The merger of Zipcar and Flexcar probably means that the system of car sharing in this area and several other cities around the country will be around for a long time but I wonder if the consumer is best served. We have watched as both of these companies started small and grew based on demand. The Washington region has been one of their biggest success stories and so the companies have gone out of their way to superserve us. They have also been competing with each other to build market share and that’s been a good thing. We have, as a result, seen more parking spaces set aside for their vehicles than we might have if there had only been one company negotiating with Metro and with regional transportation departments. We have seen them add a wide arrange of vehicles to their fleets in response to demands from the customer/members.

Car sharing is a great way to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads by allowing some people to go car-free without fear of being ,stranded. I only hope the newly formed entity will have the same drive (pardon the pun) to innovate and grow as the two did in competition.

YouTube can be educational

We all know that YouTube can be a fun source of goofy videos; the laughing baby; that dog with narcolepsy that falls asleep while running across the field or the skateboarder who loses it while grinding some railing at a library. But there are actually some helpful things there as well. The California Department of Motor Vehicles realized this and has started to post some of its teen-related education videos online. The DMV has posted “The Top Ten Reasons for Failing the Drive Test” that shows what some teens do wrong as well as teaching some common road courtesies for sharing the road with motorcycles and pedestrians. Teens can also get a sense of what it’s like to drive an 18-wheeler from the driver’s perspective in order to gain a better appreciation for a truck’s limitations and its blind spots. Many of the rules and laws featured pertain to the California system so those will not be of much help but there are plenty of other valuable lessons available.