With more than 55,000 members in DC, Zipcar is concerned about the city’s decision to auction off curbside spaces for its cars in the next few months. A Zipcar spokesperson talked to John Hendel at TBD On Foot, saying that DC will go from charging $200 per year for each of its 84 curbside spaces reserved for the carsharing service to auctioning them off at an opening bid of $3,600 per space. John Williams, a consultant for Zipcar, told Hendel that the company is looking at going down to just 12 city-owned curbside spaces.
The city’s move is twofold: to increase competition in the city’s carsharing market—Zipcar has essentially had a monopoly since 2007 when it bought out Flexcar—and to increase revenue for valuable street parking.
The District Department of Transportation, in a December 2007 document [PDF] outlining the city’s commitment to promoting carsharing, discussed the cost of devoting curbside parking to what was at the time two companies.
District incurred expenses for designating the curbside carsharing spots. Costs for ordering and installing signs and painting the asphalt were approximately $75,000 for the demonstration period. The District also lost about $75,000 in revenue from the 41 metered spaces that were designated for carsharing. Thus the total cost of the carsharing program to DDOT was about $150,000.
The Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis reported recently that DDOT’s John Lisle issued a statement saying that “the city was not being compensated at all for these spaces for a long time. If the market supports a higher return for the District for its public space, I think that’s a win for the city and taxpayers.”
Though Zipcar assured Hendel that it didn’t foresee increases in membership costs and that it would likely move cars in the spaces it lost out on in the bidding process to non-city-owned spaces. Likely competitors to the popular car-sharing service will be businesses that are already in the line of renting cars: Hertz, Daimler, and Enterprise.
Still, though Zipcar is protesting the increased cost and limited number of parking spaces, the company seems to be doing well financially. In its second-quarter investor report, released on August 3, Zipcar reported that revenue had increased 34 percent over the previous year’s second quarter to $61.6 million. Zipcar also boasts a total of 605,000 worldwide and have launched new services in Providence, Rhode Island, and Sacaramento, California. Zipcar recently managed to knock out a Boston competitor, iCar, Wheels to Go and has been listed by one investment information Web site Seeking Alpha as one of the three promising stocks to watch in tough economic times along with LinkedIn and Tesla autos.
Zipcar Faces Paying More for Fewer of DC’s Curbside Spaces
The District Department of Transportation looks to increase competition and revenue on curbside spaces through an auction
Photograph courtesy Zipcar
With more than 55,000 members in DC, Zipcar is concerned about the city’s decision to auction off curbside spaces for its cars in the next few months. A Zipcar spokesperson talked to John Hendel at TBD On Foot, saying that DC will go from charging $200 per year for each of its 84 curbside spaces reserved for the carsharing service to auctioning them off at an opening bid of $3,600 per space. John Williams, a consultant for Zipcar, told Hendel that the company is looking at going down to just 12 city-owned curbside spaces.
The city’s move is twofold: to increase competition in the city’s carsharing market—Zipcar has essentially had a monopoly since 2007 when it bought out Flexcar—and to increase revenue for valuable street parking.
The District Department of Transportation, in a December 2007 document [PDF] outlining the city’s commitment to promoting carsharing, discussed the cost of devoting curbside parking to what was at the time two companies.
District incurred expenses for designating the curbside carsharing spots. Costs for ordering and installing signs and painting the asphalt were approximately $75,000 for the demonstration period. The District also lost about $75,000 in revenue from the 41 metered spaces that were designated for carsharing. Thus the total cost of the carsharing program to DDOT was about $150,000.
The Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis reported recently that DDOT’s John Lisle issued a statement saying that “the city was not being compensated at all for these spaces for a long time. If the market supports a higher return for the District for its public space, I think that’s a win for the city and taxpayers.”
Though Zipcar assured Hendel that it didn’t foresee increases in membership costs and that it would likely move cars in the spaces it lost out on in the bidding process to non-city-owned spaces. Likely competitors to the popular car-sharing service will be businesses that are already in the line of renting cars: Hertz, Daimler, and Enterprise.
Still, though Zipcar is protesting the increased cost and limited number of parking spaces, the company seems to be doing well financially. In its second-quarter investor report, released on August 3, Zipcar reported that revenue had increased 34 percent over the previous year’s second quarter to $61.6 million. Zipcar also boasts a total of 605,000 worldwide and have launched new services in Providence, Rhode Island, and Sacaramento, California. Zipcar recently managed to knock out a Boston competitor, iCar, Wheels to Go and has been listed by one investment information Web site Seeking Alpha as one of the three promising stocks to watch in tough economic times along with LinkedIn and Tesla autos.
Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Washingtonian on Twitter
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Party Photos
Don’t Miss Another Big Story—Get Our Weekend Newsletter
Our most popular stories of the week, sent every Saturday.
Most Popular in News & Politics
Washington’s Most Influential People
Trump Hotel Employees Reveal What It Was Really Like Catering to the Right Wing Elite
Inside DC’s Secret Covid Morgue
Trump Hotel Rates Are Over $1,300 on March 4—the Date in a Wild QAnon Theory
Dulles and DCA Will Soon Have Covid-19 Testing Sites for Passengers
Washingtonian Magazine
February 2021: Great Neighborhood Restaurants
View IssueSubscribe
Get Us on Social
Get Us on Social
Related
Video From Fall Real Estate Market Update With Local Leaders
Washingtonian Real Estate Virtual Happy Hour
Videos from Washingtonian’s Wellness Day
Washingtonian Wellness Day
More from News & Politics
This Stage Actor’s Job Did a Total 180, and Now She’s Performing Audio Plays
How I Found a New Job I Love After a Covid Layoff
The Latest Marjorie Taylor Greene Dust-Up Shows that Capitol Hill Isn’t Very Good at Giving Someone the Silent Treatment
Industry Insiders Are Calling for Biden to Appoint a Fashion Czar
Vultures Are Overrunning a Neighborhood in Ashburn
Want to Watch Accused Insurrections Get Hauled Before Judges? Here’s How.
Washington’s Most Influential People
Meet the Influencers