Auto Co-ops in Vancouver
For some time now I've lived in Vancouver without a car. I work out of my home office, am just 4 blocks from a major transit intersection, and just haven't felt the need to have a car.
But I have been long aware of the Co-operative Auto Network. With them, you pay an initial up front fee of $500 (which is fully refundable if you leave the program) and then can pay to use various cars which are parked around the city.
There's new competition in town in the form of ZipCar. I haven't investigated either much but may very well do so soon.
Update: Commenter "HMS Victory" referred me to this great video about a similar service in London, England:
3 comments:
Very interesting indeed...I was wondering if such a service existed in Vancouver since I saw a feature about a similiar service available in London on the UK's second most-popular TV show on cars that aired almost a year ago.
In fact, I managed to find that segment on YouTube so you'll know what I'm on about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sASEEvIlCI
ZipCar is a popular service in Boston, MA where it doesn't make a lot of sense to own a vehicle. Seems to work well for them.
Kelsey,
A friend of mine here in Vancouver has been a member of the other service for some time now. He claims that their pricing is cheaper than ZipCar's, putting ZipCar somewhere in the middle of the pack with the original co-op and rental cars.
But as you would agree, competition is a good thing so we'll see how things evolve in the coming months.
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