Officials with the City of Columbus and private car-sharing company Zipcar gathered this morning at Columbus Commons to celebrate the launch of the service in Columbus with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The program debuts with eight vehicles stationed at specific on-street pickup/drop-off points in the Short North, German Village, Weinland Park and Downtown neighborhoods.
“The City of Columbus is committed to exploring mobility options to move residents and visitors,” stated Mayor Andrew Ginther at today’s event. “Zipcar gives people the flexibility of using a car when they want. We are pleased to have the world’s leading car-sharing network serve as part of our future.”
Users of the new system can reserve cars via the Zipcar smartphone app, with an active account that requires an approval process and the payment of a monthly fee. The eight cars in the network can be reserved and rented by the hour or by the day, and gas, insurance and milage (up to 180 miles per day) are included in the rental costs.
“Bringing Zipcar to America’s Opportunity City is the next step in our efforts to provide more sustainable mobility options to more people in more locations,” stated Zipcar President Tracey Zhen. “Our service enables easy, on-demand access to a vehicle without the high costs and hassles of owning one. We’re grateful to the Mayor for his commitment to enhancing mobility and improving sustainability.”
Zipcar already operates existing carsharing locations at The Ohio State University and the John Glenn Columbus International Airport.
The news of the Zipcar launch comes on the heels of the departure of car2go, another carsharing service that launched Columbus service in 2013, and ended operations on May 31. car2go required no monthly fee for usage, allowed users to rent vehicles by the minute, allowed for dropoff/pickup anywhere within its home zone in the central city, and had more than 200 vehicles available for use in its local fleet.
For more information, visit www.zipcar.com.
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