Car sharing 2.0 series, Part V

Zipcar is the largest car sharing service in the Portland. Zipcar offers nearly 250 Zipcars at over 185 locations throughout the City. Zipcar estimates that the majority of its members live within a 5-10 minute walk of a Zipcar. 

Zipcar began in 2000 in Cambridge and now has Zipcars in 120 cities and universities in North America, plus London. For Zipsters (how the company refers to its members) you have access to the entire network - a boon to business travelers and vacationers.

Although Zipcar has 11 years under its belt and is arguably the biggest fish in the car sharing sea, they still merit inclusion in our 2.0 series. Zipcar offers a few Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles in Portland through the program they announced with Toyota in January 2011.  These vehicles are currently located at NE MLK Blvd/Shaver (Shaver Green) & the Blink station on PSU’s Electric Avenue.

For you smartphoners, Zipcar has an iPhone app recognized by Time as one of the best 50 iPhone apps of 2011. They also recently launched an Android app that can be used to lock and unlock the Zipcar, as well as make and change reservations and even honk the horn to locate your Zipcar right from your smartphone. 

Zipcar claims to have also created the first-ever Facebook reservation application for the car-sharing industry called “Reserve a Zipcar,” which allows members to make Zipcar reservations without ever leaving Facebook. 

Groovy to TriMet and want to find a Zipcar? Zipcar is integrated into TriMet’s new Regional Interactive map. Using this intergrated, multi-modal trip planning site you can see the available of all Zipcars and plan a trip to its location

Read more in the Car Sharing 2.0 series 

Part I: Paris launches world's first electric car sharing program

Part II: A brief history of car sharing

Part III: The benefits of car sharing

Part IV: Car2Go provides one-way car sharing service to Austin, San Diego

Part VI: Peer to peer car sharing comes to Portland