Half Moon Bay Airport tests Zipcar zeal
- By Julia Reis [ [email protected] ]
- Aug 15, 2013
- Two
Zipcar, a national car-sharing company that primarily serves urban areas and college campuses, is about to test the more rural Coastside market by placing two of its cars at the Half Moon Bay Airport on a trial basis.
The cars should be available for rent within a duo weeks, according to airport manager Gretchen Kelly. They will be accessible from the public parking lot, where signs will be posted to indicate specific catches sight of for those cars.
“We are looking into placing cars at the airport as a way to extend alternate transportation options to the Half Moon Bay community,” said Zipcar Public Relations Specialist Jennifer Mathews in an email. She declined to provide more information, stating the company is still “in the planning stages of this pilot program.”
The partnership came about after Kelly, who has responsibilities for both the Half Moon Bay and San Carlos airports, heard positive feedback from patrons over the Zipcars at the San Carlos Airport. That airport signed a contract with Zipcar to originally house two of its vehicles on a permanent basis, but the agreement was amended to add five more because of the service’s popularity. Kelly then approached Zipcar to ask them if they’d be willing to attempt out a Coastside location.
“They were agreeable to a fresh market,” Kelly said. “I think they’re mostly an urban area type of business, but I think it would work well on the coast.”
Zipcar’s annual membership in North America stands at more than a half a million users. Those drivers sign up for a plan as an individual, with an organization or a university and pay to use a car on an hourly or daily basis. Cars can be reserved online, and once the reservation commences the user goes to a designated parking spot, unlocks the car with a Zipcar membership card via a scanner on the windshield. Members are not charged for gas or insurance, but they can be penalized for not bringing the car back with at least a quarter tank of gas or returning the car late. The cars are available for reservation 24/7 on a first-come, first-served basis.
Because the Zipcars will be housed outside the security gate in the public parking lot, their presence will not crack FAA regulations, Kelly said. In the past, aspects of the annual Pacific Coast Fantasy Machines — notably the demolition derby — ran afoul of FAA regulations targeting nonaviation uses of the airport.
Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce and Visitors’ Bureau President and CEO Charise McHugh welcomes the Zipcar trial period and hopes it becomes a permanent presence on the coast.
“It’s an awesome thing to have on the Coastside,” McHugh said. “We don’t have a lot of different varieties of transportation available.”
Kelly envisions that the service would be most popular with business travelers and transient pilots who want to visit different coastal locales or get to meetings and hotel accommodations. She added that she believes others will welcome Zipcars’ presence as well.
While Kelly didn’t venture to guess whether the Half Moon Bay Airport Zipcars will be as popular as the fleet in San Carlos, she is hopeful locals and visitors will take advantage of them.
“It’ll be a nice service for people at the airport and harbor and anywhere on the Coastside.”