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Hopkins has requested to have all hybrid vehicles in its fleet: half Toyota Prius cars and half Honda Civic hybrids. (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.flexcar21jun21,0,871862.story?track=rss)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Flex-car_car_sharing_Prius.jpg Laura McCandlish - Baltimore Sun - June 21, 2007

Johns Hopkins senior Margaret Deli drives along Charles Street in a Toyota Prius she rented from Flexcar for three hours to run errands. Photo: Glenn Fawcett – Baltimore Sun.

Margaret Deli strolled up to the Toyota Prius, swiped her membership card over the windshield sensor, opened the door and found the keys and a gas card in the glove compartment.

Within minutes the Johns Hopkins senior was on the road to Towson, returning three hours later to the university's Homewood campus in North Baltimore, where she parked the car in its 24-hour spot for the next driver.

The cost: $18.

"It's just so weird because I've never driven on campus before," said Deli, 21, an art history and English double-major from suburban Chicago.

Flexcar, a "car-sharing" service, entered the Baltimore market in March with four vehicles parked around the grounds of the Hopkins campus, available for short-term, low-cost rentals … http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.flexcar21jun21,0,871862.story?track=rss

A great idea, but not even one FEH? I'm a little disapointed; there may be that single errand where the FEH is a better idea.

Oh well, the idea that it's all hybrids is a good start, as well as if these become popular, they can cut down on the number of people who need cars.

Communauto in the province of Quebec is the 18 of the 20 business having the highest sale increase last year.

http://www.communauto.com/

Pierre

I guess zipcar didn't patent their methodology, or it's an
arm of the same company...
.
_H*

Good for them. I'm still technically a member, although I haven't used the service in several years. Our membership in CarSharing Portland allowed us to get along for two years owning only a single car. When FlexCar bought them and jacked the rates up from $1.50/hr to $8.00/hr -- and we got a dog, transportation of whom is strictly verboten in their cars -- well, that was pretty much it for us.

Still a good concept, although I think they should market more towards couples who'd like to get along on one car rather than the very small number (outside New York) of single people who'd like to get along without a car at all. I think the former market is bigger, and CSP focused on both markets individually, but FC seems to only care about the singles market. Big Mistake IMHO.

Anyway, I've been pleased to see them add lots of hybrids to the fleet as they became available over the years (CSP/FC gave me the opportunity to drive an Insight back in '01 or so), and I'm glad to hear they're going to take it even further. (I agree with Pravus, the FEH would be an excellent replacement for the large number of Honda Elements currently in FlexCar's fleet). I do wish they'd market more towards encouraging one-car couples in addition to no-car singles.

My experience working car rental was that people abused our pickups way worse than they abused our cars. Call me cynical, but I think you'd have the same problem with SUV's (hybrid or not) in car sharing.