Zipcar is a car-sharing service available in many major U.S. cities. Depending on how often you drive, Zipcar could save you a little money and a lot of stress.

The economy, increased concern for the environment and more options are causing more and more people to use public transportation every day. However, sometimes the bus is inconvenient or you need to get out of town. That’s where Zipcar comes in.

Freedom isn’t free

Using Zipcar’s service isn’t cheap, but for some it could be a lot less expensive than their current situations. But first, what is Zipcar? You can sign up to use the company’s fleet of vehicles online at www.zipcar.com. Zipcar is a car-sharing service that lets you sign up to use vehicles by the hour or by the day.

With a little simple math, you can figure out whether Zipcar is your key to saving money. So before you get a payday loan to cover your signup fee, let’s …

Do the math

The main benefit of using Zipcar is that you don’t have to own a car or pay for insurance separately. Anyone who plans to use a car once per month or more should probably go for the “extra value plans,” which cost $50 per month, minimum.

There’s a $25 signup fee, and the monthly fee covers gas, insurance and 180 miles. So, let’s say you need a bus pass for everyday stuff, and that’s $30. If your gas and insurance cost more than $80 per month, you might be a good candidate for Zipcar. Once you factor in the cost of car maintenance including replacing tires, oil changes and fixing anything that breaks, Zipcars start to look pretty attractive.

Extra costs

So, for an “extra value plan,” the cost is between $8 and $9 an hour, depending on which city you live in. However, the $50 per month goes toward that cost, so you don’t have to pay extra unless you exceed five and a half hours of driving or so.

Also, if you want to use the car for the whole day it’s $60 to $70. As you can see, if you use Zipcars very frequently, it can get expensive. Zipcars aren’t for driving to and from work every day. But if you just want to use a Zipcar for a couple of hours on the weekend to go to the laundromat or grocery store, you might be a great candidate for Zipcar. Plus, you won’t have to worry about the responsibility that comes with owning a vehicle.

Snazzy Zipcar technology

After you sign up to use Zipcar and receive your Zipcard, you can find nearby vehicles and reserve cars online. Zipcar uses radio frequency identification so that when you wave your Zipcard over a mechanism behind the windshield, you reserved car unlocks.

If you booked your reservation for a certain number of hours, alerts tell you when you’re getting close to the end of your reservation. In many cases car usage can be extended.

To get all of the details about Zipcar, including which U.S. cities currently have Zipcars available, visit www.zipcar.com.

America’s infrastructure is slated to receive a needed boost from improved public transportation. The installment loans it received from the omnibus economic stimulus package mean that credit repair for the nation may not be far away. That is, if the Obama high speed rail plan goes into effect as planned. It could be just what American commerce and tourism needs.

You don’t have siderodromophobia, do you?

Brian Knowlton reports for the New York Times that President Obama has highlighted his plan to develop high-speed passenger rail lines in at least 10 regions of the country. He is confident in the future of the mode of transportation, despite the fact that rail efforts in America pale in comparison with the rest of the world, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Unstopping commerce

The need is clear. Highways and airports cannot accommodate the level of transportation America needs to grow. Obama considers rail

… a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century, a system that reduces travel times and increases mobility, a system that reduces congestion and boosts productivity, a system that reduces destructive emissions and creates jobs.

The recent stimulus package sets aside $8 billion for high-speed rail projects. This money is to be spent over two years, then an extra $1 billion per year will be budgeted to such projects over the following five years. The money has yet to be allocated to specific projects, but the president has said that the process of awarding funds to “ready” projects will occur by the close of summer 2009.

Getting connected

Ten areas of America where high-speed rail is likely to be developed are as follows:

1. Northern New England
2. East-west through New York State
3. East-west through Pennsylvania
4. Connecting the District of Columbia to Florida
5. D.C. to the Gulf Coast
6. Eastern Texas to western Alabama
7. Central and southern Florida
8. Texas to Oklahoma
9. San Francisco to Los Angeles in two-and-one-half hours
10. Pacific Northwest

A strong first step

“Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination,” President Obama said. “It is happening right now, it’s been happening for decades. The problem is, it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.”

Extensive expansion of America’s high-speed rail system will be a key part of the most dramatic changes made to America’s infrastructure since President Eisenhower started the Interstate Highway system in the 1950s.  This won’t immediately equal the systems that exist in Europe and Asia, but it will be a strong first step.

“This plan is realistic,” Obama said. Rail spending will provide jobs that “can’t be outsourced,” help reduce air pollution and make America more competitive for both businesses and tourists.

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Are you still with me? Did you read parts ONE and TWO? I hope so. These tips aren’t going to make themselves happen, and payday loans aren’t long-term solutions. We have to incorporate as many of these ideas as we can if we are going to survive this recession. Think long haul, here. Many experts predict that we won’t be out of this until the end of 2010, so there’s no reason to wait. Shave money off your daily transportation budget now to reap the rewards. You may end up with enough left over for another kind of transportation (plane tickets), but you’ll want to save there, too. That’s another article, however. Stay tuned for that one…

• Coast into red lights instead of slamming on the brakes – This saves wear and tear on your car and your nerves. The gradual deceleration is also more fuel efficient
• Use public transportation – If your city has a good bus/subway system, use it. With a monthly or yearly pass, you’re likely to save much more than if you’d been commuting via your car each day
• Try to get by with one car – Sometimes, families have to have more than one vehicle. However, multiple vehicles often comes down to luxury. Having a commuter car on one side of the garage and your weekend mudder or sports car on the other sounds like fun, but the cost of gas, insurance and upkeep can be prohibitive
  
• Drive your car until it’s old – What I mean to say is that you should keep your vehicle in good shape if you intend for it to last. Change the fluids regularly, get tune-ups, have a mechanic inspect it, keep an eye on tire inflation and tread and don’t drive for long on a near empty tank, because it can clog your engine with the sludge in the bottom of your gas tank. Be clean and KEEP READING…

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Squeeze gold from that rust bucket

Cars.com’s “Kicking Tires” blog reports that President Obama has urged the automobile industry to adopt an incentive program called “Cash For Clunkers.” In order to attract more new car buyers, automobile manufacturers would offer greater trade-in value for older, less fuel-efficient vehicles.

Bills introduced in the Senate in January and House in March are in need of funding, according to Obama. They would be the engines to provide prospective new car buyers with vouchers worth up to $7,500. The theory is that what the government will pay is more than what can be obtained via normal trade-in – a real cash advance for those of us who are sitting on a less than desirable old car.  Not only would this voucher be good toward the purchase of a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle, but it could also be applied to vouchers that can be used to access public transportation.

Going green

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is a major supporter of this double-fisted package of legislation. She says it “would help reduce dependence on foreign oil.” It would operate for four years and, in a coup for green living and the environment, is projected to remove as many as a million vehicles from the roadways each year. To encourage fuel efficiency, new car buyers who want to use the voucher program would have to purchase a vehicle that exceeds federal guidelines by 25 percent and is 2004 or newer.

Cars.com is unsure as to the exact numbers regulators would be using to determine fuel efficiency, as we’re not sure which numbers regulators would use to determine fuel efficiency, because Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) figures are generally still not published on window stickers.

Big auto wants a boost in new car sales

To sort through the confusion, multiple sources feel that what the Obama administration will do is release a list of new (or newer) vehicles that will be eligible under the Cash For Clunkers voucher program. Unfortunately, car makers would like to see such a program apply only to purchasing new vehicles – since it helps their bottom line most – but the interest in used cars isn’t going away. At least it helps them clear inventory…

President Obama said Cash For Clunkers “would be retroactive to today.” What does this mean? Cars.com isn’t sure, since there is currently no voucher plan in effect. Their guess is that any car purchased from this day onward would count. Apparently, you could then take your old car in for a voucher after the fact? But then what would that apply to if you’ve already purchased a new car? Stay tuned…

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