Flexcar Brings Car-Sharing to Ohio State
Business Wire wroteFlexcar Brings Car-Sharing to The Ohio State University
Launches the Nation’s Largest Campus Car-Sharing Program at Nation’s Largest University; Opens 13th U.S. Market
Wednesday August 8
Flexcar (www.flexcar.com) achieves two major milestones as it rolls out a total of 20 total environmentally friendly vehicles on the campus of The Ohio State University this week: the launch of the largest campus car-sharing program at the largest university in the country; and the opening of its 13th U.S. city - the most of any car-sharing company. Beginning today, vehicles are available to University faculty, staff and students as well as Columbus residents for hourly use. A simple fee includes gas, insurance, maintenance, parking and 24-7 emergency service.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Transit.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
- None Found
August 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Such a great thing to have here. I’ve seen this program in Chicago and Boston and think it’s a great idea. Let’s hope they expand parking areas to other parts of the city.
August 9th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Well- I just might get rid of my car if these work well… the only thing holding me back was my occasional use to go to the store and buy wood or other painting supplies.
Damn. I’ll have to give them a try and see…
August 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Great! Friends of mine in boston have had good success with zip cars up there, not needing a car usually but having them available for a big groccery trip, or costco etc. For so many of us we could really get away with sharing a car, hopefully these programs continue to grow as to become useful to many they will need to have cars sprinkled throughout the city, but campus with so many carless folks is a great way to start.
August 9th, 2007 at 10:10 am
I’ve seen these in action with great results.
Very cool service.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Car Sharing is a great thing. Philadelphia has a not-for-profit car sharing company that rivals similar for-profit companies in other cities.
check it out: [url]http://www.phillycarshare.org[/url]
August 9th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
yes!! i really am going to sell my car now…
August 10th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
So they’ll work with out-of-state companies to get freshman who didn’t have cars on campus to have cars on campus (very eco-friendly), but they won’t work with the city in which they are located to bring students a modern streetcar. Instead of encouraging less use of cars they are encouraging more. Just look at that sprawly suburban Fisher Commons on west campus. I’m glad OSU figured out how to turn anything into oil, because now we’ll always have oil and won’t have to worry about driving less.
August 10th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
While I’m not fully aware of how the flex-car thing works. it doesn’t seem like these kids are going to rent out cars to go cruising around campus(I hope not, but some idiot’s probably will). It seems more along the lines of maybe getting something to haul a bookshelf back from say Target to your dorm room, which seems reasonable to me. If only my bike rack could support that kind of weight!
August 10th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I’m missing something clearly, because 55.00 a day vs. a traditional rental car at less than half that just isn’t adding up to me.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
It’s not bad for a few hours….
August 10th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
A couple of differences that I can think of (some better than others)…
1) I think most people rent flexcars by the hour ($8/hr). Not an option from rental car companies.
2) No paperwork to fill out…just go to the car and unlock the doors.
3) Flexcars provide insurance (it’s optional with most rentals)
4) No messy paperwork
5) Gas is included
6) I think you can use them 24 hours a day (rental car companies have set hours).
7) Location, location, location. Students need to be able to walk there. Not sure if there are any rental car places on campus.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
yeah, i don’t get it. daily rate is a huge ripoff. hourly rate can also be up to $13/hr. and most likely will be closer to that than the $5 minimum most of the time. if you need a car to pick something up, you’re looking at probably 2-3 hours minimum to be sure you have enough time to get where you’re going, load, come back, unload, anything else, and bring it back. so a day car rental is probably as cheap as 2-3 hour flexcar, and if you need something big, doesn’t uhaul usually have in-town rates for like $20/day usually?
and while membership is free right now, it’s normally $35/year.
i don’t get why any student would need this on campus. isn’t this why you find out who has a car and become friends with them?
this can also only hurt COTA ridership. i used to see many students taking the bus to malls to go shopping. now there’s going to be more teenagers who don’t drive often on our interstates that don’t know where they’re going.
however, as a former and current student, it’s easy to see the huge numbers of college students with too much money and no common sense, so it can very well be successful. but i don’t see it being positive in any way because no one is going to leave their own car at home just because this service is offered. with the tiered tuition, i’m not sure what OSU is per quarter now for the majority of students, but a parking pass is mere pocket change compared to tution/room/board/books per quarter. everyone who used to drive their own car is still going to do that. this just means that people who would’ve had to take the bus or carpool with people can now add additional cars to the road.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Yeah, gotta say I see major issues here:
1. Any student who can afford this probably has a car already.
2. It’s campus man, COTA may not be great, but it CERTAINLY gets you around campus as needed for a helluva lot less.
3. 55.00 a day…even with gas…and insurance…is just a helluva lot of money for a college kid who doesn’t have a car to get around to a few conveniences.
I get the concept, but just don’t see the action being all that spectacular. Better organized ride-sharing, car-pooling, things like that on campus would seem to be a helluva lot more effective.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
The difference is that you can rent it for a few hours, you are not responsible for gas or insurance, and you can rent them online then go straight to the car.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Flexcar is generally for people who do not own cars and thus do not have insurance for rental cars. In Chicago it’s advertised as an alternative to owning a car. We actually used it for a while as an alternative to paying $300/ month for parking. Admittedly, it is different in most areas of Columbus where a car is necessary, but I can see it being successful on campus.
We typically pay about $9/hr in Chicago. $55 a day is not a huge ripoff if you are planning on driving a lot. A $30 car rental plus hidden fees will run you about $40. It doesn’t take a lot of miles to use $15 of gas.
Plus $1 per mile. Flexcar’s biggest car is a Honda Element, so it isnt really an alternative to uhaul anyway.
Again, it’s NOT an alternative to bringing a car to campus, but it is an alternative to buying a car. When viewed in this context, it makes much more sense.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
I get it, 3 hours=24 bucks minimum…which is about what it costs to rent for a full 24 hours from a rental place, which you can also book online. Also, so you have a car for 3 hours for 24 bucks. To do what? If it’s any real driving, there’s still a mileage limit on it, if it’s moving stuff, you’re way cheaper getting a u-haul, if it’s just getting around campus a bus beats the hell out of it.
Bear in mind, the philly share program posted here is under 3.00 an hour and under 30 a day…NOW it makes sense.
8 bucks an hour, 55 a day just doesn’t.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
No mileage limit. For the typical OSU student, a rental car company would charge an under 25 surcharge (if they even rent to them at all).
Philly must have subsidized their car sharing program for that price.
Also, riding a bus does not beat the hell out of anything.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Not sure why they’d include this then “150 free miles”
EDIT: and btw, yeah…I’d say bussing and biking are pretty much extremely realistic options for college students who can’t have a car on campus for whatever reason. I’ve ridden COTA plenty of times, and as long as you’re not going out into the burbs it’s extremely competent. It ain’t a limo…but these are COLLEGE KIDS.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
:oops:
After further research, there is a mileage limit in Chicago. We were never close to it, so it didn’t stick in my memory.
It’s still a much better deal for errand running than renting a car.
Edit: Reply to your edit
It’s hard to bike (and for that matter, bus) with grocery bags. I bussed it for a while too (and might have to bus it in the future), and I hated (and will hate) it. It’s an option, but most people would consider it inferior to driving a car. Yes, even college kids.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I don’t know R, I gotta tell ya. I’m almost 40 and do my errand running on foot…and usually with my 63 year old neighbor lady who likes walking to the grocery, etc. (but needs help with the carry back).
August 10th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Well, Flexcar is not going to compare favorably with walking.
:)
August 10th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
In all fairness, the one thing I couldn’t think of that was really walkable on campus was groceries. Haven’t been there in a LONG time though. I just think the idea of college kids renting a car to go to Easton for a couple hours spells disaster…both for drunk driving and for parents’ credit cards.
I mean, they have a shuttle running to the Arena District now, they have a shuttle running to the Lennox now, the busses actually on High you can catch about every 6 or 8 minutes and get where you want, and almost everything else is walkable.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Sunflower Market is open in the Gateway. Outside of that, there’s UDF or CVS filling the grocery gap, or a very short bus ride north to the Giant Eagle or south to the Kroger.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I always thought it was funny in college when other kids would grocery shop like a suburban house wife. Essentially they would go to the store and fill up a grocery cart and throw it al into a car. Then they’d complain about losign their parking space or whatever. Buy less stuff, it makes riding the bus/biking a whole lot easier.
Separately, I think the flexcar idea might work on campus, but as for columbus as a whole, i dont think its dense enough and their isn’t a good public transit system to support it. Everything here is so spread out that it would take a insanely large number of PODs to offer convenience to a significant amount of people. A good public transit system is essential to get people to the cars.
My last comment is this: All of these college kids who feel the need to bring their cars to school and use them for everyday things is a real reflection on how and where we are raising our kids. You teach a kid that a car is an ultra-necessary tool and it is near impossible to reverse that even in a college environment where things are relatively walkable….but also columbus is just a driving kinda town.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I suppose I can empathize with this when you say “use them for everyday things,” but don’t forget that a fair number of 18- and 19-year-olds still have some roots that they haven’t pulled up yet back in their hometowns, and if your parents live even so far away as Dublin, to say nothing of Mentor or Strongsville or Indian Hill or Centerville or any other bedroom community you care to mention around Ohio’s other cities, a car is the only way to get home. My freshman year, some other freshmen were going home every weekend, or nearly so. Having a car was about as necessary as having a bed.
Also, for those who got tired of the campus nightlife scene (I mean I love Four Kegs [or "Zigs" as oldtimers still call it, I hear ...] as much as the next non-Greek–i.e., not much–but it does get old after a while), there was almost never a late bus back from the Arena District or Long Street (which was still going strong at the time) and you could sometimes end up waiting 45 minutes or more for a cab, so a car and a designated driver may not count as necessities (you could always just not go out and stay home watching movies and drinking beer), but they certainly saved a fair amount of aggravation.
Most students lived off campus starting sophomore year and another large group fled at the start of junior year. Most of the off-campus apartment complexes have parking in the back alleys.
Like you said, Columbus is just a driving kind of town.