Zipcar gets new Honda

By Jesus Diaz

Three months after the program's launch, Zipcar will be adding a third car to its fleet, a new 2010 hybrid.

According to Matt Cameron, assistant vice provost for student life, 93 Santa Clara students have signed up for the program so far. Last Wednesday, a new Honda Insight and parking spot were added to the lot adjacent to Bannan Hall.

"In its first year, Zipcar's Santa Clara program has been successful -- in fact we just added a third car on campus based on member demand," said Jaime Quick, director of Scoville Public Relations for Zipcar.

"We are excited to be on campus and look forward to an ongoing partnership with the university to provide student, staff and the local community a convenient, economical and environmentally-friendly alternative to owning a car," he said.

Charles Arolla, director of Campus Safety Services, reports that the frequency of usage of the Zipcars is at 51 percent, calling the program's popularity "phenomenal." He noted that the overwhelming majority of the cars' users are students, although they are available for rent by faculty and staff as well.

Michelle Camp, who is a freshman without a car, first signed up for Zipcar about a month after Santa Clara adopted the program.

"I usually use it to just run errands," Camp said. "It's very convenient."

The student says she occasionally uses it and plans to continue to rent a Zipcar at least twice a month in the near future. Only once was a Zipcar unavailable when she wanted it.

"I wish it was a (smaller) amount of money, but the price isn't outrageous either," Camp said. "I'm pretty satisfied; the car is always clean."

Cameron said the new vehicle will be exclusively used for hourly rentals and not multiple days. If students were to sign up for a weekend or day-long rental, they would be directed to the first two cars.

According to Arolla, all three cars have specific names.

The Toyota Prius and Scion are called Privott and Bidding respectively, while the new Honda Insight is called Iker.

After noting the popularity of the program at Santa Clara, Zipcar decided to add another car.

"They wanted to provide it so that it would be more available if they rented it only by the day," Arolla said.

Amid this year's Toyota recall, Privott was taken to the dealership and had a software update.

According to Arolla, the car was then placed back on campus and works perfectly now. "I am not aware of any dissatisfaction and it appears that they've been available," said Arolla.

Said Cameron: "Our hope is that over time, we'll get this fleet up to whatever number helps the community. Is it five? Is it six? Is it 10? We don't know, but we're still in the climbing process which is good news."

Although there are talks that the program will be promoted during summer orientation, Arolla said rentals will probably slow down this summer due to the absence of students.

"I'm so excited!" said Katherine Quinn-Shea, student body vice president. "The fact that we started in the middle of the year, we were kind of uncertain about how it would go because people had already figured out their modes of transportation."

Courtney Seymour, organizational development vice president for Associated Student Government, believes that orientation will get a lot of freshmen to sign up.

"(Freshman orientation) could get a lot of the incoming freshman to sign up because their parents would be there," Seymour said. "So they can kind of help to turn in the first initial payment."

According to Seymour, Zipcar's reception on campus is exactly what ASG anticipated. She also spoke about the addition of the new hybrid: "The fact that it's a hybrid really tested a lot of what we're doing as an organization and what we want to do as a school."

Contact Jesus Diaz a jadiaz@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.