Zipcar Comes to ºÚÁϳԹÏ
Cars available for University students, personnel, area residents
CHICAGO (March 21, 2012) – , a national company that makes it possible for qualified drivers to rent cars for short-term use, now has a car located on the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï campus available to Zipcar .
Zipcar representatives will be on the University's Chicago campus beginning this week to answer questions and assist people to become Zipcar members. The company will also send information to University students and personnel to help introduce the program.
"We want to be good stewards of the urban environment," said , ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï executive vice president and chief financial officer. "There are two reasons why we wanted this — stewardship and sustainability. If we can provide cars this way to people who need them, we can reduce our carbon footprint in this part of the city. We can also provide students with a tool to access the city."
Zipcar operates nationally on some 250 colleges and university campuses, including ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï and other college campuses in the Chicago area.
Zipcar service expansion on the campus could ultimately help relieve crowded campus parking lots, provided students, faculty, and staff choose to access the available cars, Balsam said.
Presently, a Zipcar is available on the University campus at 5141 N. Kedzie. Zipcars are also located at a nearby location at Kimball and Lawrence Avenues, Chicago.
Zipcar was founded as a new category in urban transportation, designed "to offer a convenient, flexible, affordable, and sustainable solution" for occasional urban drivers seeking alternatives to high costs and challenges of owning a car in a city, said Jessica Margolis-Pineo, Zipcar public relations associate. Zipcar operates on some 250 colleges and university campuses, some of which are in the Chicago area. Members can also use Zipcars in other areas of country where Zipcar operates, she said.
Drivers must be at least 21 years of age, and have a Zipcar membership to use its cars. Members can drive cars starting at $7.75 per hour or $72 a day. Each trip includes gasoline, insurance, and up to 180 free miles. Thanks to Zipcar's with Ford Motor Co., a portion of the membership fee will be waived for the first 100,000 new University members nationally who sign up, plus the company will offer $1 off the hourly rate for the first 1 million hours of use on any of the new Ford vehicles at participating colleges and universities.
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