Apparently, Zipcar is including a new feature that works in conjunction with Zimride – in case you haven’t heard of either, the former is a service which lets users rent out a car for short periods of time from conveniently located lots and low hourly rates, and the latter is a service which essentially organizes hitchhiking ride sharing amongst strangers.

So the next time you plan a Zipcar trip, you can choose to alert Zimride members in your area where you’re going, and when you’re leaving. It’s no extra effort on either Zipcar or Zimride’s part, and it increases the usefulness of both.

That being said, I don’t think I’d use this very much – even if I were a Zimride member, which I’m not. Zipcar’s greatest use is for short trips when you need to get somewhere that’s either not available via public transit or if you need to, say, haul something big and don’t want to drag it on the bus. It’s meant for spontaneous driving, so unless you spontaneously want to go where someone else is spontaneously going, you might be out of luck.

But – as mentioned by the Earth2Tech author – this could be very useful for commuters. Consider the following: Zipcars require no maintenance, you don’t have to worry about parking and OH YEAH THE GAS IS FREE. Seriously. That’s what they claim, at least – although I did have trouble filling up my Zipcar the one time I tried it.

All of these things make Zipcar an ideal choice for commuters who can’t get to work via public transit. As stated earlier, the price can get hefty, especially compared to a bus, subway or even regional rail fare, but when you start splitting it among two, three or even four people – it’s pretty reasonable. And way more convenient than a rental.

Oh, and as a sidenote: Zipcar is great, but so are the various other services that are not as big, but do the same thing, like PhillyCarShare (which I used to use in college).

Via Earth2Tech