Zipcar claims to be the world’s leading car sharing network with more than 730,000 members dubbed Zipsters.
Zipcar today announced the expansion of its car sharing program to the city of Tacoma, Washington. Ten vehicles will be available, including Honda Insight Hybrid, Mazda 3, Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus models. Six Zipcars will be located in downtown Tacoma at on-street parking spots and will be easily accessible by public transit, the publicly traded startup company claimed.
A study from Frost & Sullivan projects car sharing – essentially short term renting – will have an estimated 4.4 million users by 2016, with potentially hundreds of thousands of vehicles involved. The two major social benefits of car sharing are said to be fewer vehicles on the road and lower emissions. Frost & Sullivan estimates that, on average, each shared vehicle replaced 15 personally-owned vehicles in 2009, and car sharing members drove 31% less than when they owned a personal vehicle.
The Zipcar program in Tacoma is available to local residents and visitors, as well as to employees of local businesses through the company’s “Zipcar for Business” program that offers discounted driving Monday through Friday.
“As with all of our members, our Tacoma Zipsters have access to our entire fleet of over 11,000 Zipcar vehicles located throughout the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom,” said Carla Archambault, general manager, Zipcar Seattle.”
“We’re thrilled to begin offering Zipcar vehicles in Tacoma to provide more convenient and flexible access to our service for both new and existing members in this market,” said Carla Archambault, general manager, Zipcar Seattle. delivering on our brand promise of ‘wheels when you want them’ whether they’re home or visiting one of our other Zipcar markets.”
Gasoline, reserved parking spots, insurance, roadside assistance and up to 180 miles per day are included in the hourly and daily Zipcar rates. For more information, including how to become a Zipcar member in Tacoma, please visit www.zipcar.com.
Zipcar claims to be the world’s leading car sharing network with more than 730,000 members in urban areas and college campuses throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Austria. Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for an alternative to the high costs of owning a car.
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