Car Shares: My 2012 Expenditures

We're a family of four and we own one car. We live/work/school all within walking distance of our house, in Boulder, CO; that's by design, not accident. I'm a huge advocate of car share/ride share, and public transportation, programs. Personal/daily use automobiles are one of the worst things humans have ever come up with. Sport/vanity cars are an exception in my mind b/c of relatively low volume/use. The way we use cars is truly pointless given all the other options that exist. Anyway... this isn't a political or environmental activism post. It's a post about how much I spent on car shares in 2012.

Looking back on 2012, here's what I paid for car share programs.

eGo CarShare (Denver/Boulder's version of ZipCar)
Summary: 222 miles driven, $405: $1.82 per mile

I use eGo in my home town instead of buying/owning another car; you can see that it's a screaming deal vs owning a car. We don't pay for insurance or gas or garaging or maintenance for eGo. I will note that my office is a walk from my house. I would probably buy another car if my work commute couldn't easily be done on foot or bike or bus.

ZipCar (San Francisco/Bay Area only)

Summary: 49 miles driven, $84.09 (the $60 was an annual membership fee): $1.72 per mile

I use ZipCar when I'm staying in SF and have meetings either down on the Peninsula or North of the City. Renting a car is a) more expensive b) airport inefficient (you have to deal w/ the rental car center location and process) and c) leaves you stuck dealing with a car for your trip. I generally do a ton of walking to/fro meetings. Dealing with cars in cities is obviously a major pain because parking is so hard. Find a spot... figure out how, when, where to pay for it... blech!

I thought I used ZipCar more than I do. Walking and Uber undoubtedly prevent me from using ZipCar more.

The amount I spend each year on Uber, cabs, and airport car service would certainly dwarf all of the above, but that's another post.

Jud Valeski

Jud Valeski

Parent, photographer, mountain biker, runner, investor, wagyu & sushi eater, and a Boulderite. Full bio here: https://valeski.org/jud-valeski-bio
Boulder, CO