Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: car sharing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

For people in cities where there is a car sharing company that rents by the 
hour, an option might be to negotiate for a car to be parked in your lot for 
exclusive use of your residents and neighbors approved by you. 

I tried this with ZipCar in DC about 6 years ago. They would require a minimum 
use of $1500 worth of rentals a month and the board would have to guarantee 
that, and sign the contract. Then individuals would be members and reserve the 
car and pay for it using the normal system. The payment would be their lowest 
rate AND it covered insurance and gas.

ZipCar would maintain the car and swap it out as necessary. The community only 
needed to provide the parking spot and rent the car.

It didn't work for us because one of the potential renters needed the car a lot 
on weekends so the use didn't balance out — she bought a car which also left us 
several hours a month short of being able to guarantee the minimum rental time.

But it might be worth looking into.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org