What Is A Zipcar?

Instead of taking Bruce, my Subaru Legacy, across the country to pay for parking, insurance, and gas, I am going to depend on the Metro trains and buses, my two trusty feet, and Zipcar.

Now, being from a city that doesn't have Zipcar, I had to google it, then stalk their website for answers.

Located in about 50 cities in North America, Zipcar is an alternative to owning a car. Basically, there's a fleet of cars - ranging from a Kia Soul to BMW 358xi to Ford Escapes - that have their own name and "homes".  Basically, you book a car for a timeframe - from an hour to days - and then you tool around town and have a car at your disposal. The rates are incredibly reasonable and you get discounts for certain days, types of cars, and how much you use it.

The benefits are amazing because you don't pay for gas, insurance, or parking (well, I mean, if you go somewhere you might, but I mean for storage). You also keep your carbon footprint down because you share the cars with other people.

When you're ready to go, you just walk up to the car that you checked out, put your zipcard up to the windshield and a little transmitter knows that it's you and that you have the car for that designated period. The doors unlock, the keys are inside, and off you go! I think that their iPhone app even unlocks the car for you when you're logged in. Regardless, the little remote on the app is fun to play with.

Since you can reserve the cars at any time, I will use them for my major Target runs, Georgetown shopping trips, and to pick up and drop off some of my visitors.

It's something I'm looking forward to using since I'll be able to drive such a wide variety of cars and pick one up where ever I might be in the District at the time.