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I would love to be able to travel around the state, but I can’t afford to,” Rico said. “I’m from Colombia and this is my first time living in California. Increased drop-off flexibility among UC campuses would also enable students to more easily traverse the state. Were Rico able to pick up a Zipcar at UCLA and drive it to UCSD, for example, her commute would be much more efficient and affordable.
ZIP CAR CALIFORNIA DRIVERS
Also, most rental companies do not rent to drivers younger than 25 years old, which excludes most students. Students’ trips often only involve driving for a couple of hours, which doesn’t justify the financial burden of a day-long rental through another car rental company. It might seem like students should look into renting a car rather than advocating for policy changes on behalf of Zipcar and the UC, but students take Zipcar because of its affordable hourly rate. “As a student, you don’t have that much money, and this Zipcar option would make it more accessible to travel.” “Sometimes, you want to see your family, but you just can’t afford to do it,” Rico said. She said these round-trips can cost up to $150 each, including the cost of transportation to and from Union Station, as well as the price of train tickets.
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Juliana Rico, a third-year film and television and Spanish, community and culture student, said she visits her family in San Diego once a month. Given that the nine UC campuses are spread across California, picking up a Zipcar at one campus and dropping it off at another would be convenient for most students’ commutes across the state. This would be a convenient and cost-effective alternative to public transportation and ride-sharing – were the drop-off policy more flexible.Įxpanding Zipcar’s drop-off options would allow students to commute on their own schedules, rather than make them bend over backwards to fit with Amtrak or Metro’s timetables. Zipcar offers reasonable hourly rates of about $9 for a short-term rental lasting less than 24 hours, or a daily rate for reservations lasting as long as a week. “The difficulty (of) navigating public transportation and LA traffic while working around a class schedule makes it so difficult to leave (campus),” said Meredith Strange, a second-year pre-economics student. Timing and finances are both concerns when planning trips off campus. It would also help professors and teaching assistants more easily commute to conferences. This increased drop-off flexibility would better connect students with the rest of California and would help them visit family and friends with greater ease. The UC should expand its partnership with Zipcar to allow students to pick up a car at one campus and return it at another.
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That said, users do currently have the option of selecting Zipcar’s more expensive, multiday reservation, but this is less financially viable for students than its hourly rate service. The program, however, requires students pick up and drop off cars at the same location, restricting where they can travel with these vehicles. The University of California has had a partnership with Zipcar since 2013, giving students discounted memberships and on-campus access to these vehicles. That’s where Zipcar, a short-term car-rental service, comes in. This may sound like a scene from a docudrama about the California Gold Rush or westward expansion, but it’s actually a description of the antiquated and inconvenient commute many students make today on Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, a train that runs between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.
ZIP CAR CALIFORNIA WINDOWS
The whistle of a train pierces the quiet afternoon as the carriage rocks from side to side, grimy windows framing a slow-moving California coastline.