Zipcar, Harvard University Transportation Services, and Zimride Partner for First Greater Boston 'Under 21' and Car Sharing Program

BOSTON, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Zipcar Inc., Harvard University Transportation Services and Zimride announced today Greater Boston's first campus car sharing program for drivers under 21. The partnership will make it even easier for parents to send students to school without a car and further reduce the number of cars in Cambridge neighborhoods, already a city with one of the highest concentration of car sharers in the country.

The partnership will expand Zipcar's successful 10-year relationship with Harvard University Transportation Services by doubling the company's on-campus fleet to up to 20 cars and bringing the total number of vehicles in Cambridge and Allston surrounding the campus close to 160. All on-campus vehicles will be available to area residents and Harvard affiliated members including those under 21. With the addition of Zimride, a private network for ridesharing that uses Facebook integration to create a fun way to find friends to share commutes or one-time rides, the partners will help reduce campus traffic, parking difficulties and provide substantial cost-savings for the community and students.

"At eighteen, young adults have adult commuting needs, from students needing to move furniture to a worker having to make a meeting across town," said Dan Curtin, General Manager of Zipcar Boston. "Zipcar is proud to work with Harvard and Zimride on providing these younger drivers with another means of transportation."

"We're excited to work with Harvard University Transportation Services in building their private social network for ridesharing," said Curtis Rogers, National Account Manager at Zimride.  "Our integration with Zipcar will provide more transportation options to Harvard's students, faculty, and staff, creating a fun and sustainable way to collectively make a difference."

Through Zimride's customized web-based interface, Harvard faculty, staff and students will be able to find others with similar commuting patterns or one-time rides.  As a social network platform with optional Facebook integration, Zimride is fun to use and helps establish trust among users.  Just like with Facebook, Zimriders can view profiles for common networks, interests and friends before deciding to share a ride. This new transportation alternative is a fun, easy and sustainable way for everyone to collectively make a difference.

"We are excited to offer a program that will allow the Harvard community to easily find and share rides," said Kris Locke, Manager of Harvard's CommuterChoice program.  "Zimride's rideshare solution is a great compliment to our existing car sharing program, Zipcar.  With Zipcar and Zimride we will be able to reduce congestion and make campus commuting more efficient for everyone."

"By reducing the number of cars on campus and encouraging carpooling among students, faculty and staff this partnership marks an important step forward in our sustainability goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide economically viable solutions that conserve resources," said Heather Henriksen, Director of Harvard's Office for Sustainability.

Harvard is one of Zipcar's oldest and most successful university programs with more Zipcar members, and car sharing vehicles, than any other university in North America. By working together to help reduce the number of cars in Cambridge, the city has seen a reduction of about 3,000 parking sticker requests between 2006 – 2009.

For more information, including how to enroll in Zipcar at Harvard University, please visit: www.zipcar.com/crimson.

About Zipcar

Zipcar is the world's leading car-sharing service with more than 400,000 members and 7,000 vehicles in urban areas and college campuses throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for an alternative to the high costs and hassles of owning a car. More information is available at www.zipcar.com.

About Zimride

Zimride is the largest online social rideshare community in North America with over 350,000 users.  Zimride has implemented private rideshare communities for over 50 of the nation's leading universities and companies including Stanford, UCLA, University of Michigan, Cornell University, Wal-Mart and CIGNA.

Zimride embraces ridesharing as a social activity and integrates with Facebook and Twitter to make it fun and easy for users to share the seats in their car or find a ride.  On Zimride, participants create profiles that show their favorite in-car music, radio stations and even smoking preferences to ensure an enjoyable ride.  

Zimride's site, http://www.zimride.com, empowers individuals to create social, sustainable and convenient transportation.

About Harvard University Transportation Services

The CommuterChoice program, part of Harvard University Transportation Services, is committed to providing the best commuting options and planning services to the Harvard community.  This free service includes transit pass discounts, car and van pools, car and ride sharing, cycling, walking, shuttles, and other sustainable transportation programs.  For more information please visit www.commuterchoice.harvard.edu.

Zipcar and the Zipcar logo are trademarks of Zipcar, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Zipcar