Car-Sharing Zipcar Goes Bike Sharing
Car-sharing service Zipcar is partnering with a bike-share company called Zagster to launch bike-sharing services on 15 college campuses, the companies announced Thursday. They’re calling it “the first national sponsored mobility solution designed for universities.”
Dubbed Zipbike, the new program won’t officially launch until January 2017, starting with 10 schools and then spreading to a total of 15 by the end of the year. Students and faculty can rent out cars and bikes using one app and one membership, the companies say.
Cost will vary across individual Zipbike programs based on input from each university. In general, though, Zipcar says the cost to riders will be in line with most other bike-share programs, which include a small membership fee, with a set amount of free time per ride followed by a flat hourly rate. The announcement comes as Zipcar is experimenting with new price options, offering pay-per-mile plans in some US cities rather than the per-hour system the company is known for.
In other words, a lot of businesses are finding that dealing exclusively in cars isn’t cutting it anymore. Customer tastes are shifting from personal car ownership to car-sharing, ride-sharing, carpooling, and privatized transit. – TheVerge
