Tech looks to rental car program to ease parking woes
U CAR SHARE
A Honda Civic Hybrid is one of the rental cars available at Virginia Tech on an hourly basis. The fuel-efficient cars, and on pickup truck, come with prime parking spaces.
Virginia Tech has a short-term answer to its long-term campus parking problem.
Students -- and faculty members, university employees and even Blacksburg residents -- can now rent a car by the hour and, better yet, find a place to park it at the vehicle-packed school.
U Car Share, a subsidiary of the U-Haul company, has put four fuel-efficient car models -- and another one is on the way -- and a pickup truck at Tech. And the university is providing choice reserved parking for them.
The program could eliminate some of the need to have a car on campus, the Blacksburg school said.
"We're trying to find ways to reduce car congestion," said Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski.
With U Car Share, "you have it when you need it," he said, "but you don't have to have it every day."
Besides a Ford F-150, U Car Share has a Toyota Prius, a Honda Civic Hybrid, a Ford Focus and a Toyota Yaris at Tech. It soon will add a Mini Cooper.
They are parked at four locations near classes, residence halls and Tech's student center.
With gas and insurance included, the vehicles rent for as low as $4.95 per hour plus 59 cents a mile, with a cap on the total hourly cost. The lowest cap is $9.25 an hour. Rental rates that include 180 miles free per reservation range from $8 an hour to $12 an hour, depending on the vehicle.
"They'll run it for six months to a year to see if there's a demand for it," Owczarski said.
The program has logged 24 reservations since it started the first week of August at Tech, said Cassandra Allen, the program's marketing and sales manager.
Tech sells about 19,000 parking permits to students, faculty, and staff annually. The university estimates that just under 15,000 cars drive onto the campus daily, hunting for one of 15,233 parking spaces.
Students, faculty, staff and area residents can only use the service if they have a U Car Share membership card, which the company is offering for free until Oct. 30. After that, the card costs $25.
Anyone 18 or older with at least two years of driving experience can become a member.
U Car Share already is operating at three other colleges and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, Allen said.
The University of Virginia has issued a request for proposals for a car-share program for its campus.
Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or
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Reader Reactions
Spent 4 wonderful years at VT and I can tell you hands down, there is absolutely no need to have a car on campus. In fact, I lived off campus for 3 years and never had a car of my own. I managed to get around just fine. They have a phenomenal bus system with a bus hitting each stop every 15-30 minutes, depending on the location.
If you live in Blacksburg, you really don’t NEED to drive to class… it’s just laziness that drives people to do it. Almost everything is within a reasonable walking distance… again, laziness. I remember riding with a friend once and it took you longer to find a parking spot than it did to ride the bus. Most of the people I knew that I saw in the parking lot lived within walking distance. Laziness.
Rather than go with a 4 car rental thing… ADD MORE BUSES! I will admit that some of the stops in the large apt complexes had large groups waiting to get on, but how hard is it to have 2 buses trailing each other in order to pick everyone up at peak times?!
In response to Interested Read, there is a pretty legit transit system in Blacksburg already. Although, this year it’s been so crowded that it isn’t the easy solution as in the past.
It seems to me that the real solution to the parking problem is mass transit or some sort of trolley system other universities have.
Univ. GA has a trolley that travels all over the campus from major stops. Students leave cars at home and take the trolley. Saves parking fees and gas. Why does everyone have to have their own car to go everywhere on campus? What a waste of real estate.
Of course, if you need to do shopping or visiting, you can use your own car.
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