Car sharing: a new way to own and to rent

While I was looking for station information at DC Metro web site, I found the Car sharing option at many stations.

The concept is easy: take Metro as much as you can and only driven for the last part that usually takes the most time (e.g. bus transfer or where bus doesn't go). You can rent by the hour, which is very cost effective. For people living in big cities with a good Metro system (DC, NYC, Boston etc.) this is a great way to go places without all the problems associated with owning a car. Of course, you also helped to keep our planet cleaner (anything counts).

Besides Metro, they are also working with Universities, which is a very good idea to solve on campus parking problems and economic for students who avoid paying a premium on insurances.

So far there's two companies doing this:
Flexcar and Zipcar. Since the rate includes insurance and gas, there now is an incentive for the rental company to put out hybrid cars! As for Zipcar, they even have BMW or mini!