Ithaca Carshare

Carshare is a company that allows you to rent a car for short trips for $ 5 – 8 per hour and 30 cents per mile. Just reserve the car on your phone or computer and swipe your membership card to enter the vehicle.
Pros:
* Usually there is a car within a few blocks of me. Lots of vehicles in downtown, fall creek, collegetown or cornell.
* Save money by selling your car. If you don’t drive to work carshare is almost as convenient as owning one and at a fraction of the cost. The price of insurance, gas, parking and repairs per year is more than the price of taking 3 trips per week in a carshare vehicle. So even if someone gave you a used car for free, it is more economical to use carshare.
* Your insurance is included and it is very comprehensive. You have 1 million in liability coverage, and a $ 60 deducible.
* Half off prices from 11pm — 7am! Wegmans is open 24 hours, so pocket the savings with a late night or early morning grocery run.
* Everyone who works or studies at Cornell should join Ithaca Carshare, even if they own a car. The cheapest plan is effectively free to join. Parking at Cornell is expensive. Take the bus to work and use one of the Cornell carshare cars when you really need to make a mid-​day trip.
* Access to a pickup truck, perfect for moving and hauling furniture.
* Fantastic customer service. People will pick up on their 24 hour line even at 3am!
* discounts at local businesses — 5% off at select restaurants and shops
* cars are hatchbacks, making them ideal for carrying lots of stuff
* cars are all fuel efficient. Help save the environment by using this service.
cons:
* Long road trips are not economical in a carshare car due to mileage fees. In addition renting a car from a private rental company is expensive because your carshare insurance does not cover rental cars (unlike a private policy if you own a car). Expect to pay $ 30 per day more renting a car than a car owner would pay.
* Carshare used to have a discount at national car rental which helped mitigate this added cost of carshare. Unfortunately with national’s closure, carshare does not lead to a discount at any car rental location in Ithaca.
* If there isn’t a car where you live or work this is obviously a con. But Carshare often expands their fleet, but they do only go where there is enough demand to justify the cost. This means no cars on the outskirts of Ithaca, yet (but most people live or work near a vehicle).
* they increased their weekend rate to help encourage people to run errands during the week. It makes it easier to get a weekend car when you really need it, so this is a pro in disguise.
* It would be nice if they had a phone app, but the mobile version of their website was recently upgraded, and is easy to use considering it isn’t an app.