Editor’s Corner: WeCar offers unique service at Rider

“Our car. Your car. WeCar,” reads the inviting slogan of Rider’s new rental car service on campus. Starting this fall, Rider, with the help of the company, WeCar, is offering students a new way to get around town. Living on campus and not having a car of your own may create difficulties for getting places you need to go. The service that WeCar is providing will be quite unique to the Rider community. Having this service as a resource for students on campus can be very beneficial to those without  a means of transportation. This new concept of car-sharing takes pride in being a more convenient and affordable way of transportation and it seems that WeCar will follow through on those promises.
The WeCar service is offered to anyone on campus who is 18 years or older and has a valid drivers license. It is providing us with four cars — two that will be parked outside of the Bart Luedeke Center and two parked outside of the Scheide Student Center on Westminster’s campus — that are available for use at any time. Though the amount of cars given are split evenly on both campuses, there are more students on the Lawrenceville campus and in turn the amount of cars available to us here should be increased.
The process, as explained in a Rider e-mail that was sent to the student body and on the company’s website, seems simple. Students start by registering online at WeCar.com for a membership card at the Rider University location. There is a one-time application fee with a cost of $20 for the year. Once registered, students are then able to check if there is a car available for use at the time it would be needed. Then, they scan the membership card over the front windshield of the car, and a scanner attached on the inside allows the car to be unlocked. Inside the glove box will be the keys, and it’s as easy as that. According to the email, students will get all that service for an affordable price,whether it be for the hour, the day or overnight. What makes the price so reasonable is that it covers fuel,  maintenance and basic protection of the car and driver.
The cars used for this new campus resource are hybrid Toyota Priuses. Not only could these rental cars be accommodating, they are good for the environment and are fuel-efficient. In Rider’s ever-present effort to be more green and eco-friendly, I’d say that’s a big plus for using WeCar already.
There are other possible benefits to this program as well. Having this available on campus can allow students without cars to have one when they need it and for an affordable price. It can provoke more carpooling off-campus and has possibilities of decreasing the amount of students who keep their cars at Rider, which is good since more and more students attend Rider every year. Car sharing can also give Rider a greater sense of community.
WeCar is simply a helpful transportation alternative available by the hour, for the day and even over night. According to its website, it is a service not only used by college universities but also by businesses and government agencies all over the country. It seems like it could be a valid resource for students who need to get around from time to time and don’t have a car of their own at school.

-Kristy Grinere
Junior journalism major