Flexcar is a for-profit car sharing company, the oldest and second-largest (behind Boston-based Zipcar) in the United States. Flexcar can date its origins to March 1998, when its Portland, Oregon office was founded as a separate company; Flexcar itself was founded in January 2000 in Seattle, Washington. Flexcar is also present in Los Angeles; San Diego; and Washington, D.C., and, to varying degrees, in their suburbs. Car sharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is owned by a company or cooperative, which are available for use by members of the car share. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... Zipcar is a for-profit membership organization providing automobiles to members, billed by the hour. ... Portland, Oregon - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Downtown Seattle skyline City nickname: The Emerald City Location Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Government County King Mayor Greg Nickels NP/Democrat ¹ Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 369. ... The City of Los Angeles (from Spanish Los Ángeles , meaning the angels), also known as L.A., is the second-largest city in the United States in terms of population, as well as one of the worlds most important economic, cultural, and entertainment centers. ... City nickname: Americas Finest City Location Location of San Diego within San Diego County Government County San Diego Mayor vacant Physical characteristics Area      Land      Water 372. ... Washington, D.C. is the capital city of the United States of America. ...

Flexcar members chose a rate plan and pay an annual fee. The fees cover gasoline, insurance, maintenance, and cleaning. The vehicles are mostly late-model sedans, with other types, such as light trucks, hybrids, and minivans, also available. Each vehicle has a home location, a reserved space either in a parking lot or on a street, typically in a highly-populated urban neighborhood. Members reserve a car by web or telephone and use a key card to access the vehicle. The reservation must specify the pick up and return time, so others can schedule the vehicle. Vehicles are returned to their home location. Gasoline, as it is known in North America, or petrol (abbreviated from petroleum spirit), in many Commonwealth countries (sometimes also called motor spirit) is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... Auto insurance (or car insurance, motor insurance) is insurance consumers can purchase for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. ... Repair and Maintenance is fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it get out of order or broken (repair) as well as performing the routine actions which keep the device in working order (maintenance) or prevent trouble from arising (preventive maintenance). ... A Ford Taurus, a typical 1990s sedan. ... Light truck is a vehicle classification generally used by the United States government for regulating fuel economy and safety. ... A modern minivan - 2004 Chrysler Town & Country Typical early minivan (a Dodge Caravan) A minivan, or people carrier (British English), is a type of vehicle (considered an Multi Purpose Vehicle in Europe) developed independently by Matra/Renault and the Chrysler Corporation. ... Parking lot is the American English term that refers to a cleared area that is more or less level and is intended for parking vehicles. ... A street in Ynysybwl, Wales, typical of a small town A street is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. ... Graphic representation of the World Wide Web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, W3, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The company targets people who make only occasional use of a vehicle as well as people who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day. Flexcar claims that the service should be economically beneficial to anyone whose car would normally be away from their home about 15 hours a week, and do not need a car for their daily commute to work.

In several of its cities, the company has formed a public-private partnership with a local public transit entity. For example, in Seattle they are partnered with King County Metro Transit, which operates the area's buses. The company's advertising materials there say, "Ride Metro when you don't need a car. Use Flexcar when you do." Public-private partnership (PPP) is a variation of privatization in which elements of a service previously run solely by the public sector are provided through a partnership between the government and one or more private sector companies. ... A taxi serving as a bus Public transport comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. ... King County is located in the state of Washington. ... Articulating bus Metro Transit, Metro for short, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, a division of the King County Department of Transportation. ... The Seattle metropolitan area includes the city of Seattle, Washington; King County, Washington; and several surrounding cities and counties in the Puget Sound area. ... A bus is a large wheeled vehicle, intended to carry numerous persons in addition to the driver. ...

In 2003, Flexcar became the first company in the United States to become completely carbon neutral. By developing a partnership with American Forests, Flexcar ensures that enough trees are planted every year to offset the exhaust from its fleet of shared vehicles.

In August 2005, Revolution LLC, the holding company owned by Steve Case, founder of America On Line, purchased a 60% holding interest in Flexcar. The company announced that this investment will lead to a rapid expansion of their operations. Steve Case (born August 21, 1958) was a top corporate officer of America Online, the worlds most successful proprietary online service. ... America Online, or AOL for short, is a corporate online service provider and Internet service provider (ISP). ...

Seattle

Flexcar has 15,000 members in Seattle, over 3% of that city's population. It has proven popular among those who live in downtown Seattle or the nearby densely populated Capitol Hill and First Hill. Downtown Seattle, from top of Space Needle (looking south) Map of downtown Seattle Downtown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. ... Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. ... First Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, named for the hill on which it is located. ...

The company has also started an initiative to convince Downtown Seattle employers to join their program as business members rather than maintaining their own car fleets. Other market segments include placing vehicles at transit stations to provide "last mile" connectivity between transit and suburban office locations and, most recently, providing subsidized vehicle access as part of low-income "jobs access" programs.

Portland

In April 2001, Flexcar became the first car-sharing company in the U.S. to expand to a second city by acquiring CarSharing Portland in Portland. At the time, Flexcar's customer base in Seattle included over 1300 members sharing 40 cars. Carsharing Portland, which began business in March 1998, had at the time of its acquisition over 500 members with 25 vehicles in and around downtown Portland.

The most recent statistics provided by Flexcar's website as of May 2005 show that the service in Portland has grown to include over 5,000 members and 70 vehicles, including the Pearl District, Old Town/Chinatown, close-in east side neighborhoods such as the Lloyd District, Hawthorne and Brooklyn, and downtown Vancouver, Washington. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Pearl District is a former warehouse and light industrial area just north of downtown Portland, Oregon. ... The Chinatown in Portland, Oregon comprises the streets between Burnside Avenue and Union Station along the Willamette River. ... The Hawthorne District in Portland, Oregon is an area of Southeast Portland that runs along Hawthorne Boulevard. ... Brooklyn Park in the Brooklyn neighborhood Brooklyn is a mostly residential neighborhood in southeast Portland, Oregon. ... City of Vancouver Logo Vancouver, Washington is a city on the north shore of the Columbia River, in the state of Washington, USA. It is the county seat of Clark County. ...

Competitors

Carsharing companies providing similar services include

• Communauto (founded in 1994 and the oldest company in North America)
• City Carshare in San Francisco (a non-profit)
• Zipcar, serving multiple cities on the East Coast of the US
• Philly Carshare
• I-Go Cars, Chicago

World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west... Zipcar is a for-profit membership organization providing automobiles to members, billed by the hour. ...

See also

• Transportation in Seattle
• Transportation in Portland
• Transportation in Los Angeles

As with almost every other city in western North America, transportation in Seattle, Washington is dominated by automobiles, although Seattle is just old enough that the citys layout reflects the age when railways and streetcars dominated. ... Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland (Oregon) is the automobile. ... Los Angeles, California, is the center of an intercity hub, transporting passengers and shipping intermodally between sea, land, and air ports. ...

External links

• Official site
• Seattle-Based Flexcar Acquires CarSharing Portland
• Interview with Lance Ayrault, CEO of Flexcar, nPost, April 20, 2004.