I work at Wilshire & Vermont. If you’re ever taking the 720, I often take it right down Wilshire…once or twice even as late as Midnight.

I haven’t encountered anything except the odd (sometimes very odd) person asking for change, or an overly talkative Vetran.

Anyway, I often work late (past dark) and there’s a gym downstairs, so my leaving hours are flexible. You can shoot me an e-mail (I put my work e-mail in rather than the usual bit) if you’re worried about night -riding.

If nothing else, I can offer company.

I’m hoping not. I’ll get the basic insurance on rentals though — That’s important! :)

Check if your insurance covers you driving rental cars. You’d have to produce the policy, though, to the rental agent.

However, the Enterprise idea is fucking awesome! There’s one 2 blocks from me! From my brief research, it appears that I can rent one in the afternoon and return it the next morning for under $30 — though I’m concerned about whether or not I should get the insurance options (which jack up the prices).

Okay — After I get some answers re: the car issue tomorrow (I was gonna do it today, but I forgot it was King day), I’ll make more decisions –

The other alternative, and much cheaper, is to use Enterprise. The economy cars (Chevrolet Aveos and such) are about $25-$30 a day with 150 miles. Enterprise also rents if you’re under 25, and you can ask for the representative to bring the car to you.

The problem is that you have to take it back where you rented it and fill it up with at least as much gas as you had when you rented the car. Discount coupons for 50% are usually included with L.A. Times’s TV Times.

Let me explain: I spend about $200 a month on my car, including insurance, oil changes, gas, registration and permit fees, etc.

$200 is about 20 hours worth of Flexcar driving, accounting for membership fees and such. However, the times I need the car are 1) when I’m putting in a long day at school, and 2) when I’m going to visit my mom in Anaheim.

For #1, that means that I drive the car to USC, then park it for 8-10 hours before driving it back to Santa Monica. In the case of #2, I usually spend the night at my mom’s before driving back up to Santa Monica. Basically, both are instances where I drive somewhere, park it for long periods (while still accruing Flexcar hours), then driving it back.

Even if I did 1 and 2 only 1 time each in the course of a month, the Flexcar deal gets more expensive than owning a car. In reality, #1 happens 2-3 times a month — So that would put me in the 30-35 hour ballpark for Flexcar….

Flexcar’s fleet is Honda Civic Hybrids.

Oddly, before I bought my civic, I had NO idea that they were popular for racers and easy targets for theft! One of my friends told me that they were reliable, fuel-efficient, and had a high resale value, which is why I bought it. If I’d known it’d lead to all these probs, I’da gone kia too!

One thing I find interesting (somewhat discouraging?) is that, like you, Roger, all my enviro-conscious still own cars, although they try not to use it much — sort of like what I’ve been doing with the de-car-ing efforts. Anna and Summer both still have their rides; their live in boys have their own cars too, so that’s 4 cars right there already in 2 households of environmentalists. Ferris, Greenopia dude, still owns a car. Barent, green drinks guy, owns a car. Basically, everyone except a couple bloggers over at MetroRiderLA seems to still own a car. I’m not criticizing people for owning cars — I mean, I own one — but I do wonder if, really, NOT owning a car is a viable option when all the self-described car-haters still feel they need to have one handy…. It makes me wonder if I’m crazy for considering this….