How Green are We?

(page 9 of 11)

Zipping Up Emissions

A car-sharing program eases parking woes and pollution.

What do you get when you mix thousands of Brown University students with an already desperate Providence parking situation? Lots of exhaust emissions as people troll the streets for spots. The solution? Zip Car, a program at Brown University that allows students and faculty to rent a car by the hour or day.

Reservations for one of two low-emission cars are made online, and users simply wave a card in front of the windshield to unlockthe doors. Gas, insurance, XM radio and a reserved parking spot are included in the fee (rates are from $8 per hour and $60 per day, plus a $30 annual fee). Two hundred people have signed up
for the program since it started in 2005, and today reservations average 100 each month. The cars have become so popular that a third car, a Toyota Prius, is scheduled to arrive this year.

“We’ve found that exhaust emissions and competition for parking are directly related. It turns out that most environmental impact reduction measures are just good business decisions,” says Kurt Teichert, the university’s resource efficiency manager.

Zip Car is a national program. Cities like Boston and New York have fleets of cars for rent. So will Zip Car be making its way past the Brown borders and into the city? Unfortunately, the company has no immediate plans for Rhode Island expansion, though a spokesperson says they are always on the hunt for new markets.

Check out www.zipcar.com for more information.