Representatives from Zipcar, a rental car service, and officials from the University's Department of Parking and Transportation currently are communicating on a plan to bring Zipcar to the University.
Zipcar offers 20 different types of vehicles, from the BMW Mini Cooper to the Volkswagon Jetta. The cars are parked in parking spaces made available by the school. Zipcar works with the school to set hourly and daily rates to rent to students, which can range anywhere from five to eight dollars an hour and $45 to $60 per day. The University would pay for things such as gas, parking spaces and insurance.
With the Zipcar program, the University would not have to supply as many parking spaces because it is assumed that fewer students would bring cars, "which is a huge benefit," Parking and Transportation Department Director Rebecca White said.
Representatives from Zipcar spoke with Parking and Transportation Department officials two years ago about installing the service, but now they are better equipped to work with the University, Zipcar Business Development Director Adam Brophy said.
"We have refined the University product, and we feel we have a better offering now," he said.
According to Brophy, Zipcar has given a proposal to the University and is waiting for a response.
"Once we come to an agreement and we get a contract in place, in six weeks we can have a car on the ground," he said.
White said although she has seen proposals written for other schools, she has not seen a proposal tailored to the University and could not say when the service would be installed at the University.
"We're not starting from scratch -- we're familiar with the concept and the plan at other schools," she said. "We need Zipcar to present U.Va. with their version of the proposal, we will evaluate our shared interest and move on from that point."
The Zipcar service currently is available at 21 colleges and universities, including American University, Howard University and Tufts University.
"It has been very well received on every campus that we've been on," Brophy said.
According to Ramsay Huntley, climate entrepreneurship specialist at Tufts University, the Zipcar service was brought to Tufts as part of the school's "Climate Initiative."
Tuft's Climate Initiative program "is Tuft's response to the Kyoto Protocol, Huntley said. "The University decided in 1999 to meet or beat the goals of the Kyoto Protocol."
The Zipcar has been at Tufts for over two years and is mainly used by graduate students. In addition to offering another transportation service to students and faculty, the Zipcar service helps manage parking demands and reduces the number of students and faculty who drive to school, Huntley said.
"We also support it because they use very environmental-friendly cars producing less greenhouse emissions," he said.
The service has not been a significant cost to Tufts, said Huntley.
"In fact, I can't think of a cost other than the foregone parking," he said.
Although the Zipcar service is marketed to students 21 years and older, schools have the option of purchasing insurance that covers students 18 and over.
The service is used for everything from short runs to the grocery store to weekend trips, Brophy said.
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