The University of South Florida and Enterprise Rent-A-Car are providing “car-sharing” services.
Their WeCar program offers rental cars on an hourly basis. It aims to provide USF students, faculty and staff with the opportunity to use alternative forms of transportation and still have access to a car for short-term needs, said Ed Mierzejewski, director of USF’s Center for Urban Transportation, in a release.
Besides helping to alleviate the university’s parking and transportation challenges, the program contributes to USF’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint in an effort to meet goals set by the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, the release said. WeCar, featuring all hybrid vehicles, has three Toyota Prius hybrids and one Ford Escape hybrid located in designated spots on the USF Tampa campus.
CUTR will study the program’s effect on transit behavior over the next 18 months to determine if it reduces the number of car trips to campus. This research project is conducted with grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Transportation.
“Our hypothesis is that participants in the car-sharing program will modify their travel behavior based on a dynamic pricing structure and increase use of transit, USF’s BullRunner shuttle, carpooling, biking and walking,” said Phil Winters, transportation demand management program manager at CUTR, in the release.
Enterprise launched the first on-campus WeCar program last year at Washington University in St. Louis. Enterprise operates 7,000 locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany.