Living Car Free - Questions on Car-Light options

I've got a friend who's been convinced to dump her car and go at least car light but I'm not really able to give much info on the options (like ZipCar, etc) as I've never used them. So...

* Anyone here used ZipCar? How convenient is it? What kind of advance notice to use a car do you need?
* Are there other companies like zip car?
* What other options are there? (I know about buses, subways, etc, I mean other car options)

Thanks!

It might help if you told us where you live.

I've got a friend who's been convinced to dump her car and go at least car light but I'm not really able to give much info on the options (like ZipCar, etc) as I've never used them. So...

* Anyone here used ZipCar? How convenient is it? What kind of advance notice to use a car do you need?
* Are there other companies like zip car?
* What other options are there? (I know about buses, subways, etc, I mean other car options)

Thanks!

My son used Zipcar (http://www.zipcar.com/) when he was in college. It worked out great for him. You sign up, then go on line reserve your car and go get it at the appointed time. I don't recall him ever having any problems with it, and it saved us a decent amount of money not having to keep another car around.

The only other car option that I can think of would be a personal car share program between family members or perhaps neighbors. We have several different vehicles around the home place, and we all use the one that best suits our needs. I have a heavy truck, we also have a lighter pickup, a small economical sedan and a full sized sedan. When it is just one or two people they take the small sedan, heavy hauling take the big truck. Long trips with 3 or more we take the full sized sedan. FWIW all are paid for in full. The full sized sedan happens to be a 1999 Cadillac Sedan de Ville that gets in the high 20's on the highway. We are getting rid of a couple of vehicles this year, probably the mid sized pick up and a farm truck.

Aaron:)

Thanks Aaron!

They're in boston.

Zipcar is incredibly convenient in Boston. You can normally get *some* car on virtually no notice, but it may not be the closest one to you. Weekends can be tougher- booking 2 days in advance works well for weekends.

I live in Boston and spend about $125 a year on Zipcar, including the yearly fee. It's completely reasonable. If you wanted a car for multiple days, then going to the airport and getting a regular rental would be cheaper but I haven't done that yet. My mother has a car that lives in a garage and she offers us the use of it but it's a lot less convenient than the Zipcars and so we don't use it much.

As for Boston, there's really no reason to own a car. None. I have a huge laugh every time the street sweepers come through with the line of tow trucks, early in the morning.

I frequently find myself needing to rent a truck since a lot of things you could fit in a car can also fit on a bike or at least a bike trailer. But a bunch of 2 by 4s won't fit in either.
Several ways I've rented larger vehicles:
* Budget rent-a-truck by the mile (about $80 plus gas)
* U-haul ($20 + $.50 a miles)... great for short trips or massive loads.
* today I bought a replacement door at Lowe's and they rented a truck for $24 with gas to get it home.

Zipcar is incredibly convenient in Boston. You can normally get *some* car on virtually no notice, but it may not be the closest one to you. Weekends can be tougher- booking 2 days in advance works well for weekends.

I live in Boston and spend about $125 a year on Zipcar, including the yearly fee. It's completely reasonable. If you wanted a car for multiple days, then going to the airport and getting a regular rental would be cheaper but I haven't done that yet. My mother has a car that lives in a garage and she offers us the use of it but it's a lot less convenient than the Zipcars and so we don't use it much.

As for Boston, there's really no reason to own a car. None. I have a huge laugh every time the street sweepers come through with the line of tow trucks, early in the morning.

Thanks!

Question: how many times of use would you say it took to get to that $125? The reason I ask is that for grocery shopping, there's no way this person is going to either walk (it's too far) or use a bike with a trailer (they don't bike much and in the winter, they'd definitely never do it). So they'll take the car once a week for that.

Given that frequent usage, is there a better option?

Zipcar offers a higher membership fee with a discount on the hourly rate. It's worth looking into, but I don't know how many hours you have to use to see the savings. It might just be easier to get a cab home, but if you go grocery shopping every week a large backpack or a basket on the back would probably be just fine. There are also the granny carts that work well for taking the bus or the subway. In my two-person household, the only time I bothered with the BOB for groceries was when we got well over a month's worth at a time. That thing is cavernous. A different grocery-getting strategy might work as well, something like getting a big batch of non-perishables and supplementing with the perishables as needed and getting other stuff on the way home from work.

You could also use the shame tactic of the fact that the lil' grannies with the carts and squeaky wheels totally could have them beat if they can't get creative - hopefully you won't have to. But seriously, those grannies are awesome.