Using Eastern Michigan University's new hybrid car-sharing program, students, faculty, and staff can keep one foot on the gas pedal and the other planted on green terrain.
"We thought about our international student population and all the parking spots that get taken up by freshman students living in the residence halls [whose] cars sit there 80 percent, 90 percent of the time," says
Campus Life Director Melissa Ginotti regarding EMU's decision to add the car program.
Two hybrids, a Ford Escape and a Ford Fusion, are available for rent by the hour through the
Hertz On Demand program. Pending approval of an online application, a smart card is used to access one of the cars at the Mayhew Lot, near dorms and the student center. Rental rates are $8 an hour, which includes insurance, gas, and a 180-mile allowance. Hertz is waiving the annual membership fee for the program's first two years on campus.
If usage dictates it, she says, more cars will be added. "There's no limit on it and I think everyone wants for that to be the case, that we would actually need more than two vehicles."
As the program has been running for only a few weeks, usage figures aren't yet available, but "they've been well received," Ginotti says. "Students seem really happy with having this option available, as well as parents of new freshmen."
Source: Melissa Ginotti, EMU Campus Life Director
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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