Printer Friendly
The Free Library
19,604,530 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

Arlington County Brings Car-Sharing to the Masses with Flexcar; County Providing Free Memberships to Everyone Who Lives and Works in Arlington.


Business & Lifestyle Editors/Transportation & Environment Writers

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2004

Car-Sharing Program Designed to Increase Transit Ridership

and Reduce Traffic

In an unprecedented effort to reduce traffic congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load.

congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity.
, increase transit ridership and provide mobility options to everyone who lives and works in the area, Arlington County, next Tuesday, March 23, will team up with Flexcar, the nation's oldest and largest provider of car-sharing programs, to introduce the Arlington Carshare Pilot Project Program. Sponsored by Arlington County Commuter Services, this year-long program will provide any qualified resident of, or person who works anywhere in Arlington County the chance to join Flexcar for free (a $25 value) and will give them each a $35 vehicle usage credit to get started. Arlington businesses also will receive incentives to sign-up their employees.

Flexcar already has begun adding vehicles to the area, more than doubling the size of its fleet in the County. While Flexcar currently has vehicles stationed in East Falls Church Falls Church, independent city (1990 pop. 9,578), NE Va., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; inc. as a town 1875, as a city 1948. There is diverse light manufacturing, including telecommunications equipment.  and Crystal City, among others, these new vehicles will be clustered in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor, spanning Ballston, Virginia Ballston is a neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia and is home to a stop on the Orange Line of the Metrorail subway system. History
Named after the Ball family, relatives of George Washington, Ballston began at the intersection of North Glebe Road and Wilson
 Square, Clarendon, Court House and Rosslyn. The vehicles will be parked in specially-designated on-street spots to provide maximum visibility for residents, employees and businesses. Several others will be stationed side by side near Metrorail stations in Ballston and Court House.

"Over the last several years, Arlington County has led the way throughout the nation in the creation of urban villages and pedestrian-friendly communities," said Tim Vogel, general manager of Flexcar's DC Metro area This article is about the music production team. For the article about population centers, see metropolitan area.

Metro Area are a Brooklyn-based dance music production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani.
 operations. "By adding Flexcar to the mix through the Arlington Carshare program, the county is helping extend its reach and adding a new dimension to personal mobility."

Arlington's urban villages are mixed-use neighborhoods that are well served by Arlington's public transportation system and afford people the ability to walk or bicycle to shopping, restaurants and entertainment, and to hop on Verb 1. hop on - get up on the back of; "mount a horse"
bestride, climb on, jump on, mount up, get on, mount

move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right"
 Metrorail, Metrobus or ART when they need to head outside the community.

Flexcar, which has been an official partner of Metro for more than two years, is an innovative program that provides individuals and businesses with access to its fleet of vehicles located throughout the tri-state region For other tri-state regions, see .

The Tri-State Region is commonly used in the area surrounding New York City to unambiguously refer to the greater metropolitan area. Sometimes the phrase is shortened to "the Tri-State," or "the Tri-State Area" is used instead.
. Members reserve the vehicles via the Web or touch-tone phone for hourly use, with Flexcar covering the cost of the car, gas, parking, insurance and maintenance. Members access the cars via a specially-coded keycard key·card  
n.
A usually plastic card with a magnetically coded strip that is scanned in order to operate a mechanism such as a door or an automated teller machine.

Noun 1.
, and pay hourly or discounted monthly rates for use of the vehicles. The company currently has more than 5,000 members in the region and nearly 20,000 nationwide.

Membership surveys show that Flexcar members ride public transportation, combine trips, and either sell or avoid buying a car, which can help benefit Arlington's environment and traffic congestion problems.

"We see car-sharing as a major step to meet the needs of our citizens and people who work in Arlington County," said Chris Hamilton Chris Hamilton (born 21 November, 1987 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish footballer who currently plays as a striker for Dumbarton in the Scottish Second Division. External links
  • Official website profile
, commuter services manager for Arlington County. "If we can help provide that service through partnering with private car-sharing groups, then we can say at the end of the day that we've put solutions in place that are helping our community and our people, and that's something we're very proud of."

The Arlington Carshare Pilot Project Program is scheduled to last one year and will be reevaluated at that time.

Following a successful European model, Flexcar launched its Seattle operations in 2000, and has since won numerous awards and commendations for its program that reduces congestion, air pollution and energy use, while increasing use of public transportation and contributing to sustainable communities. Used in conjunction with public transit, car/vanpools and walking/biking, car-sharing helps individuals meet their transportation needs in an economic and environmentally responsible manner, giving them the freedom of car ownership without the associated cost and hassles.

People interested in becoming members can join online at www.flexcar.com, or call 202-296-1359 for more information.

Flexcar

Headquartered in Seattle, Flexcar now operates car-sharing programs for more than 19,000 members in more than a dozen cities and counties in 5 states and the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). . With flexible pricing plans, members can reserve and drive any of these cars whenever and wherever they need to, without filling out complicated paperwork, paying for insurance, gas or repairs. Flexcar Business Memberships enable companies to augment or replace their fleet with Flexcar vehicles. Flexcar's modern fleet includes sedans, gas-electric hybrids, electric cars and specialty vehicles including pickups and convertibles. Flexcar has established strategic partnerships with King County (Wash.) Metro Transit There is more than one public transit system named Metro Transit. Some of the most significant include:
  • Metro Transit, serving Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. http://www.halifax.
, the Washington Metropolitan Area The Washington Metropolitan Area, formally known as the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA is a U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of November 2004.  Transit Authority (WMATA WMATA Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ), Parsons Transportation Group, Bristol Bay Native Corporation Bristol Bay Native Corporation, or BBNC, is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims.  and American Honda Motor Company, Inc.

Editor's Note: Correct spelling and punctuation is "Flexcar"; not FlexCar, Flex-car, Flex Car or Flexicar.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2004, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Publication:Business Wire
Date:Mar 19, 2004
Words:779
Previous Article:Zacks Buy List Highlights: Sierra Wireless, Temple-Inland, Pulte Homes, and Tech Data Corporation.
Next Article:ATI Delivers Full Lineup of Events for Upcoming Game Developers Conference.



Related Articles
CAN I BORROW THE CAR? SEATTLE-BASED FLEXCAR BRINGS BY-THE-HOUR AUTO RENTING TO SOUTHLAND.
Trees offer solace for Arlington. (Clippings).
BRIEFLY NOBODY KILLED IN TRAIN CRASHES.
The service economy: car sharing is the new consumer model.
Car sharing grows.

Terms of use | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles