No Car No Problem: The Solution For A Student With No Wheels

Zipcar+advertisement.+Photo+courtesy+of+google.+

Zipcar advertisement. Photo courtesy of google.

Josiah Darnell, Opinion Editor

Students struggle with a lot of day-to-day actions but one of the most important of them all is transportation. Even though most campuses, if not all, supply a shuttle bus service, there is always a schedule that accompanies it. This means students have to plan their errands, outings, and movement around campus based on someone else’s time. This can be a major inconvenience at times for Pace students, but there may be a solution: Zipcar.

Zipcar is a car-sharing company that allows certified and licensed drivers to operate vehicles due to their need. There are locations all over the country so they can be accessed from many places. Once the driver secures a membership, they have access to all of those locations and the cars that come with it. The membership is as low as $7 a month and college students can sign up for $15 for the whole year.

This price makes Zipcar extremely affordable for college students, but it is also helpful that members can rent for the hour or by the day, meaning that if a student only needs to make a quick run to the nearby town or shopping center, they can rent the car for 30 minutes to an hour. They would just pay by the hour and they can reserve it for as long as they need.

Once they are done with the car, the driver just puts it back in the pickup spot they got it from and that is the end of the reservation. This works perfectly for college students because it gives them access to a car without the full commitment of actually owning one. This also allows them to operate on their own timing when it comes to off-campus excursions. College students also have a lot of financial responsibilities to be mindful of and may not be able to fit a car into these responsibilities.

For Pace students, the shuttle runs at an efficient rate to Memorial Plaza and now it has been extended to the Thornwood shopping center for a trial period. However, there are other locations Pace students would enjoy going to. The White Plains Mall is also a popular spot and taking the Metro-North is not always an option when students want to shop. Having Zipcars on campus would be a huge asset to the students in allowing them to be able to explore more of what Westchester has to offer them in the places the shuttle bus does not reach.