Sharing is Car-ing

I just joined a car sharing program. These programs are basically rental cars by the hour. In San Francisco, we have three: Flexcar, CityCarShare, and ZipCar. They each have their plusses and minuses- some charge a monthly fee but have a low hourly rate, so their cars are good for people who use them once or twice every week. The one I chose has a low annual membership fee ($25), it costs about 9 bucks an hour to rent a car, and they have 5 cars parked 1 block from my house. Sweet.

I plan to use it mostly to go on short errands- to Costco, Trader Joe's, the grocery store, and the liquor warehouse. Without a car, you can carry about one giant tub of laundry detergent at a time so you end up going to the grocery store every other day. I stopped drinking soda mainly because it's too heavy to carry home from the grocery store, and too much more expensive at the convenience store. And if you can get there and back in an hour, you'll save more by going to the cheaper, farher store than you spend on the hour's rental.

I also do a good deal of nightclub reporting that requires me to be in several different clubs in different parts of town for ten minutes each. The car rental is the cost of one medium-distance cab ride per hour. It will be worth it then also.

And when I'm feeling extravagant, I can drive out of the ghetto in which I live and go for a run somewhere I don't have to worry about stepping on used syringes.

Oh, the places I'll drive...