More Zipcars coming to Metro stations

by ,

Here are the locations:

Blue Line Willow Lot, 2750 American Ave., Long Beach 90806

Expo Line La Cienega/Jefferson, 5664 W Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles 90016

Gold Line Indiana Lot, 210 S Indiana St., Los Angeles 90063

Gold Line Lincoln/Cypress, 370 W Avenue 26, Los Angeles 90031

Green Line El Segundo, 2226 E El Segundo Blvd., El Segundo 90245

Orange Line Van Nuys, 6062 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, 91411

Orange Line Pierce College, 6425 Winnetka Ave., Woodland Hills, 91367

Red Line North Hollywood, 5391 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood 91601

Red Line Universal City, 3913 Lankershim Blvd.,Studio City 91604

Red Line Westlake/MacArthur Park, 660 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles 90057

Here is the news release from Metro:

In an effort to help enhance mobility, provide Los Angeles transit customers with more transportation options and improve first mile-last mile connectivity to Metro stops, Zipcar, the world’s leading car sharing network, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) have entered into a partnership to provide vehicles for hourly or daily reservations at 10 Metro park-and-ride locations.

Twenty Zipcars will be available, two at each of the 10 locations, providing residents, businesses and visitors with access to vehicles along busy transit corridors.

“We’re helping Angelenos stay on the move by offering more options to get where they need to go. Our pilot Zipcar partnership carries on our commitment to extend the reach of our Metro Rail system by making it more convenient to travel the last mile,” said Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Eric Garcetti.

Zipcar allows members to reserve a car by the hour or the day. Membership starts as low as $7 per month and members can choose vehicles such as sedans, hybrids, luxury vehicles and cargo vans. 

“For years Zipcar has served as a convenient way to get around Los Angeles, and now, with this partnership with Metro, Zipcar can also serve as a way to get out and explore beyond the city limits,” said Zipcar Regional Vice President Dan Grossman. “The partnership with Metro allows our members to have access to more cars in even more places making it easier than ever to live car-free or car-lite.”

Zipcar will be available for reservation at the El Segundo lot, Indiana parking lot, La Cienega/Jefferson, Lincoln/Cypress, North Hollywood south lot, Pierce College, Universal City north lot, Van Nuys, Westlake/MacArthur Park lot and the Willow Street lot.

“Most people walk to or from their transit stop. Improving the first mile/last mile access to transit with initiatives such as the partnership with Zipcars is critical to making transportation more convenient,” said Metro Board member Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker. “This also helps extend the reach of transit and will help boost transit ridership throughout the county.

Metro and Zipcar Offer Vehicles at Park and Ride Lots

Zipcar gives its members on-demand access to a variety of cars in hundreds of cities and colleges and university campuses worldwide as well as major airports throughout North America and in Europe. With cars available 24/7 for reservation via Zipcar’s mobile app, through www.zipcar.com, or over the phone, Zipcar is a smart transportation option for those who only need a car by the hour or by the day. Each reservation includes gas, insurance and 180 miles of driving per day.

About Zipcar
Zipcar, the world’s leading car sharing network, has operations in urban areas and college campuses throughout Austria, Canada, France, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Zipcar offers more than 50 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for smart, simple and convenient solutions to their urban and campus transportation needs. Zipcar is a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR), a leading global provider of vehicle rental services. More information is available at www.zipcar.com.

Categories: Policy & Funding

Tagged as: , , ,

10 replies ›

  2. Nice idea–now let’s see some designated Lyft/Uber pick-up spots. Just a curbcut and a sign would do. That would serve a lot more passengers, too.

  3. Sorry, I didn’t mean to send this to you.

    Interesting! Guess they finally realized no everyone lives close to the lines and/or the lines don’t go exactly where people want to go.

    >

  4. Interesting! Guess they finally realized no everyone lives close to the lines and/or the lines don’t go exactly where people want to go.

    >

    • Ummm, FYI. a lot of other transit systems in the country also have the same kind of Zipcar setup in their rail stations, so if your comment was meant to insult Metro, it didn’t exactly work…

  5. I think for the bulk of Metro’s ridership, a proper first mile last mile connection would be free shuttle bus service, bicycle infrastructure (on-street and on-bus), streetscape improvements for pedestrians, and bicycle share.

    I do not think riders will want to borrow a car for ~$8 an hour, and the car-share model isn’t exactly conducive to daily bread and butter commute/shopping trips. Cars have to be returned to the same station unlike bikeshare, so the “meter” would be running for the entirety of the rider’s “last-mile” trip, to AND from the station. Nobody will ride to the station, borrow the car for a whole day to drive it to work, and then return it at the end of the day.

    • Of course, the first mile/last mile problems would inherently go away if Metro just made better use of the lands they own and started building high rise residential towers next to them so we don’t need shuttles or zipcars to take them to the nearest train station.

      That’s the most direct way to solve said first mile/last problem: build residential and commercial buildings near by to encourage people and work closer to train stations. Doesn’t help that Metro decides to waste land space on their own with empty parking lots when they could build a condo right next to it.

      Perfect example of wasteful uses of perfectly good land space at Culver City Station:
      http://i.imgur.com/htT3bIs.jpg

      How is Metro ever to convince people to adapt to a mass transit oriented lifestyle when they don’t “lead by example” and build free parking lots next to the stations? Land is valuable and scarce in LA, said parking lots need to be made way for more development that would directly contribute to Metro ridership as well as Metro’s own revenues.

  6. I am a Zipcar member and while I appreciate the convenience of having cars available at Metro stops, I don’t really understand what this does to help the first mile/last mile since you still have to return the car back to its original spot at the transit stop. Am I misunderstanding something about this new partnership?

    • I think there are a limited number of use-cases but they do exist. For example, driving a few blocks away from the Red Line to get to a restaurant for dinner, and then driving back to the same station to return home. I recently needed to go to an office on Wilshire but it was just a bit too far for me to walk and taking the bus wasn’t going to make sense time wise. If I had a Zipcar, I could (and would) have used it for 1-2 hours to get to this appointment and back to the Purple line. It doesn’t solve the issue of where you start from, but it does solve the first and last mile at your destination.