page_title: Flexcar
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Flexcar / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Description: A en:Flexcar on Georgia Tech's campus. Source: I, en:User:Disavian, took this picture on 2007-05-27
context_page_description: Flexcar was a for-profit car sharing company, the oldest and second-largest in the United States behind Boston-based Zipcar, with which it merged in late 2007.
context_section_description: Flexcar can date its origins to March 1998, when its strategic business planning was started by Flexcar cofounder & Champion Tracy Carroll, Dave Brook of Car Sharing Portland, Conrad Wagner of Mobility Switzerland and Neil Peterson, former Director of King County Metro.  Flexcar itself was founded in January 2000 in Seattle, WA as a public-private partnership with King County Metro.  Spurred on by the company's excellent customer service and Neighborhood Champions, Flexcar expanded to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, California; Gainesville, Florida; Rochester, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Tempe, Arizona (it served Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University); Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C. and Columbus, Ohio; and, to varying degrees, in their suburbs. In addition, Flexcar was partnered with the non-profit I-GO carsharing service in Chicago, Illinois.
  Flexcar members chose a rate plan and paid an annual fee.  The fees covered gasoline, insurance, maintenance, and cleaning.  The vehicles were mostly late-model sedans, with other types, such as light trucks, hybrids, convertibles, and minivans, also available. Each vehicle had a home location, a reserved space either in a parking lot or on a street, typically in a highly populated urban neighborhood (as well as, in some markets, on college or university campuses).  Members reserved a car by web or telephone and used a key card to access the vehicle.  The reservation was required to specify the pick up and return time, so others could schedule the vehicle.  Vehicles were returned to their home location.
  The company targeted people who made only occasional use of a vehicle as well as people who wanted occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day.   Flexcar claimed that the service was economically beneficial to anyone whose car would normally be away from their home about 15 hours a week, and did not need a car for their daily commute to work.
  In several of its cities, the company had formed a public-private partnership with a local public transit entity. For example, in Seattle they were partnered with King County Metro Transit, which operates the area's buses. The company's advertising materials there said, "Ride Metro when you don't need a car. Use Flexcar when you do."
caption: A Flexcar on Georgia Tech's campus.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A95", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:28 01:40:08", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "224", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1134", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6285", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:05:27 16:18:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:05:27 16:18:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "125/16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2406", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1466", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "984", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2592000/283", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "486000/53", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}