Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Roosevelt Island Zipcars - Are More Needed?

 Roosevelt Island Zipcar At Riverwalk Dirt Lot

Are you a Roosevelt Island Zipcar user? If so, have you noticed a recent decrease in the number of Roosevelt Island Zipcars? A reader reports:
I live in Manhattan Park and am a Zipcar member, have you noticed by chance that Zipcar seems to have removed 70% of the vehicles from the island ? I have e-mailed them after seeing that for the next month only 3 cars seem to "live" on the island at this time, 1 in Riverwalk, 1 in Octagon and 1 in Motorgate. I am waiting for a response in the next 24 hours, and will keep you posted, in the hope that you can post something on your blog to get fellow Zipsters to unite and write to Zipcar to get the cars back. It would not suprise me if horrible Motorgate have scared them away...
Zipcar responded to the reader:
Thank you for following up with us regarding availability of zipcars on Roosevelt Island. We recently defleeted some of the older cars in our fleet, which is why you are seeing less availability. Currently we have 3 locations and 7 vehicles on Roosevelt Island:
Roosevelt Island - Riverwalk has 4 cars
 Roosevelt Island has 1 car
 Roosevelt Island - The Octagon has 2 cars

In the spring, we will be expanding our fleet and you will see a greater selection of zipcars at that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.

 Happy zipping! 
Roosevelt Island Zipcars can be found here.

4 comments :

Trevre Andrews said...

It would also be great if the island provided some type of Motorcycle/scooter parking.  I have contacted RIOC about implementing some on the island without any response.  You could park 5 or 6 motorcycles/scooters in the space of one car.  Not to mention there are plenty of underutilized spaces on the island where motorcycle parking could be implemented (Under both bridges, where the zip cars are, etc.).  The problem is RIOC doesn't really have any motivation to maximize the use of its space or resources.  If RIOC does a lot, they get the same reward  as if they do almost nothing, take these examples.  Main street vacancy, rented or not RIOC has suffered no penalty for spaces which have been vacant for years.  Tram remodeling delays, RIOC gave nothing back to residents for all the inconveniences of the delayed tram.  Slower than walking red bus.  

Thankfully these aren't really huge issues and without an effect means to changes things most residents don't even bother voicing an opinion.  It still doesn't make it right, that the people running the island are only vaguely accountable to the people living here. 

YetAnotherRIer said...

Before we do that let's have some long-term bicycle parking first. Motorcycles and scooters can park easily at Motorgate. Bicycle parking pretty much requires bringing your bike into your apartment.

Trevre Andrews said...

Agreed.  There is plenty of possible spaces for bicycle parking, and they could create covered bicycle parking.  So much energy has been spent looking into bike sharing programs, if we just had bike racks this wouldn't be an issue.  

Motorgate is not easy to park at.  The gate doesn't even respond to the weight of a motorcycle and the cost to park there is $130/month for a motorcycle (a car is only $200 per month).  No they won't let you pay for a car spot and park 5 motorcycles in it.  Not to mention it is at the opposite end of the island unless you live in MP.

I will take a walk this weekend around the island, take some shots of all the underutilized spaces, and try and get them posted with some alternative uses.

bartonfinck said...

It is sad that Zip Car thinks 7 cars is enough for the 14,00 plus that live on the  island...there are times I have tried to rent one, and all are out for the the whole week!  They need to set up something on their programming that they can see when RI people are trying to rent, but there are not enough cars to rent out. They would see then that RI needs more Zip Cars.