ZIpcar has a different set of problems; there is probably a car of the specific type you want available, but getting to it (and from it) may not be convenient, because it has a specific place in the city that it lives. ANd if that’s 30 minutes away by your fastest non-car transportation, that’s pretty frustrating.
I suppose for moving etc., you could call a cab to get you from old home to the Zipcar, and then again from the Zipcar parking to new home. That feels strange and probably-inefficient, but I don’t have evidence to back up that feeling.
I can see how that would be frustrating. I guess my experience is not representative. The nearest Zipcar spot is a 2 minute bike ride from where I live. There’s also the option of car2go, which seems to have a much larger coverage where I live, but also no variety in car choices. I’m not sure how much the variety matters, as I would use a car only if I need to transport something large (and I might just use a truck there; Home Depot is 15 minutes away) or if I was going a long distance beyond where public transit takes me (> 10 miles).
I actually use both Zipcar and car2go, and find they complement each other pretty well. Car2go is good for things where you don’t need to transport anything but yourself (and possibly one other person) and expect to spend most of the time at your destination rather than traveling, and enables spontaneous decisions; Zipcar is good for transporting large things, making substantial grocery runs (i.e. a monthly trip to Costco for purchasing in bulk rather than weekly things like fresh fruit/vegetables), or whenever you expect to spend most of your trip traveling, or when you need to make reservations well in advance.
ZIpcar has a different set of problems; there is probably a car of the specific type you want available, but getting to it (and from it) may not be convenient, because it has a specific place in the city that it lives. ANd if that’s 30 minutes away by your fastest non-car transportation, that’s pretty frustrating.
I suppose for moving etc., you could call a cab to get you from old home to the Zipcar, and then again from the Zipcar parking to new home. That feels strange and probably-inefficient, but I don’t have evidence to back up that feeling.
I can see how that would be frustrating. I guess my experience is not representative. The nearest Zipcar spot is a 2 minute bike ride from where I live. There’s also the option of car2go, which seems to have a much larger coverage where I live, but also no variety in car choices. I’m not sure how much the variety matters, as I would use a car only if I need to transport something large (and I might just use a truck there; Home Depot is 15 minutes away) or if I was going a long distance beyond where public transit takes me (> 10 miles).
I actually use both Zipcar and car2go, and find they complement each other pretty well. Car2go is good for things where you don’t need to transport anything but yourself (and possibly one other person) and expect to spend most of the time at your destination rather than traveling, and enables spontaneous decisions; Zipcar is good for transporting large things, making substantial grocery runs (i.e. a monthly trip to Costco for purchasing in bulk rather than weekly things like fresh fruit/vegetables), or whenever you expect to spend most of your trip traveling, or when you need to make reservations well in advance.