Zipcar, the nation's largest urban car-sharing company, defines a "zipster" on its Web site as "someone who rejects the established car-owning culture" or "one who is exceptionally aware of the latest trends and tastes." Over the past several years, Zipcar has increased the number of trendy "zipsters" on College Hill and at over 40 colleges across the country, allowing students to fulfill car-related needs from grocery shopping to road-tripping on a pay-by-the-hour basis. Brown has used Zipcar since Oct. 2005, and the University is now in negotiations with Zipcar to lower the University's membership age to 18 and add two more cars to those currently on campus.
Founded in 1999, Zipcar allows its members to reserve a car online for a designated amount of time, drive the car wherever they desire and return the car without paying for gas, tolls or insurance. Zipcar charges a one-time $25 application fee, $50 annual fee and an additional $8 for every hour of driving or $60 a day. Zipcar also includes parking for the University's three Zipcars - a Honda Civic, a Toyota Matrix and a Mazda 3.
Zipcar has established a presence at an increasing number of schools, including Yale University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University, to name a few. Unlike most car-rental companies, which only serve adults over the age of 21, Zipcar has expanded its program to those 18 and over. By targeting college students, Zipcar intends to focus on a population that would welcome the perks of driving without the hassle of owning a car on campus.
"I think that colleges and universities are a good target market for them because many of us are in the situation where parking is a premium," said Elizabeth Gentry, director of business and financial services at Brown. "Many universities are in city environments or have rules where underclassmen can't have cars. Providing another opportunity for travel is a win-win."
Zipcar is also targeting universities because of the change in students' relationship to the economy. "The students at universities are really part of the self-service economy, meaning that when you rent a video you don't go to Blockbuster, you use Netflix," said Robert Dalton, business development manager for Zipcar on Campus, the company's program that runs cars on college campuses. "So the self-service model that Zipcar has really fits in line with that generation, and it will also hopefully change their mindset to where car-sharing is a new alternative to car ownership."
Brown's Zipcar membership has steadily grown to 250 active members and 72 average users a month, Gentry said. Because the University's contract is a few years old, it currently includes only students over the age of 21. But once the company lowers the age to 18 - slated to happen sometime this semester - the number of members should increase, Gentry added.
By lowering the age to 18, Zipcar hopes to approach its target number of members - 10 percent of the student body, Dalton said. "Right now Brown has about 250 members and that number should really exponentially increase when we drop the age requirement to 18 and add vehicles on the campus for students, faculty and staff to reserve."
Many universities have already lowered the age requirement, but younger members face more stringent requirements. "The driving requirement for 18-plus is a little bit stricter than that of 21-plus, so we're able to ... check that all members under the age of 21 have had their license for two years at least and with zero incidents to be eligible for the programs," Dalton said. This means members under 21 are not eligible if they have had accidents where they were at fault or have received speeding tickets.
Yale began using Zipcar in Sept. 2007, and its membership has since risen to 400 students and faculty, said Yale Director of Sustainable Transportation Systems Holly Parker. Yale students over 18 are allowed to drive the University's six cars.
"Basically, we want to do everything we can to support people's decision to not bring their cars to campus," Parker said. "But we know that people need cars. (Zipcar is) a really efficient way to use a vehicle versus having people just store them on campus, which isn't probably the best usage of the university's real estate."
Brown has decided to expand the Zipcar program for reasons including parking and the environment, Gentry said. The University's Zipcar allotment will soon expand by two cars. The new vehicles will be the most environmentally friendly cars provided by Zipcar, she added.
Brown has had little trouble with accidents, but Yale recently had $7000 worth of work done on a heavily damaged car, Parker said. The student found at fault was responsible for paying $500 of insurance deductible in addition to losing membership. Dalton said members found at fault for accidents would be responsible for the damage done to the cars.
Rachel McKenna '09 recently became a member of Zipcar because she needed a vehicle to drive in the snow. "It's a really cool service, but there's some stuff that they need to do better like keeping the cars maintained and being more explicit on how to get the car," she said. "Overall, I'm really glad that it exists. It's going to be really handy for me."
Students are also happy to see that Zipcar is lowering the age for participation. "I tried to use Zipcar in the beginning of the year, but they told me no," Virginia Buckles '11 said. "I was really disappointed, so I'm excited that they're lowering the age."
Brown is currently revising its transportation Web site so that more students will be aware of Zipcar. Gentry said she hopes students will make a big "brouhaha" once the age requirement is changed.
