Zipping and Flexing in a Green New Way

Today’s USA Today was outside my hotel door, so I picked it up and read about car sharing. This is offered by two growing companies, Zipcar and Flexcar, and they offer a fleet of cars you can rent by the hour or the day, using the internet as an easy way to manage the details. Jim Hopkins explains.

“Then there’s the intangible “green” factor that car sharing ventures promote as they add gas electric hybrids to fleets: The companies say they improve the environment by reducing resources, including land, devoted to cars. Benchmark General Capital (a Zipcar investor) says 20 cars are removed from the road for every one car added to Zipcar’s fleet. Kevin McLaughlin, who runs carsharing.net, says that this trend will be big some day. “There’s no doubt that this business will be a mainstream thing in large cities in the way there is a Starbucks on every corner.”