As the mayor of New Haven gears up to close a $5 million budget gap, city workers may lose their Cavaliers and share Zipcars instead, The New Haven Independent reports.
The city is eyeing a deal with ZipCar, of Cambridge, Mass., that would allow municipal workers to use the car-sharing service to get around on city business instead of picking up a car from the city’s fleet.
That plan being developed by public works chief John Prokop is part of a broader effort to save money for the city, which faces a $5.1 million hole in the current budget and a projected shortfall of $57 million next fiscal year.
Prokop said a deal with Zipcar could save the city $500,000 over the next four years. That’s based on his conversations with people in New York City and Washington, D.C., cities that have teamed up with Zipcar for their transportation needs.
The city has a fleet of 25 pool cars stored in a parking lot on State Street near the intersection of Wall Street. City workers use the cars when they need to travel short distances on official business. Lawyers from the office of corporation counsel’s office, for instance, might jump in one of the Chevy Cavaliers to drive up to a hearing in Hartford.
Because many of the cars are rarely used, the city is now looking into selling them off and replacing them with Zipcars. Working with the car-sharing service, city workers would then pay for cars only when they use them, instead of paying insurance and maintenance costs for vehicles to just sit in a lot.
