Who says you have to buy a whole car when just a piece of one will do?
Use of the Zipcar car sharing service in Ann Arbor is mirroring the sector's growth across the nation, and auto heavyweight Ford Motor Company has taken notice. Ford has recently announced it will provide up to 1,000 cars to the Zipcar service in college campus towns and cities nationwide; Ann Arbor's fleet is expected to grow accordingly.
"This is a nationwide move and obviously Michigan, being Ford country, has been at the forefront of getting the American-made vehicles," says Nancy Shore, director of Ann Arbor's
getDowntown alternative transportation program. Shore expects to see more Ford Focuses added to Ann Arbor's bevy of Zipcars available for rent by the day or by the hour.
It costs $66 for a full weekday rental, $72 on weekend days, or $8 an hour. However, Focuses will be available for rent at a reduced rate of $7 an hour.
Eight
Zipcars are available for rent from various downtown Ann Arbor locations. Zipcar members can choose from Honda Accord, Ford Escape, Prius, Honda Civic, Mazda 3, and Toyota Scion models. The University of Michigan also has its own fleet of about 20 cars. Members may rent from any of the campus or downtown locations. Zipcar declines to provide an exact date as to when the new Ford Focus will be available.
The getDowntown program has been in talks with Zipcar about adding more vehicles, Shore says. She expects that with student housing and more downtown living options such as U-M's North Quad dorm and the Liberty Lofts, Zaragon, and Zaragon West highrises, demand for car sharing will accelerate. "There's just going to be lots more people downtown that are potentially thinking of living here, and living in a downtown environment which may mean not having a car or having only one vehicle."
"When we started the program, the baseline was to make sure that they're all used at least 30% of the time," Shore adds. "And they're all being used much more than that now, which is very positive because it's clearly a program that's doing well, and we want to keep seeing it grow."
Source: Nancy Shore, director of Ann Arbor's getDowntown alternative transportation program; Zipcar
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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