Or getting locked out and marooned in Death Valley, perhaps with medicine trapped in the car. I shudder to think about limping back to a trailhead with no more water in my backpack, only to find a car that would not start. We needed another tow to a town where we at last abandoned the Zipcar and made our way home.Īnnie Lowrey: The next recession will destroy Millennials A tow truck took us to a lot with reception, where the rental failed to start. Unable to get a cab to come to us, we waited. We could abandon the car, they said, and they would waive the normal fee. We used a landline to call Zipcar, whose representatives told us about the reception issue. One morning, after waving the card over the reader what felt like a thousand times, we realized the thing was no longer working. I had gone to a remote part of the California coast with my brother, sister, husband, and baby, with our car and a Zipcar. Not too nightmarish of a nightmare, thankfully. It means turning your weekend of hiking and forest-bathing into a logistical nightmare. It means a multiday extraction operation requiring a flatbed tow truck. Sometimes it means you are stranded in the middle of nowhere, a fussy baby in one hand and a useless cellphone in the other. Sometimes that means you don’t get your cup of coffee, or you need to call a cab the old-fashioned way. But it also means that things can go very wrong. All this connection means easier access, faster service, cheaper prices, better features. The same is true for your Uber ride, or your cup of coffee made by a Wi-Fi–connected machine, or your Peloton workout. With services like Zipcar, your rental car becomes not just a car, but a node in a complex, connected system. It is a particularly vexing part of the give-and-take of attaching everything to everything. And because you will be in an area with no cell reception, it might be impossible for you to call for help. The doors won’t open, and even if they do, the engine will not start. Here is the Public Service Announcement part of the story: If you take a vehicle loaned out by Zipcar-a rental service where drivers use RFID cards or a mobile app to open up the car-to an area without cell reception, there’s a chance the car will not work. I held the card over the reader and tried to do the same. My brother and then my sister held the card over the reader and waited for it to unlock. For more information on this program please contact your agency transportation coordinator.The Zipcar door would not open. Zipcar is both convenient and cost effective helping to reduce the reliance on permanently assigned fleet units and allowing for reduction of the city’s non-emergency light duty fleet. Zipcar has over 2,300 vehicles and hundreds of parking locations in the City and in Spring 2023 will launch EVs in New York City which we encourage our employees to use. Drivers can be issued cards that will unlock and lock any reserved car or can also use their mobile phones to perform these actions. Reservations can be made with a few clicks online or on a mobile app. Zipcar for city business is meant to be for short term needs and are not permitted to be held overnight or used for commuting. Car share through Zipcar gives agencies the ability to provide access for short term vehicle needs as well as to supplement vehicle needs during emergencies such as coastal or snowstorms.Īpproved drivers from participating agencies can pick up and drop off cars and even light trucks on a flexible schedule to attend meetings, site visits, inspections, or any other official City business throughout the five boroughs. Zipcar is an easy way to get "wheels when you need them", as many of you may know from driving on personal Zipcar accounts. Since 2012, DCAS has offered a car sharing program through Zipcar.
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