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Big city dwellers who need a car for less than a day can rent Zipcars by the hour. Zipcar's ads emphasize environmentalism and community. But a recent study shows that most Zipcar users primarily consider their own convenience and cost, rather than being green or part of a user community. The study is in the Journal of Consumer Research. [Fleura Bardhi and Giana M. Eckhardt, Access-Based Consumption: The Case of Car Sharing]
The investigation is part of more general research about what’s called access-based consumption—basically very short-term rental—which has grown due to the economic recession and the cramped quarters of big cities.
In interviews with Zipcar users, researchers found that they tend to behave selfishly, and don’t worry about how their treatment of the car affects the next guy. As one user interviewed for the study put it: “You can just beat the hell out of it—it’s not your car.”
And since users assume everyone else is behaving the same way, they appreciate the rules that the company does try to enforce about, for example, cleanliness. Not surprisingly, these attitudes don’t engender a feeling of community. Because the condition of your temporary car depends on the user who cared the least about it.
—Evelyn Lamb
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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6 Comments
Add CommentCheck out the prices for this "service"-it is absolutely outrageous what they charge for 1 days' car rental.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this a big surprise? With all the talk of anthropogenic global warming, I still see a lot of people driving big carbon emitting vehicles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSame old story. People claim they will support products on the basis of their environmental benefits. The truth however is that they act out of rational self interest. I see nothing wrong with this - just want to reinforce that for most people, paying more for environmental benefits just doesn't happen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou don't rent zipcars by the day, you rent them by the hour (something traditional car rental doesn't allow). If you only need a car 4-6 hours a month (like me), and you live in a major city's downtown core (like me), it's far, far cheaper than paying car payments/maintenance, fuel, insurance, and parking. I pay less for a zipcar annually than I was paying in insurance alone before (because even with no accidents and a single speeding ticket 15 years ago, insurance here still runs pretty high). It's not for everyone, but it is great for those of us who don't need a car all that often and would rather not be burdened with the hassle and cost of one while it sits in a garage unused.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisweek 2:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is America everything is outrageous these days, I believe it and people meaning us buy into it because we think its better for our world even though some truely don't care they still will pay costly amounts to rent or buy things that others have or believe are better.
week 2 response to Trekmyer:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe it even regular car rentals per day or per week are outrageous. That why its better to commute less am I right ecspecially since gas prices will be going up yet again due to another oil company closing down.