Parking has emerged as the Achilles’ heel of the city’s ambitious high-density housing experiment, with critics repeatedly complaining that residents of new apartments in and around the downtown corridor will bogart already limited on-street spaces. Santa Barbara officials are actively strategizing ways to better mesh alternative forms of transportation with the Average Unit-size Density program — which banks on apartment dwellers walking, biking, or busing instead of driving — and last month signed a contract with Zipcar to bring 10 of its rideshare vehicles to the city.
The cars will be stationed at strategic points along busy routes — one each in City Garages 10 (Ortega and Anacapa) and 6 (Anapamu and Anacapa); two at the Amtrak Depot lot; one in Cottage Hospital’s parking garage; and five on the corners of Sola and De la Vina, Figueroa and Chapala, De la Guerra and De la Vina, Micheltorena and San Andres, and Milpas and Gutierrez. The fleet will join a handful of student-specific Zipcars already located at Santa Barbara City College, Westmont, UCSB, and Isla Vista.
Representatives at each school reported the cars are well-liked and heavily used. They’re faster than a bus and cheaper than a cab ride to run errands, attend a doctor’s appointment, or even take a quick trip home, explained James Wagner, UCSB’s Transportation Alternatives Program manager, and they’re available to students under 24, the typical cutoff age to rent a car. “People are really happy with them,” he said.