Zip car test drive makes for smooth green ride

Author: Emma Gardner

As the College community has made strides to convert the campus into a more environmentally friendly place over the past few years, students have begun to promote energy-saving alternatives to using personal cars through the year-old Zipcar program. While the College has long permitted all students to keep personal cars on campus, the growing concern for environmental activism has propelled both students and the administration to take a closer look at alternatives, such as Zipcars, in an effort to decrease the number of vehicles crowding the parking lots.

Last fall, Middlebury embarked on a collaboration with Zipcar, the country's largest car sharing company, to test the feasibility of such a program at the College. The decision to give the Zipcar program a trial run arose out of the College's Carbon Reduction Initiative, which Assistant Treasurer and Director of Business Services Thomas Corbin described as "a way to get each student to reduce his or her carbon footprint."

The College arranged for two Toyota Hybrid Prius Zipcars to be made available to students on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. Students were encouraged to try out the program as a means of simultaneously reducing their gas and car maintenance expenses as well as increasing their level of environmental activity.

"If we want students to be better global citizens, we have to give them an alternative," said Corbin. "We tried bicycle sharing and bus programs, neither of which really worked. We needed something like the Zipcar program so that students weren't stranded here if they needed to go elsewhere."

Since the program's launch, Zipcars have become a popular way for students to travel around Addison county.

"I use it about once a week for various errands," said Alex Benepe '09.

Today around 212 students hold accounts with Zipcar through Middlebury, where only 100 were enrolled by the end of last spring.

"We're getting use out of them 33 percent of hours per week," said Corbin, adding that once the level of usage reaches 50 percent, the program "will be self-sufficient and at a point where we won't have to be as involved as we are now."

It seems that since its inception the program has received a predominantly positive response from students, many of whom must now compete for the opportunity to use one of the two campus Zipcars.

"Generally if you do not reserve [a car] at least 24 hours in advance it's hard to get one, which tells me that they are used quite a bit," said Benepe. "Frankly, I think the campus could use one more at this point."

Zipcars are used most frequently by students who do not own cars or live too far away to drive personal vehicles to campus, as well as by international students. While the Zipcars do increase the number of vehicles on Middlebury grounds, students who might otherwise have used cars belonging to their friends are given the opportunity to make use of more energy-efficient vehicles at a lower price.

"The pricing is really reasonable, at only eight dollars an hour, and they give you a special gas card that can be used at any station," said Benepe, who also added that "the Prius gets about 50 miles to a gallon, though, so you don't need to fill it up that much."

While the College has yet to generate a return on its investment in the Zipcar program, the administration maintains that "we made a commitment to stay with the program for three years because we felt it would take two to three years to build the program up to where it was self-efficient," according to Corbin.

If the program continues to follow its current trajectory of success, the Zipcar will likely become the new "yellow bike" of Middlebury College - only this time, it will be more difficult to misplace and probably will not break down as easily.