Unfortunately, yesterday I came out of work to discover that my main method of commuting – my bike – had a bent wheel. When I took it to a bike shop they told me that it was so bent it would have to be replaced, meaning my commuting options for the week just became more expensive. Either I could take the subway (a 25-30 minutes ride), take a cab or car service (a $10-$15 proposition during traffic), or just walk (taking 45-50 minutes).

Instead, I opted to try a new option to Brooklyn commuters – car2go.

I signed up a few weeks ago when they offered a promotion for free 30 minutes of driving and today that was quite useful.

Like Zipcar, I can use an app or website to reserve a car and I have a credit-card sized device that is placed on top of a reader on the cars front windshield and that unlocks it. Unlike Zipcar, I can only reserve it 30 minutes in advance. I am only charged at the $0.41 per minute rate I am using the car. The kicker of the entire enterprise: as long as I leave the car within its “home area” (with some restrictions) I only pay for the time I am actively using the car. In the case of this morning – it was 14 minutes.

It was easy to drive the SmartCar (the only option available) because I could find parking almost anywhere. I think this will become more and more useful for things like transporting supplies to and from work and going out without worrying about a cab.  I highly recommend it.