Car funny

Sometimes, we just need a laugh.

What if Ikea bought GM out of bankruptcy court?

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HOURCAR member rewards

You use your HOURCAR key fob to save money on transportation, and now you can use it to save money at a growing network of local businesses! You don't have to be tempted to use an HOURCAR (if you don't want to), as most of them are an easy walk, bike ride or bus trip from our hubs. Just show your key fob and let the savings begin! Here are our current partners; and keep an eye on the Hubcap blog for more. And in the vein of social media, we'll provide links to a bunch of their Facebook pages so you can be a "fan" of theirs. (You're already a fan of HOURCAR, right? Good.)

Jerabeks New Bohemian Coffee House
63 West Winifred Street, Saint Paul.
(Jerebeks on Facebook)
Offer: 10% off with key fob in addition to 10% with your own cup



Common Good Books
165 Western Avenue, Saint Paul.
(Common Good Books on Facebook)
Offer: 10% off any item except magazines, newspapers, and specialty items


Bryant Lake Bowl
810 West Lake Street, Minneapolis.
(Bryant Lake Bowl on Facebook)
Offer: Buy 1 game of bowling, get 1 free. Up to 3 games at one visit. Shoe rental included.


Red Stag Supper Club
509 1st Avenue NE, Minneapolis.
(Red Stag on Facebook)
Offer: Complimentary Happy Hour Drink anytime. 1 drink per guest per visit. Includes select wine, taps, and specialty cocktails.


Park Square Theatre
20 W 7th Place, Saint Paul.
(Park Square on Facebook)
Offer: $10 off any adult ticket for any performance


Bibelot Shops
in Saint Paul: Grand & Lexington, Saint Anthony Park
in Minneapolis: Linden Hills, Northeast
(Bibelot Shops on Facebook)
Offer: 20% off one item. (Cannot be combined with any other coupon or discount.)


Anodyne Coffee House
4301 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis
Offer: Buy 1, get 1 half off PLUS 10% with your own cup



Everyday People Clothing Exchange
1599 Selby Avenue, Saint Paul
Offer: 15% off total purchase


Fast and Furless
2615 E Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis
Offer: 10% off


History Theatre
30 E. 10th Street, Saint Paul
(History Theatre on Facebook)
Offer: $5 off a regular priced ticket for 2009-2010 season (Cannot be combined with any other discount)


Events throughout the Twin Cities
Offer: $5 off your first event

Cool bike watch

Here at HOURCAR we are always interested in what the next new automobile trend is going to be. But what really gets some of our staff jazzed up, however, is cool bikes.

On Friday afternoon we walked out of the office and saw this bike parked on the rack. My first reaction was, "oh, look, an old yellow bike." But then I got closer. This is one of the most fantastic paint jobs I have ever seen: the bike is painted, with excruciating detail, as a New York Taxicab (although with slightly outdated rates, from before the last fare increase in 2004).

It looks like a yellow bike, but what's the checkered stripe?

And fares?

I should hope so, as I don't know how many people have taken rides on this taxicab for $1.50 per mile.

Oh, the places you will go: San Francisco

Are you going to San Francisco? In addition to wearing flowers in your hair (a reference to a very old song), did you know that you can share cars there, too?

That's right, in the City by the Bay. Also in Mad City (Madison), the cities of Big Shoulders and Brotherly Love (Chicago and Philly), the Mile-High City (Denver), by the Gorges (Ithaca), the Queen City (Toronto), and others, even Down Under. It's part of the reciprocal memberships offered as part of your HOURCAR membership. Let us know in advance and we'll contact the car sharing organization in the city to which you are traveling, and we'll set you up to drive there without having to pay sign-up costs for their program.

(Do note, qualifications may vary for different programs, and we need to know at least a week beforehand to get you on your way.)

An HOURCAR staff member recently was in San Francisco and, camera in tow, dropped by to see the local car sharing service, City Car Share (Locals there refer to San Francisco as "the City") and the sights as well, including a genuine Twin Cities Rapid Transit Streetcar on Market Street.

And if you go anywhere and share cars, send us your stories and photos and we'll be glad to post them. Or post them yourself at the HOURCAR Facebook page.

The green roof at the new Academy of Sciences Museum; you can walk up on to it and gaze off at the hills around.

A butterfly in the museum's great rainforest exhibit.

Sporting the HOURCAR t-shirt in a City Car Share parking spot. (The car was out.)

The view from under the Bay Bridge, where it was sunny.

A red Fit in the CityCarShare fleet.

Bikes > Cars

The recession has hit everyone, including bike makers. However, times are especially tight for auto makers, who have seen their sales plummet enough that there were more bikes sold in the first quarter of this year (2.6 million) than cars (2.5 million).

Not bad. With gas headed back up (2.50 and rising) pedal power is the way to go. Especially since it hasn't rained here for a month (okay, we do need the rain).

What's your Walkscore?

According to the website Walkscore.com, ours is 98. Well, for two of our cars, anyway. #6 and #10 score 98 out of a possible 100. The rest of the HOURCAR fleet range as low as 66.

The average for the whole fleet is 87, meaning that we are "very walkable" and close to a "walker's paradise" overall. Of course, the site has its limitations: directions are as the crow flies and it sometimes misses certain stores in categories (like, you know, the Wedge and Mississippi Market Coops in "grocery stores").

They recently ranked the 40 largest cities (*) in the country (since Minneapolis and Saint Paul are separate, neither made the cut; an oversight on Walkscore's part) and the winner was San Francisco, which scores an eminently walkable 86, followed by New York, Boston and Chicago. (They have some pretty nice maps, too.) So, does that mean that HOURCAR is more walkable than San Francisco? Discuss.

(*) Why they did this I do not know. More pertinent would have been the central cities of the 40 largest metro areas in the country. But their methodology is their methodology (and, hey, it says almost nothing about access to jobs, which is probably the most important aspect of a location); perhaps it would make sense to contact them and tell them to please rank the Twin Cities, if only because we'd find it interesting.

Smart planning and smart savings ($9400!)

Here are two sweet articles which have crossed our desk.

First, you all might want to drive the HOURCAR more since, according to the American Public Transit Association, you're saving money versus owning a car. A lot of money. I mean, we knew that you'd save, but $9407 a year? Wow. Yeah, if you drive a long distance and pay $200 a month for parking, it will cost.

$9407 is a lot of money. It's a pretty sweet vacation. Or three. It's $180 a week, twenty-six bucks a day. According to APTA, you could drive the HOURCAR three or four times a day and still come out ahead. That's a pretty damn good deal.

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Second, from the Times comes a story about car-free suburbs in Germany. We like good development, and we like car-free.

Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, and a few streets on one edge of the community. Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park — large garages at the edge of the development, where a car owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home.

That's pretty cool. If you make car ownership difficult and expensive, people will turn to cleaner, greener options.

As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here.

Hey, this is about the same proportions as the HOURCAR membership base.

“When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way,” said Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and mother of two, as she walked verdant streets where the swish of bicycles and the chatter of wandering children drown out the occasional distant motor.

Now, if only we could have Minneapolis sound the same way (you know, other than the Greenway).

Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life.

And, maybe, we can get there. Minneapolis's population density is 6,700 and Saint Paul's is 5,400. Not the highest around (66,000 in Manhattan) but not bad.

For trips to stores like Ikea or the ski slopes, families buy cars together or use communal cars rented out by Vauban’s car-sharing club.

And, yes, they do have car sharing (of course!).

Wave of the future, folks, wave of the future!