The Mesh - Lisa Gansky [6]
The Mesh, to work, can’t just be for “somebody else.” It has to be for me, and people like me. So I tried my first Zipcar, on a trip to Vancouver, where I fell in love with a little two-door number named Mini Mucho.
Before I left the Bay Area, I signed up for a membership on the Zipcar Web site. They have several different flavors for joining, including what I call the “tapas” version—trial choices like “I’m not really sure if I like it or not, so I’m going to try it first.” In a few days I received my member’s Zipcard in the mail. Today, you can also download the Zipcar app on your mobile phone. Your Zipcard or app-enabled phone unlocks the car by wirelessly connecting to a box under the windshield that contains a circuit board, processor, and modem. When you make a reservation, your card or app is authorized for that specific car, using AT&T’s wireless network. The same network allows Zipcar to remotely monitor the vehicle.
Once I knew when and where I’d be staying in Vancouver, I could see which cars were available close to my hotel. The Web listings are organized by location and inventory. Let’s say you need a station wagon, or you really want a hybrid, figuring it would be a great way to test-drive the car. Or perhaps your main concern is that the car be parked nearby. Either way, you can view the options. For my trip, I wanted something super convenient. I didn’t have that much gear, so a small car was fine. On the Web site, I saw a photo of Mini Mucho, which was parked just two blocks from my hotel, and made my reservation.
After arriving in Vancouver, I checked in to my hotel and then walked around the corner to a neighborhood garage. Unlike with a car rental, I didn’t have to go back to the airport, or some place that’s crazy far away, and then come back into the city again. There’s no hard-to-find exit at the airport to return a car. Car-share parking is optimized for convenience. I quickly found Mini Mucho, which was a fabulously ridiculous, visible-from-Seattle shade of yellow.
I was offered an online orientation for using the car beforehand, but it’s not tricky, not even the first time. I took the Zipcard, which has an embedded chip, out of my wallet. When I held it to the windshield, the card unlocked the car. The keys were there, Mini Mucho was all gassed up, and a credit card for filling up the car before returning was tucked in the visor. It was a lovely, easy experience.
As I drove Mini Mucho all over the place, I became attached to her. And giving the car a name worked its magic on me. If I lived in Vancouver or I was going back again, I would seek Mini Mucho out. It was super fun. Knowing your vehicle carries some of the perks of ownership and takes any unpleasant surprises out of the equation. The experience was very different from renting with Hertz, or one of the other big car rental companies, where you’re only allowed to pick a category of car—small, medium, or large—like a Slurpee.
While in Vancouver, I also tried out the local bike-sharing service. The city is one of the best places in the world to ride a bike. For bike sharing, a credit card in a slot usually unlocks a bike. You ride your bike around and return it to the same rack, or to another one elsewhere. (Barcelona even has a phone app now that tells you which of the four hundred return stations is closest.) In Vancouver, the bike-sharing locations