Slashdot Mirror
Time Sharing Cars
timmy_walker writes "This article from the associated press talks about new car time share services from ZipCar and Seattle-based Flexcar, where "Customers make reservations via computer or telephone, and the company uses remote-access systems to control who can use the car when.""
How do they keep people from smoking in these things or keeping people from trashing them? Spilled coffee Someone's kid getting car sick Fast food wrappers Someone's homless person or dog shitting all over the thing? Seems like their would be a huge reduction of accountibility for these cars.
I agree about public transportation but this is why Zipcar must offer something that is not possible with taxi or public transport. Pickup trucks per hour for example. Living in a college town like Boston, people are always moving things but being away from home and parents no noone has cars/trunks.
This may work on a small scale, but I know how people treat rental cars, and many people trash the cars that they own. I'm supposed to drive one of these things after Comic Book Guy does God knows what in the back seat? I don't think so.
Right now these companies have a limited membership that they can screen. But this will never survive the transition to big-time.
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
In metro areas, bicycles are vastly faster anyways. If you can stand to get sweaty, that is...
There are times when public tranportation is useful... I was a bus man for many years.
But, frankly, there's times when it's a pain... it's off-peak hours, the weather is crappy, you have to go a long distance with several transfers, you're picking up something that can't be easily carried around, you're going on a date (well, not YOU, per se... but a non-slashdot reader).
I got quite sick of planning to be on the bus several hours per day when I worked on the far side of the city, but I couldn't afford the incredibly outrageous amounts for a car.
I mean, come on folks... it's a freakin CAR, it's not made of gold, it doesn't come with a built-in treasure map... why in the name of Linus should a chunk of metal that explodes dead dinosaurs to move cost $40,000+, and have insurance, consumables, and maintenance that can add up to many thousands per year more? I think they're priced that way because we're all conditioned to think that they should be expensive.
But, I digress. I wish this had been available when it was the right time of life for me to use it... a convenient way to have occasional access to a vehicle (an occasional requirement in a city with an extremely low population density like Edmonton) without having to bend over and take it up the ass from all the fuckers who seem to think that because the word "auto" has 4 letters, all the associated costs should have 4 digits (significant). I hope projects like these get more coverage, and help stop the rush of people going out to buy cars they can't afford with loans they can't afford on income they can't guarantee.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
Public transportation is more convenient and cheaper.
This is very true, as long as where you're heading is serviced by public transport, without and excessive number of changes.
I work about 15kms outside the middle of Sydney (North Ryde). Luckily, I live within a short walk of the main bus terminal in the Centre (QVB). If I lived in the Eastern Suburbs somewhere, I'd have to catch a train or bus in, then my usual bus out again, which is frankly a pain, and quite time consuming. None of my immediate colleagues use PT for this very reason. It's painful for them, so they drive (and incidentally bitch about the traffic). I don't think it occurs to the two who live close to each other to carpool, but that's another story.
Now cycling, that's different. It's a good ride on a decent day, takes roughly an hour for me, which is only 15 mins more than the walk/bus combo. It's more environmentally sound than Public Transport, you've as much freedom of destination as with a car, and your health is miraculously improved (though your chances of being maimed by traffic are probably higher). The initial investment is only a couple of hundred bucks, if you're not a gadget freak like me and end up spending way too much on titanium bits.
Of course if more people used PT, then PT could service more areas, this is obvious, but as things stand public transport is only a partial solution (and I'm an advocate of it)
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
When I lived in town, I realized that I was spending money on a car in order to drive it thirty minutes per day. I would drive fifteen minutes to work, let car sit for ten hours, drive fifteen minutes home, let car sit for ten hours, most weekdays. I found that I really only needed a car on the weekends.
Then one day, my beast of burden sat down on the side of the road and died. There was no cure.
So I went down to the local rental place, and made them a deal. I simply told them that I would like a car every weekend starting on Friday evening and that I would bring it back Sunday. I let them keep the deposit on file. They got steady business, I got whatever I needed (a clean, maintained car, truck, SUV, or convertible).
Sure, it was not all roses. There were times when I needed a truck but had to use an SUV. The Caddy convertible was not always available, but I got by. Low and behold, when I am totalling up the charges, it came to no more than the cost I spent on my old car. Go figure.
Now I live in the woods, so a ride is a necessity, but if I ever move back to the core, let me tell you...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
Also, in a "time-share" you actually own something. Here, you are basically just a member of a club. Maybe this is all just a scam to get you application fee and $100 deposit, while paying for a rental car to boot.