Transportation
Car-Sharing for Less
By operating as nonprofits, smaller shared vehicle services are expanding their reach
Zipcar has revolutionized the concept of car-sharing, inventing a niche between pricey rentals and public transit that caters to families, city-dwellers, and university students who can’t – or don’t want – to commit to owning a vehicle outright. The company has taught a generation of drivers that sharing cars with strangers isn’t as hard as it sounds, and that communal car use can reliably get people where they need to go.
By comparison, the whole idea implies, everything about owning your own car – paying its gas, its insurance, its upkeep and its monthly premium, not to mention finding a place to put it – is laughably inefficient.