar contract starts on July 1 for a year and may be extended for another three years. ZipCar is offering hybrid vehicles in Philadelphia from $6/hour.

[Source: ZipCar]

Not quite sure what to make of this, but on a day when America's political eye is turned to Pennsylvania, Zipcar would like us all to know that the car-sharing company took a weeklong poll of Zipcar members in Philadelphia and found that Barack Obama was the runaway winner with 59 percent of the "vote." Hillary Clinton came in second with 25 percent and John McCain trailed with 16 percent. Of course, the "votes" were not simple "who do you like best?" questions but instead were taken from registrations of three vehicles: Honda Hillary, Mini Cooper McCain or BMW Barack. The number of hours each of these vehicles was reserved during the week counted towards the final score. Scientific? No. Accurate? No. Fun? Sure, why not. More details after the break.

With 110 vehicles - incuding 20 Priuses - now available for rental by the hour, Zipcar started service in Philadelphia this week. Haven't heard of Zipcar? Then you must be new here. Welcome, and here's what you need to know about car sharing, which allows city dwellers to rent a car when they need one and pay an hourly rate (around $10 plus a membership fee) instead of a daily rate.

The two national car sharing companies, Zipcar and Flexcar, merged late last year and the transition hasn't been totally smooth. Still, the 180,000-member service offers over 5,000 vehicles in 50 cities and continues to expand. One special offer for Philadelphians is a lower price on hybrid vehicles - just $6 an hour. I assume this is an introductory rate, but however long it lasts, it's a good deal. Details after the jump.

Car sharing companies like ZipCar may soon be getting some new competition from traditional car rental companies. Enterprise Rent-a-Car will be publicly launching a car sharing service next week in St. Louis. The WeCar service actually started in a private phase last month on the Washington University campus. The WeCar program will require a $35 annual membership and rental fees will run $10/hour and $30 for overnight drives. Gas, insurance and up to 200 miles per day are included in the rental fee. Unlike ZipCar, Enterprise is focusing more on business customers for their service although anyone is welcome to sign up. Enterprise already has a deal with Google to provide service at their headquarters campus.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

We can add the University of New Mexico to the list that also includes MIT, Columbia, Georgetown, Ohio State, Arizona State University, American University, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, University of North Carolina and The University of Chicago. What list is this? Universities that have partnered with Zipcar to give members of the campus community alternatives to owning a car.

Zipcar, the big car sharing service (also available in many cities), started its UNM operation last week with five cars - three Honda Civics, a Toyota Sienna Minivan, and a MINI Cooper - that available around campus. The Zipcar model allows people to use the cars for $9 an hour/$66 a day as long as they've paid the $35 membership fee (there is a three month grace period for this fee at UNM).

There's more on Zipcar's university partners here.

Related:

• Zipcar-Flexcar merger update
• Forget car sharing, University of Washington to provide electric bikes
• Zipcar now offers seven vehicles for car sharing at UC Santa Cruz
• Zipcar reservations now possible over cell phones

[Source: Zipcar]

At the end of October, news came that the two biggest car sharing services in the U.S., Flexcar and Zipcar, would merge (and keeping the name Zipcar). In an email update to Flexcar members the other day, Flexcar included a few more details on the merger. Let's take a look at the timeline for the switch:

The first cities to transition over to Zipcar will be San Francisco and Columbus (Ohio). If you are in one of these cities, your welcome packet and new Zipcard should be arriving within a week. In January, Washington, DC, and many of the college towns will make the switch, followed by Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Diego. The final group, Atlanta and Seattle, will transition over in February.

Flexcar says (with good reason) that this merger is a benefit to members, as there will be "more markets, more vehicles, and enhanced technology" available. If you are a Flexcar member and didn't get the email shout-out, you might want to contact Zipcar/Flexcar and make sure they have your correct information on file. Times like these are when errors can happen, and it's good to be proactive and avoid them.

[Source: Flexcar]

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]

At AltWheels Boston 2007, I had an interesting conversation with Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar and founder of GoLoco. In the video above, Robin talks about GoLoco, a Facebook web app that allows you to share rides and share the cost of travel with friends online. Robin says ride sharing reduces the cost of travel which, on average, makes up a fifth of a household budget.

Below the fold are two more videos of Robin. In the first video, Robin talks about mandatory GPS in cars. Robin thinks mandatory GPS wireless in cars is just 5 years away but that this is a good thing and it can be made private. In the second video below the fold, Robin talks about something she thinks the press is not reporting enough: We have to level off our carbon emissions with massive efforts before a "tipping point" of 2015.

If you're a member of the UC Santa Cruz community, it's now very easy to share your car. Well, the car actually belongs to Zipcar, but it can be yours when you need if if you sign up for the new car sharing program. Zipcar wants to expand off-campus soon, but for now is focusing on those campus-bound folk who might want to schlep a keg to a party or buy lots and lots of books.

For students, faculty and staff, Zipcar rates are $8.50 an hour (I know, I know, the release pasted after the jump says $8, but Zipcar's UC Santa Cruz website quotes the higher number) or $65 a day, plus the $35 annual fee. You'll get to choose from one of seven vehicles that will be parked on campus (see announcement after the jump for exact details on where): three Toyota Priuses, two Honda Elements and a Toyota Matrix and a Mazda 3. Afraid of something resembling the HHS letter fallout, Zipcar is not.

Related:

• Zipcar reservations now possible over cell phones
• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tobia Ciottone of Zipcar Chicago
• Car sharing groups lower age requirement

[Source: Zipcar]

As if car sharing through Zipcar wasn't easy enough.

Zipcar announced yesterday that the company's web-based vehicle reservation service will now be available on a mobile-friendly site. Thanks to a "robust GPS enabled Zipcar widget" from ULocate Communications, users can manage all their Zipcar communications from a cell phone. The GPS feature, called "Zipcar Mobile Locater," evens allow the system to direct you to the nearest available Zipcar. I doubt this will be the breakthrough feature that gains Zipcar a million new members, but for current members who live on the phone, I'm sure this will be news most welcome.

Related:

• AutoblogGreen Q&A: Tobia Ciottone of Zipcar Chicago

[Source: Zipcar]

On our latest podcast, AutoblogGreen had the opportunity to speak with Tobia Ciottone of Zipcar Chicago. As always, we make our podcast interviews available as a transcript so if you haven't listened or want to link to a particular quote, here's your chance. To listen to all our podcasts, click here.

ABG: All right. I'm speaking today with Tobia Ciottone. He is the regional marketing manager for Zipcar Chicago. Our regular readers'll be fairly familiar with Zipcar and car sharing, but Toby, I'd like to welcome you to the Autoblog Green Podcast and what can you tell us about Zipcar?

TC: Well, thanks for having me, Sebastian. I really appreciate you having me on the show. Again, my name's Tobia Ciottone and I'm with Zipcar here in Chicago and if you haven't heard about car sharing, car sharing is basically an alternative to car ownership in a city. We operate in cities that have public transportation available. We operate in cities that generally are densely populated. So Zipcar is really for someone who needs a car sometimes. Someone who can get around, probably get to work, get to most places that they need to go without a car, but sometimes if you need to go shopping, you need to go out to the suburbs, you need to go on a quick business trip, sometimes you need a car and car sharing and Zipcar is a great way to have that convenience without having the cost of owning a car. So, basically the way it works, I'll give you Chicago as an example, we've got over 200 cars parked all over the City of Chicago. Any one of our members, and it is a member-based service, can go online and reserve any one of those cars for a period of one hour up to a period of three days, and that member pays for the car only for the time that they're using it. They don't have to go to an agency to pick up the car, they don't have to even speak to a human being most of the time. It's a 24-hour automated service. Gas is included. Insurance is included in the hourly cost and the daily cost, and it's extremely convenient, 24-hour access, and we have over 20 different makes and models for our members to choose from. So it's a great – great way to have that convenience without having the burden of monthly payments, you know, licensing fees, having to pay for gas. That's, in essence, is what car sharing's all about.

The Q&A continues after the jump.

Car sharing service Zipcar has expanded again this time adding two new Brooklyn, NY locations from which members can get a car when they need one. The crowded streets of New York are probably one of the best possible locations for Zipcar service. Not having to deal with the hassle of trying to find a place to park everyday will probably be a great incentive to people who only have need of a car occasionally.

The two locations in the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill areas of Brooklyn will start off with five cars each. Ten more cars will be added as the service ramps up and gains popularity. Residents of the Fort Greene area actually got a petition with 179 signatures of people interested in the services which they submitted to Zipcar to convince the company to set up shop in the neighborhoods. The available vehicles will include Mini Coopers, Priuses and pickup trucks.

[Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle via Hugg, thanks to Linton for the tip]

In large urban motropoli like London, it makes little sense to own your own car when you are only going to need it a few times a month. So, car renting and sharing services make great sense there, and are sprouting up all over. One such example of this type of service is Zipcar, which is based in the U.S. but is available in London. Now, you can couple the Zipcar service with a new service called Park At My House, which allows users to share cars and parking spots. I think this kind of thing should be started with trucks. You need to get a dresser moved from one house to another... so you book a truck for an hour and plot where you'll be. After you are done, the next person comes and picks that same truck up and uses it for their purposes. Makes good sense.

[Source: Treehugger]

Car-share programs, those unique memberships with around-the-clock access to cars parked throughout urban neighborhoods, is starting to look good as a profit enterprise. I-GO was started five years ago by a Chicago non-profit as an experiment. Now it has 80 vehicles and adds more than 200 new members a month.

But there's also a for-profit car-sharing program called Zipcar that recently rolled into Chicago. Zipcar already has 110 cars in rotation and will double that number soon.

The competition in Chicago reflects a small but growing opportunity for car-share programs across the country. One researcher estimates just over 100,000 people share about 2,600 vehicles. Zipcar claims its members can save more than $435 month by using car sharing and not purchasing a car.

[Source: Lori Rackl / Chicago Sun Times]