Metro has announced a partnership with the San Francisco-based company Getaround to offer an affordable and hassle-free car sharing service at more than 25 busy Metro transit park-and-ride lots throughout Los Angeles County.
Getaround allows people to instantly rent and drive cars owned by people in their city. All cars shared on Getaround are equipped with a device allows users to instantly book, locate and unlock the car through the Getaround app, eliminating the reliance on a physical exchange of keys between owner and renter. The Getaround mobile application is available on both iPhone and Android platforms.
This partnership helps Metro riders and others complete their first- and last-mile connections. Getaround is licensed to occupy 110 carshare parking spaces at 27 Metro transit station lots. Locations were chosen to prioritize equability for communities that need affordable car share services.
Locations span the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, South Bay, South L.A. and Westside, with prices depending on the vehicle type and beginning at $5 per hour. Getaround includes collision and liability insurance for every trip. Metro riders will receive $25 off their first booking by signing up at get.co/metro .
Metro customers interested in listing their cars and joining Getaround’s carsharing community should visitget.co/sharemetro.
Getaround carshare locations are available at these Metro stations:
• Expo Line: 17th Street/SMC Station, Expo/Bundy Station, Expo/Sepulveda Station, La Cienega/Jefferson Station.
• Gold Line: Lincoln/Cypress Station, Heritage Square Station, Sierra Madre Villa Station.
• Green Line: Redondo Beach Station, El Segundo Station, Aviation/LAX Station, Hawthorne/Lennox Station, Crenshaw Station, Vermont/Athens Station.
• Orange Line: Sherman Way Station, Canoga Station, Pierce College Station, Reseda Station, Balboa Station, Sepulveda Station, Van Nuys Station.
• Red Line: North Hollywood Station, Universal City Station, Westlake/MacArthur Station.
• Blue Line: Artesia Station, Del Amo Station, Wardlow Station, Willow Station.
The program is managed by Metro’s Parking Management Department. If successful, Metro and Getaround may consider adding carshare services to additional park-and-ride spots later this year.
Metro originally created its car share program with Zipcar in 2015. The Zipcar car-share network consists of 13 vehicles at eight high-demand transit stations on the Metro system.
Metro is also piloting additional ride sharing initiatives through its Office of Extraordinary Innovation. Metro recently launched a partnership with Via to offer shared, on-demand rides to and from three stations. Metro has also implemented bike sharing in downtown Los Angeles, San Pedro and Venice, with plans to soon expand its bike share network to the Central downtown L.A. and West L.A. area.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
Can someone explain the logistics of the car-sharing model? From the station you drive to your house. Then what? How does one return the car?
Hi Joseph,
This car share system works more as a stop gap for those who need first/last mile options in the middle of a trip, such as to run an errand or go to an appointment. You could check out a car to take home and return the next day, but it would be cost prohibitive.
Anna Chen
Writer, The Source
What about adding this service to the Silverline(Harbor Gateway Transit Center)? But then maybe not, this might add more riders to the already overloaded silverline buses.
Not happy about losing parking spaces to this company. I need to park and ride. If companies like this start hogging our parking then I will stop riding Metro Trains and drive my car.
You aren’t losing spots. Metro lots are rarely full, what you really mean is you want the spot closest to the stop ..
While we spend lots of money trying to solve the “last mile” problem let me just point out that Ubler/Lyft solved that for us five years ago. For example, the Expo Line stations west of La Brea are essentially commuter stations. Only one has a dedicated pickup/dropoff spot so people just exit in traffic or run across the streets all day. The pickups are more difficult with people running around the station and traffic trying to find the car that is theirs. Currently drivers block traffic, bike lanes and bus stops or they just give up altogether and cancel the ride. Same problem exists on Gold, Green and Blue Lines. I don’t take the Red Line but I assume that’s even worse.
My plan:
1. Purchase a five-gallon tub of Skipdash Type II Traffic Paint (white) for $75.
2. Purchase heavy duty paintbrush for $6.
3. Paint curb(s).
4. Email Lyft and Uber and tell them where the loading zone is at each station. They will adjust app to tell people where to wait for their ride and will tell drivers where to pickup and dropoff. They will do this for free as they do for every mall, school etc. This will minimize confusion and improve a very unsafe situation.
I would say 80% of the stations just need paint. A couple of stations would require a curb cut (Bergamont, Palms, Sierra Madre Villa) which is a little more involved but we really don’t need a twenty-foot wide sidewalk there anyway. When we get a little funding we could even put signs up.
Thanks for pointing out the big drawback to the Uber/Lyft model. The car-sharing model completely avoids that problem. So let’s have both, and let the users decide what better meets their needs,