Hacker News Reader

Comment by PaulWaldman | Hacker News Reader

How is Zipcar doing? Maven seemed to have better cars at a better price. What's the difference in their business models?

Interesting that with everyone sheltering in place, now would be the time where some people realize that they may not need to own a car. Zipcar, and maybe Maven could have, been great for occasional use scenearios.

View on HN

It’s still amazing how uneconomical it is to me not owning a car outside of any highly dense metropolitan are (where you can walk to get most daily supplies and parking is expensive).

I mean, even a quick drive to the store to get milk is a $20 fee without a car. Doing even just a single unplanned trip a week and the economics are way out of wack.

Surely two Uber rides would be cheaper than that.

In rural areas, Uber can be downright expensive. In my hometown, Uber easily charges $30-45 for a quick trip across town.

Yeah, I think the closest you can really get is 1 car per family depending on the work/school situation but even that's kinda hard to swing. It works for me and my partner because despite being in the burbs I can walk to work so it works out being 1-2 rides a month which makes way more sense financially.

Non-urban areas are almost by definition automobile-centered in a country like the US. They don't have the density required to support a lifestyle that doesn't depend on automobiles.

I would actually think the opposite.

For the last few years, we've been fine with occasional rentals, but I do wish we had one now. Would have been easier to buy food in bulk when this started, and we could drive out of our dense neighborhood and walk around somewhere where social distancing is easier.

As people are starting to realize mass transit is one of the most dangerous places to be with regard to COVID-19, they are going to flock to driving if they can.

> mass transit is one of the most dangerous places to be with regard to COVID-19

Maybe when things start to reopen, but in the Bay Area, transit agencies have been reporting incredibly low numbers. I heard stories of two people in a train car.

I don't believe this. Social distancing won't last forever. You could say that nothing that requires people to stay 2m apart will last, and that clearly won't remain true forever.

NYC subways are packed.

Zipcar laid off one fifth of their workers.

https://www.americaninno.com/boston/inno-news-boston/zipcar-...

It’s a bad time to be in the transportation business

As a customer of a Zipcar-like service, I notice that our own use has cratered:

* No more use for e.g. extended trips, because there's nowhere to go.

* Lots of exposed surfaces inside the car, and confined space compared to public transit, so there's an infection concern.

Yeah, I was actually thinking when the coronavirus started that ridesharing and carsharing would be unaffected as much. Public transportation seems to have 1000x the amount of people touching the same surfaces (e.g. turnstiles, doors, handlebars, etc...)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com