So when I registered for RCHUMS 334: Community Empowerment Through the Arts - a course that requires students enrolled to travel to Detroit once a week to experience community-based art - I thought the professors would have already lined up some form of transportation for the trips.īut my assumptions were wrong, and as I scrambled to find a way to travel between Ann Arbor and Detroit each week, I recalled a friend at school in Maine who had raved about something called Zipcar.

Everything a student really needs is available at Village Apothecary or White Market, and if a new pair of boots is absolutely necessary, online shopping is one click away or the Briarwood Mall is just a quick trip on the number six bus. Given my high school experience, adapting to life in Ann Arbor without a car wasn’t exceedingly difficult. My house was one half block from school, two blocks from the modest area known as “downtown” and less than a mile from my friends.ĭespite the walkability of my town, my peers drove their Jeeps, Hondas and BMWs to school and then to the Panera 20 minutes away for off campus lunch.īecause of my lack of transportation - and resolution to participate in all popular high school culture and activities - I soon perfected the art of catching a ride. My carbon-emission minded parents, for what at the time seemed to be completely illogical reasons, were of the strong conviction that a car was not necessary for navigating our two-mile-radius town.

Zipcar ann arbor