At long last, the wait is over. Since May of this year, members of Buffalo CarShare have been anxiously awaiting news as to whether the grassroots car sharing enterprise would be able to make a go of it. The organization was faced with insurance woes that would prevent operating in the future, unless they were to receive help from a progressive insurance carrier, the City of Buffalo, etc. Another option was being absorbed into another company such as Zipcar, and that’s exactly what is unfolding presently.
Buffalo Carshare has announced that it has signed a tentative operational agreement with Zipcar, which would allow their Carshare members to continue on with memberships. After six years in business, corporate America finally caught up with the local car sharing company, which has roots at University @ Buffalo. As much as that time span was lucrative, and the company managed to grow from year to year, the insurance game became too cumbersome for the grassroots start-up, which meant that reaching out to a larger corporation was the only logical option (see more). In the end, the biggest concern for Buffalo CarShare was its customers, many of which relied on the service for mobility in Buffalo.
Zipcar and Buffalo CarShare will be making an official announcement in coming weeks, which will detail the acquisition and the transition plans.
Now that this issue is resolved – the only possible outcome other than disbanding the service – can we figure out how to get Uber to Buffalo?