The Committee on Campus Life and Programming passed a bill last week that supports allowing students who are under 21 to use the Zipcar program on campus, Sen. for the Class of 2012 Seth Rosenstein said.
The bill was passed unanimously in the committee and now they "are moving close to implementing it on campus and creating a better policy for getting more cars on campus," Rosenstein said.
The car rental age requirement was brought up when George Washington University began a pilot program that let students over 18 years old drive Zipcars when they needed them, Rosenstein said.
"The program has been very beneficial to the students. A lot of students at GW have signed up and the cars have been booked up for months," Rosenstein said.
Members of the Student Government feel that students at AU would react similarly. "Last year, there was an open letter written and signed by 15 to 17 student organizations on campus that supported the policy to open Zipcars to students," said Senator at Large Spencer Siegel.
The Zipcar program is a program that allows students "self-service access to cars 24/7," the Zipcar Web site said. The program allows students to drive a rental car within a 180 miles radius [of the university] west of the Mississippi River," said Vice President Alex Prescott.
Reducing the age requirement from 21 to 18 would create an alternative method of transportation for students, Rosenstein said.
"It would allow more flexibility for students for long distance trips and students wouldn't have to bring their car to AU," he said. "Students will be able to use them for Safeway runs and to places that aren't Metro accessible."
Other senators agreed with Rosenstein on the need for the Zipcar program. "You can basically step on campus and hear 'Dang, I really wish I could go off campus to places X, Y and Z.' I feel that full unanimous passage of this bill should happen," said Anthony Dunham, proxy for Sen. for the Class of 2012 Elijah Mercer.
The program would also allow students and sports teams to travel further distances with the Zipcar program instead of renting vans through an outside company.
"AU and SG would not be spending any money but the travel subsidy would be placed beyond the 50-mile radius that the vans do have," Rosenstein said. "This would allow them to use vans to travel to far away places."
Zipcar is currently evaluating their program at GW, and after reviewing the data from GW's program, Zipcar will decide whether or not to provide the same program for AU students.
Ultimately it is up to Zipcar to make the decision but it is beneficial to have backing from the Senate.
"To not have support from the SG would be difficult," SG President Andy MacCracken said.
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