Providence seems like an ideal city for this program given our size and the limited public transportation system. Brown University is on board and RISD joined the program in October. Art students must have particular problems trying to cart around portfolios, baling wire, darkroom supplies, blue hair dye, bolts of fabric, paint cans, and assorted slugs, ingots and tools on the bus.
“At RISD, many students have to travel off campus to obtain materials and the main form of public transportation in Providence is the RIPTA bus system,” said Jerri Drummond, assistant dean for campus life at RISD. “As an ideal complement to RIPTA, Zipcar provides a flexible transportation option to easily transport materials and projects, specifically for students who live in on-campus housing and are not allowed to have a car.”
Many people could opt into this, not just students. Cheaper, greener, you don’t have to wash it. (Zipcar)
There are some advantages to Zipcar that may not be apparent in just comparing the daily rate vs. daily rate of a regular car rental. With regular car rental, you have to add on insurance and gas. Plus, there aren’t any regular car rental places within walking distance of central Providence that are open on Saturday or Sunday. And speaking of customer service – have you ever rented a car from the downtown Enterprise on a Friday afternoon? It shouldn’t take 30 to 90 minutes to complete a car rental (that was reserved weeks ago) but somehow it does.
Meanwhile, Zipcar is a 5 minute walk from my house, I reserve it online and everything is included. I walk to the car, wave my card at it and I’m ready to go. I’ve never had any customer service issues with Zipcar since I’ve never had to talk to a person at all because their system works seamlessly. Having Zipcar in the neighborhood was one of the last things that pushed me into making the decision to no longer own a car. I only use Zipcar about once every other month, but it’s good to have it available for when I need it.
I tried really hard to like Zipcar, but their customer service was atrocious when I signed up at Brown…
Zipcar isn’t that great. If you compare the daily rate of a rental car vs the hourly cost of a zipcar, its virtually the same.
Just take the bus to buy your paints. RIPTA needs the revenue and it works out better for everyone.