Here is an amazing clip from CBS on what rushhour looks like in the Netherlands. I only saw one car!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20074094-10391705.html
Posts Tagged ‘car share’
Rush hour in the Netherlands
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011Excess capacity
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Think about the time cost benefit of your car suggests Victoria Carter, Cityhop’s co-founder.
Apparently the world’s more than 850 million cars and small trucks are parked for between 20 to 22 hours a day. The average American spends 18% of their income running a car that’s parked stationary 95% of time.
When she tweeted this staggering fact, a cityhoppa commented that the figure is probably worse for kiwis, ie they probably use their cars even less than this.
Interesting, how we apply time and cost studies to business but rarely ourselves. And if we were to truly look at our patterns of use with our car versus the actual cost we might seriously want to change how we move about.
For more on this read carshare guru Robin Chase, Lend your car and save the world!
Sharing gets respectable!
Friday, June 17th, 2011
The Guardian had an article by John Elkington about how times may be a-changing and that whereas once people aspired to get a company car or save up for a flasher car these days they are more interested in not owning. ( well in the US, UK and Europe) NZ may have a little way to go.
Elkington noted how we spoke at a conference in Madrid and that “someone from the auto industry noted to a small group of us that what is really spooking them is the fact that young people are beginning to think differently about car ownership.
“Unlike earlier generations, for whom owning a car was a signal of independence, of having arrived, young people these days are showing much less inclination to possess their own car – and, empowered by mobile phones, apps, social networks and start-ups like Go Get, Streetcar, Zipcar, WhipCar and City Car Club, they are increasingly opting for car sharing.
Now there’s a thought!
Car share gets 2 mentions
Friday, June 10th, 2011
We were interested to read in a recent Reuters article that car share got two mentions in a recent article on how web based sharing is reaching a tipping point. While the concept of sharing cars, tools and so on is still new to consumers, many companies are now adopting this business model so it won’t be long before sharing is mainstream!
Zipcar was obviously there in the list of 10 signs websharing is reaching tipping point, the US car sharing giant debuted in April on the Nasdaq at $30 a share, up 60 per cent on the offer price of $18 !
Then at the end of the list was this: Car Sharing Is the Gateway. According to a report from research firm Latitude called The Sharing Economy, people who try out car-sharing services are more likely to join in other web-based sharing services. Car sharers also share significantly more across categories than non-car sharers.
Cityhop members wins
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
Cityhop was chuffed to read that cityhop members Mitchell & Stout Architects were winners with a Waiheke Island house in the Residential Architecture – House category in the 2011 NZ Architecture Awards.
“With its poetically generated arrangement of volumes and room, this house, designed as retreat from work, offers a range of inventive and enjoyable spatial experiences. It offers a few extraordinary moments: the ‘thinking room’, a double height space for music and contemplation; guest sleeping areas that are reminiscent of Ryokan atchitecture and suggestive of treehuts and a brightly painted yellow main bedroom.”
We love seeing our members do well. David Mitchell and Julie Stout are not only imaginative in the way they create houses for clients but also in the way they move about the city. They recognise that individual car ownership isn’t always necessary and when they and their team need to drive somewhere they carshare with Cityhop.
Creating impact with the right words
Friday, May 6th, 2011“Use me when you need me” is written on the cityhop car. And yes, some of us have had the odd look.
Do I prefer this car or the one that says “I’m yours for $15 an hour!”
One of our wags wanted a well known politician to stand beside any one of these doors – we figured it might become one of the photos that was good for us but bad for a long standing political relationship so we didn’t go with it!
Enough about us, be moved by the one minute u tube clip about the power of words.
At what price will we stop driving?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
At what price will we think we can still afford to be a two or three car family?
One theory is that despite petrol edging up over $2.21 a litre car travel is still relatively under-priced and over-consumed in relation to the damage we are doing to the environment.
It might surprise readers to know most of us have tripled the kilometres we drive in the past 20 years. Maybe only the right kind of pricing can undo the obsession many of us have to drive everywhere?
That’s why car share clubs are taking off around the world. People who only use a car a few times a week yet pay for a smart piece of metal to sit in an expensive garage realise that it makes no sense. They sell their car and use cityhops ecofriendly cars instead!
It’s cheap -only $15 an hour, or $75 for 24 hours.
Says Victoria Carter Cityhop co-founder,”Car share means all the nice things about having a car but none of the bad – like someone else worrying about the maintenance, remembering the Warrant of Fitness, registration, checking the tyres and so on.
Car share is growing in popularity. In the US, it’s cool to be a Zipster and Zipcar , which recently floated very successfully, has over half a million members sharing cars.
Our friends at Go Get have doubled in size to 10,000 members in the past 12 months. Sydney and Mebourne residents get that it makes sense to just use car share occasionally rather than pay the costs of having a car in your driveway!
Maybe it’s time to think about what your really car costs?
Zipcar float over subscribed
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Zipcar, the world’s largest car share company was, this week, the darling of Wall St. ( well before the run last night!)
The car-sharing pioneer was ten times over subscribed with its initial public offering ‘sending the stock through the stratosphere in its Nasdaq debut. Priced at $18 (U.S.) a share – already well above the $14 to $16 that analysts had anticipated.’
The stock surged to $30 on its opening trade and quickly peaked at $31.50, before settling back to $28 at the close of its first day. After the run it dropped to just under $27.
Zipcar, like Cityhop, is a short-term car-rental business but unlike Cityhop, Zipcar, is a lot older (it’[s been around for 11 years) and has over 560,000 customer-members in 14 major cities (including Toronto and Vancouver) and more than 230 university campuses.
“It’s a cult IPO,” said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at Florida-based IPO research firm IPO Boutique. “A cult IPO is one where people like it so much that they say, ‘I want it at any price.’”
IPO analyst Francis Gaskins of IPO Desktop said Zipcar has identified more than 100 major urban centres globally, as well as hundreds of campuses, as potential markets.
Car-sharing
Zipcar membership: more than 560,000
Number of vehicles in fleet: more than 8,000
Size of North American car-sharing market, 2009: $253-million (U.S.)
Size of European car-sharing market, 2009: €220-million ($313-million)
Forecast size of North American car-sharing market, 2016: $3.3-billion
Forecast size of European car-sharing market, 2016: €2.6-billion
Sources: The Globe & Mail, Zipcar Inc., Frost & Sullivan, Bloomberg
Zipcar makes car share ‘hip’ lifestyle choice
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
As investors want more IPOs, Zipcar, the world’s largest car share company has decided to float. What is interesting is that they are offering shares at the upper end of the range. For more on the float read here
Relay Rides, (a neighbour to neighbour ride share concept) Chief Executive and Zip car competitor, Shelby Clark says, “Zipcar is part of a larger trend of environmentally conscious consumers who are interested in accessing products but not necessarily owning them,
“It’s about saying, ‘I’m spending too much money, it’s wasteful and I need to find a smarter way to access the things I need,’” Clark said. “Zipcar has taken car sharing from a niche idea to the mainstream. They’ve made it a hip, lifestyle choice for young urban professionals.”
Says, Victoria Carter, cityhop co-founder, “Car share is taking off around the world in any city where congestion is a problem and smart young urban professionals are recognising they don’t need the status symbol of a car in their driveway or basement for taking out once a week to get groceries or visit someone when they can swipe their car on a car share car.”
Zipcar’s Scott Griffiths is CEO of Year
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
Corporate Responsibility magazine in the US named Scott Griffiths, the CEO and Chair of Zipcar as CEO of the Year in the ‘social entrepreneur’ category.
On receiving the award in Chicago, Scott said, “I am humbled by this recognition from CR Magazine. The success of the Zipcar brand clearly demonstrates how a business can ‘do well by doing good.’ Our definition of sustainability is ‘the most efficient use of resources.’ Since each Zipcar removes 15 personally owned vehicles from the road, we help reduce congestion, ease parking demands and lower a community’s overall carbon footprint. I am proud to lead a company that is by definition sustainable,” said Scott Griffith, Chairman and CEO of Zipcar. “I am honored to accept this award on behalf of our 500,000 passionate members who we call Zipsters. Zipsters share our vision of a future where car sharing members outnumber car owners in major cities around the globe.”
Cityhop, is NZ’s own version of zipcar. Like Zipcar, members have access to cars via a smart card. They become members of a car share club and can use cars anywhere in Auckland or Wellington city once they have booked on line and the cars are programmed.
Scott has been CEO since 2003 and has steered Zipcar to be the world’s biggest car share company. In 2007 they merged with Flexcar not long after cityhop launched into Auckland. This year they acquired Streetcar, the UK’s fastest growing car club so they could expand car share throughout the United Kingdom.
Zipcar has helped change urban life by providing instant affordable mobility in 14 major metropolitan areas, 220 college campuses in the United States, United Kingdom and Canda.
If you don’t think you need a car think about joining a car club, find out more about cityhop.