California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, Calif.; the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif.; and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, N.H., have all added Zipcar's car sharing service to their campuses in October.
Cal Poly added four self-service Zipcars: two Toyota Priuses and two Scion XBs. In the last two years, the number of students living on campus has doubled with the opening of a new on-campus apartment complex. At the same time, high gas prices and increased on-campus parking costs have students and employees looking for alternatives to bringing a car to campus, including bicycles, van pools, mass transit and now Zipcar.
Caltech added two self-service Zipcars: one Toyota Prius and one Toyota Matrix, and UNH added six self-service hybrid and fuel efficient vehicles.
At all three campuses, faculty, staff and students can join Zipcar for $35 and can drive for as little as $8 per hour or $66 per day weekdays and $9 per hour or $72 per day on weekends. Students also get $35 in free driving credit as part of a launch promotion. Local residents ages 21 and older can join for $75 ($25 one-time application fee and $50 annual fee).
In addition to personal use of the vehicles, UNH also has set up codes to allow members to use Zipcar for official university business, enabling the university to gradually reduce the number of fleet vehicles it currently owns and operates. UNH departments will be encouraged to create Zipcar accounts.
Zipcar, which has been offering campus car sharing since 2002, now has programs at more than 140 colleges and universities across the country.