Streetcar vs Zipcar

I've done a bit of research comparing the two main car club in London, Streetcar vs Zipcar. The concept is the same, you can get, a car hopefully a stone throw away from where you live, and you pay by the hour. There's a daily charge that usually equal to the charge of 10 hour use and a certain mileage is included. Petrol is free but they do charge you by the mile.

I'd go with Streetcar first as they were the first major player in London,

Streetcar

Pros:

* Much higher availability in London compared to Zipcar. They've hit the critical mass first.

* Have higher variety of cars, including "premium cars" such as BMW 1 and 3. Mainly due to the first point I believe.

* Different charge scheme, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly. The longer you reserve the car the cheaper the daily cost is. Zipcar only has hourly and daily rates.

* Includes Streetvan membership.

* Higher free mileage for booking over 72 hours, 200 miles compared to Zipcar's 60.

* One way trip (albeit at a cost)

Cons:

* High cost to reduce excess to 0. £14.95/month equates to £179.4/year.

* Less mileage per day for booking under 72 hours. Streetcar has 30 miles free vs Zipcar's 60 miles.

Zipcar

Pros:

* Worldwide availability. Not just London, Zipcar is a global company and your Zipcard will work overseas.

* Much cheaper fee to reduce excess to 0. £60/year compared to Streetcar's £179.4/year

* Higher free mileage for booking under 72 hours, 60 mile compared to Streetcar's 30 (but Streetcar's have more mileage for booking over 72 hours).

* Different membership scheme, occasional (basic), EVP50, EVP100 etc.

* Cheaper to book during weekdays in general compared to Streetcar (Streetcar does not differentiate weekdays/weekend booking apart from Mon-Fri).

Cons:

* Less availability in London.

* Not a whole of different cars you can get. In London most of them are Golf.

* Less free mileage for long booking (60 vs Streetcar's 200).

Negligible differences

* Annual cost (Streetcar's £59 vs Zipcar's £50)

* Extra mileage (23p for both of them)

* Both pay London's congestion charge

Summary

So in summary, not a whole of differences between the two. They both target the similar demographic and priced accordingly. I'm sure one has better value than the other depending on your usage pattern.

I personally use Zipcar because they have decent enough availability near my area and they were doing £25/year membership promotion and also they are much cheaper in zeroing the insurance excess cost. Since my usage pattern is on the low end side I don't want to pay the extra cost that Streetcar charge to zero the insurance excess. However if you need higher availability then perhaps Streetcar is a better choice.

Disclaimer: I tried to make this comparison as accurate as possible on the 5th April 2010, but to err is human. I made no claim whatsoever that this comparison is 100% accurate or factual. If I'm wrong I'm more than happy to be corrected.

London - Hyde Park

The Broadwalk at Hyde Park. I haven't hang around the park for a while now, I didn't do much skating in 2008, hoping to rectify that in 2009.

My Canary Wharf - Recycle That!

The bins in Canary Wharf shopping mall.

Hot water problem ... again!

I'm having hot water issue ... again. I don't get this, every single house that I've lived in London has had hot water issue. I must have offended the hot water God ... darn it.

I've lived in Sydney for over 10 years and had 1 issue with hot water, what is it with hot water installation in London? Or do I carry that much antipodean radiation that has damaging effect on hot water boilers in London?

Spotted in London - Haymarket

No it's not Chinatown in London and there's no flea market there either.

My Canary Wharf - Can't be too careful

All five signs to an obviously private room.

- Canary Wharf, Early 2009

My Canary Wharf - Inside the Shopping Mall

Wednesday night and the shopping mall is almost deserted. Waitrose is at the end of this stretch of the mall. On that Wednesday evening, after a long day at work, it felt like an empty capitalism cave, with Waitrose at the end of the tunnel. Fitting tribute to the current economic downturn.

Spotted in London - London Eye

London Eye & Westminster taken from London Bridge.

- Late 2008

Spotted in London - Canary Wharf

Despite so many people pooh-poohing living in Canary Wharf, I actually enjoy it here. It's close to work, we have a proper Waitrose, mini John Lewis, Tesco Direct, M & S Food and the shopping centre. A multi-screen cinema, various bars & restaurants, a few gyms, and if you're willing to travel out from the estate, there are a number of quaint bars and restaurants.

Yes you do pay the price of travelling out to West End on the weekend to socialise, but I've made my decision that I'd rather travel out to socialise and stay close to work so I don't have to deal with the commute.

Belive it or not, it's actually can be quite fun just staying in on the weekend here in Canary Wharf. I certainly do enjoy the occasional lazy Sunday going to the nearby Cafe Brera, then off to the bookshops (we have 2 major ones here), continued to HMV or Game to browse the latest DVDs and CDs and then just bumming around the shops.

Canary Wharf ... pretty it ain't, but it's home to me :)

The photo is taken inside Canary Wharf Tube Station.

Spotted in London - Warwick Avenue

When I get to Warwick Avenue
Meet me by the entrance of the tube
We can talk things over little time
But promise me you wont stand by the light

- Duffy

Spotted in London - Ring 'N' Ride

Great concept and idea, just I haven't seen a single bike being used in London. London, being mostly flat, is a prime candidate for biking around. Unfortunately whoever had this idea forgot that it rains almost constantly in London. Cycling (in London) is for the die-hard
only.

Spotted in London - Baker Street Tube Station

It's a shame really, that I haven't found the time to visit one of the famous addresses in the world, 221b Baker Street.

Overheard in London - The Economist ...

"There are two types of Economists, those who can't predict the interest rate and those who don't know that they can't predict the interest rate"

     - He who shall remain nameless - Feb 2009

Spotted in London - Oh the pain of Tube weekend work

Everyone in London dreads this information display screen. This display rules everyone lifes in London. Behold the true master of London :)

Spotted in London - Valentine's Day

Spotted just outside Warwick Avenue's tube station ticket gate.

London Snow - One Week Later

I found it really amazing that one week after London's big dump we still have snow around Canary Wharf. Well actually, is not really snow ... more of lump of (dirty) ice.

PS: This is also testing the "Blog This" functionality of Picasa. Looking good I reckon, nice, easy and it just works.

London Snow - 2

As expected, today's biggest dump in 18 years pretty much stop London's public transport. All London buses are not running and The Tube is severely disrupted. The train lines are pretty darn slow with many cancellation of service.

While I personally don't have any problem going to work (benefit of living less than 10 minutes walk to work) the office is deserted today. (Fortress) Canary Wharf is unusually quiet for a Monday working week, all the shops close early (Waitrose closed at 7pm today instead of the usual 9pm) while I saw one or two are not even staffed.

The air travellers had the short of end of the sticks I reckon, most flights are cancelled and some airports are completely closed.

The debate is currently raging about whether London should be able to deal with the snow or we've done the best we could. I'm more in the camp of of course we could have done better but I'd rather see the practical side of it. I don't think it worth spending millions of pounds on snow readiness program if we're only going to show this much disruption once every couple of decades.

Photos are up in my PicasaWeb.

London Snow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timackroyd/3247093390/

Friday night post (or more about the CFA)

Doh' Friday night at home posting to my blog. I'm rather sick this past few days and unfortunately it's school day tomorrow. I have mentioned in my earlier post that I'm taking the 7City course to have someone kick me on my behind to keep me in track with my study.

I have to say I'm quite impressed (so far) with the quality of the tutors and the service that they give to the clients. I chose to do the weekend programs, it will be 10 Saturdays spread over roughly 4 months. Yep it's rather drastic, taking a lot of my Saturdays this first half of the year, but I really won't be able to do it in the evening or worse, taking 10 days off during the week. Not after the many days off I've taken in the past few months (and more in the coming months).

And to make things worse, since I'm an IT contractor I have to do this on my own time and dosh. So taking 10 days off work is terribly expensive for me. No other options there for me but for the Saturday classes.

So anyway 10 Saturdays written off for me (and probably including Friday nights) except I'm going to miss 1 session to go Snowboarding in mid-March. However 7City is great in this way. The online class room is great (although can be improved ... technically). They record the lectures and put the archive online for students who miss them.

Plus they give extra questions for each study sessions, 6 workshop sessions, 2 days revision and mock exam. Plus the evening sessions are stream live over the Internet for those who are doing self-study. Pretty darn good value in my opinion.

Of course none of this matter if you don't actually study.