Zipcar Launches Car Sharing Program at CSU Long Beach

Zipcar part of effort designed to reduce vehicles on campus, increase transit use and diversify transportation options for students

LONG BEACH, Calif., Sept. 16 -- Zipcar, the world's largest car sharing service, and California State University Long Beach (CSULB) today announced the launch of Zipcar's car-sharing program on the CSULB campus. Currently, CSULB has 40,000 students and staff either commuting to or living on the campus and only 13,000 parking spaces. Offering Zipcar, along with other university led alternative transportation efforts, will help reduce demand for parking and associated congestion while offering students a convenient and environmentally friendly alternative to bringing a car to campus. Staff also plans to use the service to lower overall transportation and fleet costs.

Zipcar will have a formal launch event today at 10 a.m. at Maxson Plaza, adjacent to Brotman Hall on the Long Beach campus.

Beginning today, five self-service Zipcars - three Honda Insight Hybrids, and two Scion xB's - will be available for use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cars are located in reserved spaces at four locations on campus and are available to all students, faculty and staff ages 18 and over. Gas, insurance, 180 free miles, reserved parking and roadside assistance are included in low hourly and daily rates.

Students, faculty and staff can join Zipcar for personal use for $35 and can drive for as little as $8 per hour or $66 per day weekdays and $9 per hour or $72 per day on weekends. They will also get $35 in free driving credit as part of a launch promotion. Local residents ages 21 and older can join for $75 ($25 one-time application fee and $50 annual fee). All members 21 and over will have access to Zipcar's network of more than 6,500 vehicles throughout the UK and North America.

The partnership with Zipcar fits with CSULB's existing alternative transportation efforts to manage parking and congestion. Currently, the school offers free bus rides to students, faculty and staff through a partnership with Long Beach Transit called U-PASS. The university also will soon launch a bike sharing program. In addition, CSULB has partnered with Zimride, the world's leading social online ride sharing community, to augment a campus vanpool program, which includes the new Zipcar integration layer, and Zipcar.

"Zipcar is a key new addition to our efforts to reduce congestion and parking demand on campus," said CSULB President, F. King Alexander. "One of the biggest barriers to taking alternative transit to campus or leaving your vehicle at home, is the fear of being stranded. Zipcar solves that problem by giving people access to a car when they need one."

Zipcar provides a service that appeals to both the freedom-loving nature of college students who want to experience the world around them and the practical concerns of administrators tasked with running a university and reducing overall costs.

For students, Zipcar offers the freedom of car ownership without the associated cost and hassle of owning a car. Like buying music by the song, today's students immediately see the benefit of paying for a car by the hour. They see Zipcar, which is consistently ranked alongside other leading brands like Google, Apple and Twitter, as a brand that understands them. Best of all, Zipcar provides insurance to students as young as 18 years of age.

For universities, Zipcar offers a practical and proven solution to managing demand for parking, reducing congestion and emissions and adding a lifestyle-oriented service to campus. Studies have shown the cost of a single parking spot ranges from $4,000 to $40,000 per spot, depending on whether it's an outdoor surface lot or underground garage. Since each Zipcar replaces 14 personally-owned vehicles, a university could reduce the need for up to 28 spots costing up to $1.1 million by just putting two Zipcars on campus.

"Zipcar has the unique ability to help reduce parking demand and increase transit use without asking people to sacrifice the convenience and freedom of having a car," said Matthew Malloy, vice president of global university operations for Zipcar. "With access to a car by the hour, students and faculty can leave their car at home - or maybe sell it altogether - helping reduce the number of cars on campus every day."

Zipcar was selected as California State University Long Beach's car-sharing partner based on its superior technology and operations, membership experience and track record of providing peer universities with a proven, cost effective and environmentally friendly transportation solution.

Zipcar, which has been offering campus car sharing since 2002, now has programs at more than 120 colleges and universities across the country. Among the dozens of colleges that have partnered with Zipcar to reduce traffic, noise and parking demands are MIT, Columbia, Georgetown, American University, University of Michigan, Harvard University, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, University of North Carolina, The University of Chicago, and UCLA.

More information about Zipcar at CSULB is available online at: www.zipcar.com/csulb

About California State University Long Beach

(CSULB) is a large, comprehensive urban university in the California State University (CSU) system. Its approximately 35,500 students make it one of the largest campuses in the CSU's 23-campus system and one of the largest universities in California. CSULB's students are served by more than 975 full-time and 1,425 part-time faculty members. The university's eight academic colleges (College of the Arts, College of Business Administration, College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Health and Human Services, College of Liberal Arts, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and College of Continuing and Professional Education) currently offer 84 baccalaureate degrees, 66 master's degrees and two doctoral degrees.

About Zipcar

Zipcar is the world's leading car-sharing service with 325,000 members and 6,500 vehicles in urban areas and college campuses throughout 28 North American states and provinces as well as in London, England. As a leader in urban transportation, Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to savvy city residents and businesses looking for an alternative to the high costs and hassles of owning a car in the city. More information is available at www.Zipcar.com.